SHELLMIDDEN FORMATION AT THE BEAGLE CHANNEL

(TIERRA DEL FUEGO, ARGENTINE)

Ernesto Luis PIANA
Investigador Principal CONICET, Centro Austral de Investigaciones Cientficas,
Houssay 200 (9410) Ushuaia, Argentina
Email: arqueologia@tierradelfuego.org.ar

Luis Abel ORQUERA

Investigador Principal, Asociacin de Investigaciones Antropolgicas, Bartolom Mitre 1131,
7 G (1036) Buenos Aires City, Argentina
Email: lorquera@mail.retina.ar

Formaao dos concheiros em o canal Beagle (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina)

Abstract: In the Beagle Channel Region more than a thousand shellmiddens are known. Some of them have been studied, covering
more than six millennia up to ethnohistorical times. All the studied and sampled shellmiddens include traces of multiple daily
activities. Ring-shaped ones, almost all of them within a 4 m diameter, are the most frequent form and show a tendency to be
clustered in large sites. This paper discusses their formation process based on results obtained from four different research lines:
archaeological, etnohistorical, experimental and actualistic observations. It underlines the role of human activity carried out on the
spot as a spatial attractor and as a more important variable than landscape features. We conclude that the first settlement on a
specific place might have been produced by a high variety of reasons, but soon the shells and other debris accumulation provoked
microtopographic modifications that called for new reoccupations and conditioned the use of the space for future visitors.
Key words: Shellmiddens, formation processes, Beagle Channel, Yamana, Yahgan, experimental archaeology

The Beagle Channel Region (Fig. 30.1 a) is the
southernmost portion of South America. It has a high
density of easily visible archaeological sites because: a)
most of the known sites are shellmiddens (Orquera &
Piana 1999a, 2000, 2001); b) the region was continuously
peopled by sea nomads since some 6300 uncal. 14C years
BP (Orquera & Piana 1988, Piana & Orquera 2006); and
c) modern population has been scanty up to the 1980s
and remains urban concentrated, so recent anthropogenic
impact is low. The aim of this paper is to present an
analysis of their formation process, rooted in archaeolo-
gical, ethnohistorical, experimental and actualistic obser-
vations.
From nearly a thousand archaeological sites with
shellmiddens known just in the Argentinean part of the
mentioned region, circa 500 were systematically recorded.
A similar density was recorded in Navarino, Chile
(Ocampo & Rivas 2004) and they extend down to near
Cape Horn (Legoupil 1995). Current surveys show that
more than a 90% of the shellmiddens recorded on the
Beagle Channel north coast are located within 300 m
from the coastlines of their respective antiquities. Even
though they were looked for, sites further than 1 km from
the present coastline are poorly represented.
Four shellmidden types were identified in the region
(Orquera & Piana 1991): 1) isolated thin lenses; 2) flat
accumulations (overlapping of many individual lenses
with an extended flat or undulated surface) that do not
display the characteristics of the following types; 3)
dome-like mounds (rounded or oval like base and highly
convex transverse section) (Fig. 30.1 b); and 4) ring-
shaped or annular mounds with a central depression (Fig.
30.1 c). Archaeological sites unrelated to shellmiddens
are also known, but in a small number.
All the studied and sampled shellmiddens of the Beagle
Channel Region include traces of multiple daily activities,
as lithic and bone tools and their fragments, ornamental
gear in shell, bone and teeth, stone chipping and bone
processing remains, faunal remains, hearths, scattered
charcoal and sometimes even burials. Unlike mounds of
some other areas, the Beagle Channel shellmiddens have
not resulted from specialized activities, be them just
shellfish processing, out-of-settlement garbage dumps,
burials or any other type of activity. Actually, such non-
specialization of the space use is coherent with the
environmental characteristics. Of course, coastal
environment is not entirely homogeneous and local
landscape characteristics are related with different costs
of access to different resources. However, from a regional
standpoint, staple resources for the survival of the sea
nomads at the Beagle Channel Region were rather evenly
distributed within a half-a-day mobility from any possible
encampment location, be it in canoe or by foot. This
favoured the human distribution in the minimum viable
social units and high mobility within small ranges
(Orquera & Piana 1999a and references herein included).
The survey results turned to be consistent with the
expectations derived from such assumptions.
Since many ring-shaped mounds may be clustered in a
single site, several thousands are known: almost all of
them have some 3 to 4 m as diameter range. A statistical
analysis made on a smaller series of sites (n = 318)
(Barcel et al. 2002) confirms that ring-shaped shell-
middens are the most frequent feature, with a tendency to

263
MONUMENTAL QUESTIONS: PREHISTORIC MEGALITHS, MOUNDS, AND ENCLOSURES

Fig. 30.1. a) Beagle Channel Region; b) dome-like shellmidden; c) ring-shaped shellmidden; d) ring-shaped
shellmidden profile, depression to the right; e) ring-shaped shellmidden profile, note that the soil was not dug
to form a pit-house; f) dome-like hut (taken from De Agostini, 1933); g) huts and adjacent shellmidden (picutre
taken from Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn in 1882-1883); h) camps, normally clustering but a of few huts

264
 E.L. PIANA & L.A. ORQUERA: SHELLMIDDEN FORMATION AT THE BEAGLE CHANNEL (TIERRA DEL FUEGO, ARGENTINE)
be clustered in large sites, with or without associated
dome-like ones. However, isolated ring-shaped mounds or
small aggregations of them also occurred with some
frequency. As for domes, they have a tendency to be
isolated and in small sites, but some are aggregated and it
is frequent to find domes within clusters of ring-shaped
mounds. For all of them, the shoreline was the main
spatial attractor they are statistically unrelated to fresh
water sources while protection against wind is neither a
positive nor negative attribute. All kinds of sites are near
shore, but not all the sites are located there. Grouped and
large sites are positively attracted to the shore;
conversely, when relatively far from it, sites are smaller,
isolated and less complex. Ring-shaped mounds have also
a positive tendency to be located near the woods though
out of them, while the majority of the domes is within
todays woods.
Even though the correlation between mounds and
nowadays woods is statistically positive, it is an spurious
one woods type, stage and limits vary through time,
they are not stable at all, and had to change many times
along the last 6000 years. The recording of the relation
between sites and the todays woods was planned to
obtain a statistical result of a known false relationship,
which we use as a comparative standpoint for the
unknown ones.
The first settlement on a specific place may result from a
high diversity of reasons. Based on a thirty years of
continuous research in the region, our interpretation for
sites development is that after the first occupations the
traces of human activity left on the spot transformed it in
a spatial attractor, both calling for new re-occupations and
conditioning the later use of the space. Such assessment,
as well as how and why it occurred, outcome from the
previously mentioned four different interlinked research
lines: archaeological, etnohistorical, experimental and
actualistic observations.
As for the archaeological data (summarized in Orquera &
Piana 1999a, Piana et al. 2001, 2004, Piana & Vzquez
2005), the same settlement patterns are found from some
6300 years 14C uncal. bp to the XIX Century (Estvez &
Vila 1995, Piana et al. 2000). All of the dug or sampled
shellmiddens, with the possible exception of the Ajej I
site (Piana et al. 2001), resulted from multiple reoccupa-
tions of the same spot. As it has been stated, such occu-
pations left behind the remains of multiple daily activities.
They display a patterned distribution that denotes the
same specific use of the space; v.g. the hearths from
different occupations overlap, the end scrapers are
commonly found outside but near the shellmiddens, etc.
The studied dome-like and ring-shaped mounds were
formed by the raising of shellmiddens and not by surface
digging (pit houses) (Fig. 30.1 d-e), this being important
because the amount of effort involved in digging should
call for its later use. When found, traces of old hut poles
in the ancient soils are thin, implying the use of branches
265
rather than trunks. The use of thicker poles is not
discarded (more still, it is supposed) but the traces that
may result from them may also recognize other causes, so
it is not possible to establish such relation beyond
reasonable doubt.
An important part of the Magellan-Fuegian sea nomads
diet was supplied by shellfish, mussels (Mytilidae) in
particular. Nevertheless, time and effort required for their
gathering and transportation are unbalanced by the energy
yielded by them. Their main offer is proteins and
minerals, the amount of fats and carbohydrates being very
low. So a diet based only on shellfish would be
dangerously low in calories, especially in long lapses.
Moreover, the debris rate is very high and, when
transported, a large part of its weight is water. From the
calories provided by all of the resources consumed in the
sites, mostly sea lions, the mussels range goes from
around 6% to little more than the 20%. Even so, mussels
were massively exploited all along a six millennia
sequence, so they must have offered important and lasting
benefits. Those benefits were not as much in terms of
food income and energy yielded as for being a risk
reducer factor or security valve, capable of neutralizing
short stress situations caused by the lacking of more
nutritive resources (Orquera 1999). Their location is
predictable, they are available in the largest part of the
regions shore, mostly grouped in large beds with many
individuals and minimum seasonal variation, their
gathering is neither risky nor requiring any special
technological means, skill or force.
Other than the high refuse rate when transported, the main
problem raised in the region by the Mytilidae exploitation
is the long time required to reach edible sizes. In natural
conditions, the archaeological media size implies two or
two-and-a-half years. In controlled conditions when
commercially produced to reach a media of 5 to 6 cm
takes 18 months. So, a small group of persons that daily
ate some mussels and staid in a place for several weeks,
or a large aggregation of people in just one site, would
mean the loss of the security valve of the native
economy. This means that small groups dispersal
combined with frequent mobility was a way to decrease
survival risks.
It is very probable that the access to Mytilus beds had
played an important role in selecting places for settlement
and also for their abandonment. The excavation technique
developed by us (Orquera & Piana 1992) enables to
recognize shellmidden subdivisions in the size order of
single occupational events. The preserved faunal remains,
and specially the mussel ones, represent the consumption
during a few days by a small amount of humans. This
suggests very frequent mobility, although not necessarily
to long distances.
A large review on the ethnohistorical data related to the
Beagle Channel Region is summarized in Orquera &
Piana 1999b. Some of such information is meaningful for
MONUMENTAL QUESTIONS: PREHISTORIC MEGALITHS, MOUNDS, AND ENCLOSURES
this topic. Conic and vaulted huts with simple poles or
branches frames and related to shellmiddens were
recorded from the earliest moments of the Native-
European contacts (Fig. 30.1 f-g). People dispersion
commonly happened in one or two families groups, while
large numbers got together only in non-cyclical special
occasions as a whale stranding or a foreign ship nearing.
When pictured since the XIX Century, huts were isolated
or up to four together (Fig. 30.1 h). Hut sizes mentioned
by foreign observers or shown in pictures are in the order
of the already quoted sizes for the ring-shaped mounds.
Huts were used like camping tents rather than houses:
places to cover from weather inclemency, to spend the
night, etc., while most of the daily activities were
performed outside. When abandoned, huts were neither
turned down nor damaged, so with little preparation they
were ready to be used by any new occupant. Human
mobility was highly nomadic but along short distances;
transport capacity was provided by canoes. Several
observers said that daily harvesting and consumption of
mussels and other resources was one of the main causes
of the great mobility.
As part of our archaeological project, we also developed
an experimental research line that unexpectedly lasted 15
years and included the building of 22 conic or vaulted
huts (Fig. 30.2 a). Shape, size and constructive pattern
were based on both archaeological and ethnohistorical
data. Variables included were: poles/branches structures
(weak vs. hard), leaves and branches cover (thin vs.
thick), exposure to winds (with some protection vs.
unprotected, this latter to constant winds or occasional
very hard ones) and maintenance (without any
maintenance vs. with maintenance of the cover). Of
course, variables were changed just one at the time.
Disregarding wind exposure, cover thickness, and
maintenance, the usual factor of destruction of the huts
structure was the fragility of the dried branches, reached
in around four years. Thick poles may last longer and
therefore conic structures have more resistance. The
branches and leaves cover lasting depends on wind
exposure, but it is easy to repair. Some of the replicas
were turned down by causes as cattle, kids playing or
vandalism, but even in these cases the huts lasted for
more than a year. This lapse is enough to enable the
formation of microtopographic features by just the adding
of shells and other debris during their use.
One meaningful result was the finding of factors that
restrict the huts base diameter to near 4 m. To raise a
lasting vaulted hut, at least two structural crossed poles
have to be both ends wedged into the soil. Basal
diameters of some 5 m or more require larger poles, but
such length available ones are too thick to be bent. Conic
huts with bases of some 5 m on result too high as to stand
facing the regional winds; if the base is enlarged but not
the height, the poles frame collapses. The only way to
enlarge the base is with vaulted structures of oval bases:
in the ethnohistorical period, this was the case of at least
266
two ceremonial huts, one at Remolino ranch (Argentina)
and the other at Navarino Island (Chile) (Gusinde 1937).
Within thousands of known archaeological ring-shaped
shellmiddens, only one is oval and large.
As previously stated, the almost exclusive size of the
archaeological ring-shaped mounds is circa 4 m diameter.
Even though such reiteration was formerly considered as
resulting from repeating the same social decision time
after time, according to experimental analysis it may be
inferred that they are the result of environmental
limitations. Due to competition for sunshine, Nothofagus
woods in Tierra del Fuego undergo a cyclical process:
from renewals (tight small, long and thin trees) to open
woods (where mainly old big and branched trees remain).
Near a renewal, the type of poles available enable to erect
both vaulted and small thin poles conic huts. Near old
woods, only conic huts might be built.
Besides this long lasting experimental research, some
actualistic observations were done in order to cover larger
time spans. Different sorts of wooden shelters made
without industrial materials as nails, wires, ropes, etc.,
were searched. Several shelters made by fishermen,
hunters, military patrols during survival tests, loggers,
etc., were located and recorded. Just a few examples are
herein included. Pictures taken in the early 70s by Ph.D.
Natalie Goodall to the lasting poles of a hut made in
1903/4 for a rite du passage attended by Lucas Bridges
(1947) (Fig 30.2 e) prove the high durability of some of
the logs of conic huts. A timbermens hut erected ca.
1950 proved to last more than 50 years when controlled
by us in 1999.
Many recorded cases show how the human activity in a
spot calls for reoccupation and determines the use of the
space. Two examples are herein given. One case is a
loggers hut made ca. 1965 that still stands (Fig. 30.2 d),
located in an open field at the border of the wood and near
a dust road (so it is easily accessible). After the
timbermen departure, the hut has been used by campers,
archaeologists, tourists, etc., in spite that camping may be
done on any place around it and very near there are better
places to encamp (v. g. closer to a fresh water source).
Diachronically and with different life styles, we all used
the space in the same way for instance, lighting the
same inside hearth, daily activities were done in the
adjacency of the hut and no traces of occupation were
recorded further than some 50 m around the hut.
The Roca Lake north coast has many very small rock
shelters. During a storm in the early 70s, a fishermen trio
covered the entrance of one of them with a few poles just
for temporary protection (Fig. 30.2 g). Within 500 m each
side, more than 50 of such rock shelters are available, but
the poles protection called for the reoccupation of this
particular spot and not of the others. Sport fishermen,
cattle workers, National Park guards, military patrols,
tourists from many different nationalities and, of course,
 E.L. PIANA & L.A. ORQUERA: SHELLMIDDEN FORMATION AT THE BEAGLE CHANNEL (TIERRA DEL FUEGO, ARGENTINE)

Fig. 30.2. a) experimental juts; b) experimental shellmidden by a hut; c) grass cover after seven months
form shells dropping; d) loggers hut built in 1965, pictured in 2003; e) selknam hut built in 1903/4,
pictured in the 1970s; f) tourists fireplace within a ring-shaped shellmidden; g) Roca Lake rockshelter

267
MONUMENTAL QUESTIONS: PREHISTORIC MEGALITHS, MOUNDS, AND ENCLOSURES
archaeologists, used time after the same rock shelter,
displaying a similar use of the space. Since this rock
shelter is in the Fuegian National Park, near the Chilean
Argentine frontier, which was not clearly marked there,
the shelter reached further significance A summitry (plus
additions minus losses) of refuses some of them
transported from Europe, Japan or North America was
found there. The poles cover was last recorded in 1987
and nowadays the rock shelter is not longer used: the lack
of visible previous human activity in the spot stopped its
function as a spatial attractor.
A different line of actualistic observation can be argued.
Shells accumulation implies a high amount of C3OCa
within the soil, as well as a different drainage capability.
The C3OCa mainly selects certain vegetation and
modifies the grass colour, giving great visibility to places
with shellmiddens. The ancient inhabitants of the region,
the Yamana, recognized this for they had a special word
(ucurhshuca) to refer to a special type of plants that only
grows on the settlements (Bridges 1947:67). On
shellmiddens, grasses do not have a specific colour but it
is always different from the round about seen tones. When
known, such vegetation colours clearly pinpoint habitable
places. This phenomenon does not depend on the
antiquity: it is observable today on shellmidens whose
upper layers are thousands years old. The larger the
shellmiddens are, the higher their visibility is, so a lot of
them are recognizable at kilometres of distance.
Consequently, the larger a shellmidden became from
different reoccupations, the more potent was as a spatial
attractor.
When local campers or tourists light their fires, they
commonly do so into the ring-shaped mounds central
depression, because it is a place somewhat protected from
wind (Fig. 30.2 f). They even prefer such depression to
the flat natural adjacent soil. Having no conscience of
being on an archaeological site, they are convoked by the
microtopography and finally their fires overlap the
archaeological ones.
Experimental research on shellmiddens formation shows
that after a short time of exposure the upper shells
interlock themselves, forming a surface with physical
properties analogous to that of fibreglass: short
interlinked fibres or shells form very resistant surfaces.
Consequently, the shells later dropped on the spot do not
mix with the previous ones. This phenomenon results
from several observable processes. For instance, a
somehow hard wind disperses the loose shells but not the
interlinked ones; a grass cover, that may be reached in
short periods, also prevent the new dropped shells from
mixing with the older ones (Fig. 30.2 f shows a grass
cover grown in 7 months); likewise, trampling and other
human activities compact the surface. Those stratigraphic
planes of discontinuity are recognizable during the
shellmiddens excavation, enabling to subdivide and
understand the site formation process (Orquera & Piana
1992).
268
FORMATION PROCESS INTERPRETATION OF
THE RING-SHAPED SHELLMIDDENS
Shellfish produce a large rate of garbage volume and due
to their size they have to be eaten in large numbers. This
implies a fast rate of debris accumulation in significant
volumes (Orquera 1999), so no long periods are to be
expected before soil surface changes occur. The huts
walls did not hinder the shells dispersion due to the
separation between both structural poles and "netted"
branches; consequently, the accumulation around the hut
base could result from intentional deposition or just from
cleaning the inside pushing outwards the debris. Be it
intentional or not, the fact is that the major part of the
debris accumulated around the hut in a ring-shaped
mound is formed mainly by shell refuse, but also by other
remnants as faunal remains, broken bone, lithic and shell
tools, lithic debris, charcoal, etc. As the experimental
research shows, both conic and vaulted huts may last long
enough as to enable the formation of that ring-shaped
midden.
As long as a hut was still stand, it would convoke for
reoccupation of the place and hut repair might occur (Fig.
30.3 a c). Meanwhile, in its periphery shellmidden
debris accumulated be it intentionally or not and
increased its volume. Once the branches frame decayed or
collapsed, being no longer repairable, the round
shellmidden feature still lasted and it was a better place
than the surroundings to raise a new hut, because it
offered basal shelter from wind, surface water flux and
snow accumulation.
In each reoccupation new volumes of refuse were added
to the ring-shaped shellmidden, but problems were to be
faced. The new debris could not be added exactly on top
of the previous accumulations without enlarging the
shellmiddens ring diameter (Fig. 30.3 b d). Being the
inside depression used again, the new shell aggregations
got disposed on top but outwards, on the external slope,
enlarging the upper diameter of the mound. Profiles of
excavated ring-shaped shellmiddens (v. g. Imiwaia I
Fig. 1 d; Shamakush I, VIII and X) clearly show this
outwards growing process. But, according to the
experimental research, available raw material and
environmental conditions limit the huts basal possible
dimensions to near 4 m diameter. The enlarged diameter
of the ring-shaped shellmidden would then be useless,
because rain or snow melting would necessarily drain into
the hut. When a ring-shaped mound reached such
impractical size, a new adjacent one could be raised
having part of the previous mound as basal protection
from wind and rain (Fig. 30.3 e). When a ring-shaped
mound reached an impractical size, a new adjacent one
may be raised having part of the previous mound as basal
protection from wind and rain (Fig. 30.3 e). The new ring-
shaped shellmidden would undergo the same process and,
when enlarged by debris accumulation, would also turn
itself impractical (Fig. 30.3 f). According to archaeolo-
gical profiles, in many cases the debris mainly accumu-
 E.L. PIANA & L.A. ORQUERA: SHELLMIDDEN FORMATION AT THE BEAGLE CHANNEL (TIERRA DEL FUEGO, ARGENTINE)

Fig. 30.3. A branch frame long enough as to allow the formation of a first and low ring-shaped
sehellmidden (a-c). After the branch frame decayed, the same spot was used to build a new hut due to the
existence of the previous shellmiden ring, but later occupations enlarged its basal diameter turning it
useless for occupation (b-d). A new just as raised by the already useless one (e), until this new ring-
shaped shellmiden also became useless (f). The process went on and on (g), up to form a large ring-
shaped cluster of shellmiddens (h)

269
MONUMENTAL QUESTIONS: PREHISTORIC MEGALITHS, MOUNDS, AND ENCLOSURES
lated on the outer slope of a ring-shaped mound fell into
the depression of an adjacent but previous ring-shaped
shellmidden, shallowing it and diminishing its diameter.
Consequently, the older ring-shaped mound turned to be
useful again.
This process repetition time after time (Fig. 30.3 g)
resulted in many ring-shaped shellmiddens complex sites
(Fig. 30.3 h), with both vertical and horizontal stratigrap-
hic aggregation. Such process implies diachronic occu-
pations, not necessarily linear in a time span they could
have occurred in any moment, no matter if a thousand
years later. As said, todays grass colour on shellmiddens
pinpoints places where people lived there, so conditions
for settlement are there; this phenomenon is unrelated to
the midden antiquity and sometimes is visible from kilo-
metres. In any ring-shaped shellmiddens camp or large
archaeological site, coexist both ring-shaped mounds
grown too large, so turned impractical for further use, and
others with a right diameter size to place a new hut.
Today many mounds of appropriated size are there and it
is only necessary to choose one, and raise a 4 m diameter
new hut. Therefore, clusters of ring-shaped mounds do
neither imply villages nor long lasting settlements, no
matter how many mounds compound it (Fig. 30.3 h). In
fact, all of the excavated ones by our archaeological
project resulted from diachronic occupations.
CONCLUSION
As a sort of synthesis, some warnings are necessary:
the synchronicity of the occupational units should be
proved even if they are adjacent, not supposed by
surface features;
the first occupation of a site can be caused by a high
diversity of reasons. Notwithstanding, once settled, the
human activity on the spot transforms it in a spatial
attractor that calls for new reoccupations in different
moments and conditions the later use of the space;
as well as synchronicity, both the spatial attractor role
of older occupations on later ones and their featuring
role on the latter are neither easy to be found in the
archaeological record nor can they be derived from
todays surface features. Therefore, multiple and
detailed researches are required: to pay attention to but
a few variables leads to error;
the favourable or limiting effect of the environment
over the mounds formation depends on details of the
whole settlement system rather than on large landscape
features.
Acknowledgments
This research was developed as part of several grants of
the CONICET. We deeply thank Ph. D. Dnae Fiore for
her assistance with the English version of this paper.
270
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 E.L. PIANA & L.A. ORQUERA: SHELLMIDDEN FORMATION AT THE BEAGLE CHANNEL (TIERRA DEL FUEGO, ARGENTINE)
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de conchales de la costa norte del Canal Beagle
(Tierra del Fuego, Repblica Argentina). Segunda
Parte. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de
Antropologa XXVI: 345-368, Buenos Aires.
PIANA, E.L., J. ESTVEZ ESCALERA and A. VILA
MITJ, 2000, Lanashuaia: un sitio de canoeros del
siglo pasado en la costa norte del canal Beagle. In
Desde el pas de los Gigantes: Perspectivas
Arqueolgicas de la Patagonia. Tomo II, pp. 455-469.
Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral. Ro
Gallegos
PIANA, E.L. and L.A. ORQUERA, 2006, Diferencias
regionales y temporales en el litoral sudoccidental de
Sudamrica. Paper read at the VI Jornadas de
Arqueologa de la Patagonia (Punta Arenas, Chile),
accepted for publication in Actas
271
PIANA E.L. and M.M. VZQUEZ, 2005, El Sitio
Shamakush VIII: puntualizaciones sobre el uso de
recursos y la gestin del asentamiento en el canal
Beagle. Paper read at the XV Congreso Nacional de
Arqueologa Argentina (Ro Cuarto, prov. de
Crdoba), accepted for publication in Actas.
PIANA, E.L., M.M. VZQUEZ, M.R. LVAREZ and
N.S. RA, 2001, El sitio Ajej I: excavacin de rescate
en la costa del canal Beagle. Paper read at the XIV
Congreso Nacional de Arqueologa Argentina
(Rosario, prov. de Santa Fe), accepted for publication
in Actas.
PIANA, E.L., M.M. VZQUEZ and N.S. RA, 2004,
Mischiuen I. Primeros resultados de una excavacin
de rescate en la costa norte del canal Beagle. In
Civalero, M.T., P.M. Fernndez & A.G. Guraieb
(eds.): Contra viento y marea. Arqueologa de
Patagonia, pp. 815-832. Buenos Aires.