Nothing Lasts Forever: Environmental Discourses on the Collapse of Past Societies

The study of the collapse of past societies raises many questions for the theory and practice of archaeology. Interest in collapse extends as well into the natural sciences and environmental and sustainability policy. Despite a range of approaches to collapse, the predominant paradigm is environmental collapse, which I argue obscures recognition of the dynamic role of social processes that lie at the heart of human communities. These environmental discourses, together with confusion over terminology and the concepts of collapse, have created widespread aporia about collapse and resulted in the creation of mixed messages about complex historical and social processes

Actualistic taphonomy in the northeast of the Santa Cruz Plateau (Argentina): Advances and archaeological implications

This paper presents the first advances made in the framework of the actualistictaphonomy project that we recently started in the northeast of the Central Plateauof Santa Cruz, Patagonia Argentina. The main goal of this project is to strengthen, through this line of study, the archaeological interpretations of the área. Here we present the results corresponding to the field works developed between 2016 and 2017 in three archaeological localities, with the objective to assess the potential of the different characteristic environments of the area to accumulate, disperse, preserve, destroy and bury bone remains. The survey was carried out at a broad spatial scale and was based on systematic observations through transects in which taphonomic and environmental data were recorded. The results obtained offer the first approach to determine which are the environments with the greatest potential for the natural incorporation of bones into the archaeological record and the heterogeneity with which different taphonomic agents and processes operate in each one. Thiswork provides new information for the Central Plateau region and reflects the development of a new line of research for the area, from which systematic data are provided that contribute not only to improve the interpretations of the archaeological assemblages from the region, but also favor the comparison with neighboring regions.Fil: Marchionni, Laura. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Arqueología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Hermo, Dario Omar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Arqueología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Mosquera, Bruno Hernan. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Arqueología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Mineralogía y Petrología; ArgentinaFil: Magnin, Lucia Angelica. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Arqueología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Miotti, Laura Lucia. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Arqueología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: García Añino, Eloisa. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Arqueología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentin