This grant permits Dr. Yesner, in collaboration with Argentenian colleagues, to conduct archaeological research in the Beagle Channel area of southern Argentina. The work will include both analysis of faunal remains from the previously excavated site of Tunel and additional excavation at adjacent Playa Larga. These two sites together provide information on over 7,000 years of prehistory in this region. Both are extremely rich in artifacts as well as faunal remains and can yield detailed information on human adaptation and social organization. Preliminary work at Playa Larga indicates the presence of semi-buried house remains. Dr. Yesner will place trenches across several of these to recover both fauna and associated artifacts. He will analyze these, together with materials from Tunel, to determine whether the sites were occupied seasonally or on a year-round basis. He will also determine the extent to which the inhabitants followed a specialized subsistence strategy and see how this might have changed over time. Charles Darwin, when he visited this area described then extant hunters and gatherers and stated that they existed at an extremely simple level of organization. Since then, they have always been described in the literature as such. However, if true, this would be an anomoly since most marine based foragers exhibit greater social and technological complexity. Dr. Yesner has noted that by the time of Darwin's visit these people had a long exposure to European societies and what Darwin observed might not just be a simple level of adaptation, but rather the result of European disease and social disruption. Dr. Yesner's archaeological research should throw light on this matter. This research is important because it will increase our understanding of how humans adapt at a simple level of technology. Since humans lived by hunting and gathering for over 99% of their existence, studies of foraging societies can shed light on how human societies and adaptations developed and provide the broader context within which we may better understand ourselves.
