Alimentos, tecnologías vegetales, paleoambiente en las aldeas formativas de la Pampa del Tamarugal, Tarapacá (ca. 900 AC-800 DC)

The aim of this work is to introduce to the uses and imaginaries related to the plants in the formative villages of Pampa del Tamarugal, Tarapacá region (Chile). To accomplish this, we studied the plant remains recovered from excavations in the sites of Pircas and Caserones in the ravine of Tarapacá, as well as Guatacondo 1 and Ramaditas in the Guatacondo ravine. These villages have domestic, ceremonial, mortuary and storage contexts, from which were recovered wild and cultivated food and a wide artefactual universe, mainly in wood, including raw materials, artifacts and wastes. We conclude that while the four villages share significant aspects like their agriculture and forestry orientation, their occupations are dissimilar, which permits us to question the evolutionary notion that understands the Formative period as a unilinear succession of stages of progress.