Forest Fires and Abandonment Patterns from the Aguada Culture, Northwest Argentina: A Paleoenvironmental Study Based on the Analysis of Microcharcoals in the Ambato Valley, Catamarca Province

The general objective of this study is to analyse the Aguada society’s abandonment of the Ambato Valley and the evidence related to this process, focusing on palaeoenvironmental factors. This question was associated with fire regimes in the study area. Since several of the archaeological contexts from the area showed that multiple sites had been affected by fires, (Martínez 2, Piedras Blancas, and Iglesia de Los Indios), microcharcoal evidence was used to evaluate, analyse, and identify past fire sequences and fire regimes in pursuit of a link between fires and abandonment. The specific subject of the analysis was the frequency and sequences of the fires, and new techniques and methods based on earlier studies were developed in order to achieve this research objective. The data collected shows that the ecosystem in the Ambato Valley was frequently impacted by recurrent fires since at least 4,500 years B.P., based upon the oldest AMS radiocarbon dates obtained. This study argues that fires have been a recurrent part of this environment and landscape and an integral part of the surroundings of the people inhabiting the area, the Aguada society. There are certain areas which seem to have been struck by more intense and severe fires than others, with some periods also showing stronger fire signals with abundant microcharcoal remains, indicating a the presence of fires that were more intense, frequent, and severe. These wildfires are assumed to have been both natural and cultural in origin, created by both natural events such as lighting strikes as well as by human action.