GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLIED TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF

A FORMATIVE PERIOD CULTURE (NORTHWEST ARGENTINA)

Mara Marta Sampietro Vattuone
Taf valley is a mountainous valley, located in the heart of Northwest
Argentina. Archaeological settlements, belonging to ormative !eriod "ca #$$ %&
to '$$$ A&(, are abundant and clearly identifiable on a number of landscape
surfaces comprising agricultural structures and residential units. All recogni)ed
ormative period settlements belongs to Taf &ulture, dated between **+ %& and
,'$ A-.
The main relevance of the region, from the archaeological point of view, is
that it was the center of one of the earliest sedentary settlements in northwest
Argentina. Most of its agricultural fields were systemati)ed indicating the adoption
of new technologies together with changes in social organi)ation necessary to
coordinate the community efforts. The purpose of this paper is to improve our
.nowledge of ormative landscape appropriation patterns using geographic
information system.
The geomorphological, archaeological, and hidrological maps were
constructed by photointerpretation. The topographic map was digiti)ed to obtain
digital elevation models of different areas. /sing this maps, the slope classification,
the archaeological distributional pattern and its relationship with the landscape
units were also studied.
As a conclusion it was established that there e0isted strong preferences on
the use of landscape units for specific activities.
1nside each geomorphological unit these preferences were also
corroborated by the spatial arrangement of archaeological structures.
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