Outlining Practices of Pottery Production and Consumption in Antofagasta de la Sierra: The Ceramics of Penas Coloradas 3, ca. 1000-1600 AD (Catamarca, Argentina)

The site Penas Coloradas 3 (Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca, Argentina) is located in an archaeological locality linked to prehispanic routes of interaction that connected the Valliserrana area of northwestern Argentina with the III Region of Atacama in Chile. The site was occupied during the first half of the second millennium A.D. following strategies of hidden, defence and visual control. The settlers integrated local, micro regional and extra regional elements in their everyday practices. This work constitutes a contribution to the issue based on stylistic and petrographic studies of the ceramic recovered at the site and its comparison with regional raw material. The results indicate absence of a pattern of technological and stylistic ceramic and coexistence of local and allochthonous pottery. The results contribute to our knowledge of the history of settlers from Penas Coloradas, in particular, represent a comparative empirical base for the Antofagasta de la Sierra, in general, and constitute the first petrological analysis in the region.