Puestos de altura de la Puna argentina: zooarqueología de Real Grande 1 y 6 y Alero Tomayoc

The societies from the Late Period in the Argentinean Puna introduced considerable technical improvements and an increase in agricultural production, in relationship with a process of change towards a greater sociopolitical complexity. For this period there are large settlements associated with crop elds in the low basins, but the settlement systems includes sites located at higher elevations, named “Puestos de altura” like Real Grande 1 y 6 (Catamarca) and Alero Tomayoc (Jujuy).The aim of this work is to study faunal remains from the above mentioned sites through a taxonomical/economical and osteometrical analysis in order to relate them with the total context of the settlements. The results seem to show that these sites played an important role for the herding of llamas and the hunting of wild camelids (vicu a and guanaco) in the regional economy. Even more, the high elevation sites would have performed a vital function making possible the circulation of information, goods and energy giving strength to the process of sociopolitical complexity of the late prehispanic societies of the Argentinean Puna.