Modelo ecológico para evaluar la sobreexplotación de Ungulados: implicancias en los conjuntos zooarqueológicos de guanaco del sur de Mendoza

Abstract

The ecologic concepts are useful to explore the causes of ungulate abundance decline trough time. The demographic data such us dead profile and biometric data that reflect the body size could be analyzed together to determine if the decrease in the prey availability is the result of an increase in the hunting pressure or by an environmental ameliorate. In this last case this is related to the availability of resources for the preys. The Ungulate Prey Depression Model (UPDM) synthesizes ecologic concepts and implicances to contrast archaeological hypothesis. Aspects from the model and related concepts had been used by the zooarchaeologist to determine successfully the impact of hunting pressure/environmental amelioration over the ungulate species. The guanaco depression as a resource had been proposed for the archaeological record from Late Holocene in southern Mendoza as part of an intensification process. It is reflected in the artiodactyls decline trough time and the increase in the small preys consumption, as well as the incorporation of other resources to the diet like wild and domestic plants, around 2000 years BP. The application of the UPDM could help to clarified why the mentioned resource depression occurred in the region.