A first phytolith approximation to diet study in the archaeological site Gascón 1, Pampean Region, República Argentina

The purpose of this study is to detail information about the use of plants by indigenous societies in Argentinean archaeology through the qual-quantitative characterization of phytoliths extracted from the archaeological site Gascón 1, located in the Pampean Region, República Argentina. This aim is achieved through the evaluation of phytolithic fertility, quantity, and variety from diverse archaeological samples.An exploratory study was based on the phytolithic analysis of materials from the Gascón 1 burial site, where five individuals of diverse sex and age were recovered. Foreign elements included as funerary goods permit chronological assignment to Indigenous–Hispanic Contact. Seven types of samples extracted from individual 5 were analyzed: a sample obtained from the sediment of the abdominal area, two sediment samples from inside and two from outside the archaeological site, two samples of phytoliths extracted from the dental calculus and a sample of the carbonized material proceeding from the offered pottery vessel.Phytoliths are at maximum in the sediment sample of the abdominal area, minimum in samples from outside the archaeological site, and intermediate values were found in samples from inside the archaeological site. A cluster analysis and a principal component analysis were applied to the phytolith recount results. In general, the emphasized morphologies correspond to gramineous short cells, increased in the concentrated sample compared to the total sample. The majority could be assimilated to the pooideae subfamily, then chloridoideae and finally panicoideae.