Dwelling architecture and flexible land-use strategies in the Prehispanic Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract

The article examines the evidence of architecture recovered from the Late Prehispanic Period of the Sierras de Córdoba (∼1220–330 cal BP), Argentina. We explore the relationship between household architecture and the level of residential mobility, arguing that a flexible subsistence and mobility pattern followed the adoption of plant cultivation and not entirely sedentary farming. The architectural evidence presented structures made using low-energy construction techniques that were not intended for an anticipated long-term occupation. This architecture meets the expectation of a settlement pattern left by groups that were occasional food producers and used specific locations as seasonal campsites, indicating a flexible landscape-use organization.

Keywords

• Late Prehispanic Period
• house features
• pithouses
• flexible mixed economy
• sedentism
• residential mobility