20225404(en)/5 - Standardization of Periods Used in The Archaeology of Central Argentina in the Last 140 Years. New Uses for Old Data

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STANDARDIZATION OF PERIODS USED IN THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CENTRAL ARGENTINA IN THE LAST 140 YEARS. NEW USES FOR OLD DATA

ESTANDARIZACIÓN DE CATEGORÍAS TEMPORALES UTILIZADAS EN LA ARQUEOLOGÍA DEL CENTRO DE ARGENTINA EN LOS ÚLTIMOS 140 AÑOS. NUEVOS USOS DE VIEJOS DATOS

Andrés D. Izeta y Luis Humberto Aguilar

One dimension that defines archaeological practice is time, which is used as an input to test changes and continuities in the lives of past individuals and populations. Over the last 140 years, the central region of Argentina (Córdoba and San Luis provinces) has seen the construction of numerous chronological schemes, the purpose of which have been to systematize the cultural and time models of the region’s inhabitants. This has resulted in an extensive corpus of heterogeneous period definitions, different extensions, and nomenclatures. Some of these have been associated with geological and historical events, others with material culture used as “fossil indices”, and an even smaller number with absolute radiocarbon dating. Here, we present the first results of the systematization and normalization of these temporal categories. The results allowed us to construct a database, following the model of the PeriodO project, in which each category was assigned a name, start date, another end date and the author of each definition. This is intended to provide a reliable systematization that allows for the use of ancient and modern data integrated into databases of archaeological sites or objects defined from different classification systems.

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