2023-12-05 11:45:52
A series of expeditions carried out in the Melincué lagoon, south of Santa Fe in Argentina, has led to the discovery of 2,000-year-old human bone remains, remains of a giant armadillo and what remains of an individual’s funerary trousseau.
The work has been carried out by a team of researchers from the National University of Rosario (UNR) in Argentina.
The 2,000-year-old mortal remains were found along with cultural objects of those times. Structures of a viceregal fort and its chapel, from 1776, were also found.
The expeditions were carried out by the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Anthropology of the Faculty of Humanities and Arts, together with the Area of Anthropology and Paleontology of the Ángel Gallardo Provincial Museum of Natural Sciences, the Chair of Topography of the Faculty of Exact Sciences, the Research Center Scientific and Technological Transfer to the Production of the Conicet de Diamante, Entre Ríos and the collaboration of the communes, neighbors and representatives of the native peoples of Melincué, Elortondo and Labordeboy.
“Many archaeological sites are located on the margins of the lagoon environments and with the lowering of the Melincué lagoon they began to become visible,” explains archaeologist Juan David Ávila.
The age of 2,000 years for the human bone remains was determined through measurements made by the Tritium and Radiocarbon Analysis Laboratory of the National University of La Plata, Argentina. There they extract collagen from organic remains, particularly bones, to obtain dating.
Researchers believe that there may be even older remains because they take as reference the 9,000-year-old findings in the El Doce lagoon, very close to Venado Tuerto, in 2010.
They also found remains of a eutatus sp, a variety of giant armadillo that became extinct. And a series of elements such as a deposit of lithic raw materials to make stone instruments. In addition, they found remains of the funerary trousseau of an individual with earrings made from a bivalve, a type of mollusk.
One of the points where excavations have been carried out. (Photo: Argentina Investiga / National University of Rosario)
In the first field work, the researchers made visible the structure of a fort, a 16 by 8 meter rectangle, with one meter walls of Jesuit bricks and a floor. By crossing these findings with historical data, the researchers concluded that this was part of a line of forts towards Mendoza and Córdoba that were formed with the division of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and Upper Peru. They also verified that the city of Santa Fe had sent materials to build a fort and a church.
Ávila told Argentina Investiga that in recent years the environmental conditions were met to carry out these campaigns because the Melincué lagoon came to have the same amount of water as in the 1920s. And he highlights that with these findings they are opening several windows to the past.
In the same place where the fort appeared, in the 1960s, before the great flood in Melincué, there were three spas, one of the Elortondo athletic club, another of the Peñarol club and the classic one of the Melincué Hotel. There were the little houses, the club and a dance circle.
The original Mocoví, Querandí and Ranquel communities participated in these expeditions. Before starting the excavations, the archaeologists asked for permission and out of respect for what they found, especially human remains, they held a ceremony in the lagoon. “We want all communities to participate in the construction of historical memory,” says Ávila.
There are different versions about the origin of the name of the Melincué lagoon. Some believe it is Guaraní, others Mapuche or Querandí. What draws the attention of archaeologists is that there were very late occupations by the native peoples there. For a long time it was considered that the Argentine population was made up fundamentally of European descendants and that since the “desert campaigns”, those of Rosas and Roca, the original ethnic population had disappeared.
But the truth is that, according to a study carried out by the Genetic Fingerprint Service of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of the UBA, there are 60% of the Argentine population that has Amerindian genetic components, from native peoples. “We are much more Latin American than we think,” that is why “we seek to recover that other history.”
It should be noted that the team has authorization from the province to investigate the area and this is part of a registry, within the framework of national law 25,743 on the protection of archaeological and paleontological sites.
The materials that emerge in the excavations are labeled and taken to the Gallardo Museum and the Archeology Laboratory of the Faculty of Humanities and Arts, where they are kept safe. Although the final idea is that the Museums or Memory Spaces of each of the locations house this historical material.
The UNR team is in contact with other Universities and institutions, such as the University of Olavarría or the Pasteur Institute of Paris to carry out genetic studies, not only of native populations, but also of European ones to find out how they dispersed in South America. They also carry out specific archaeometry work with a German institute. (Source: Argentina Investiga / National University of Rosario)
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