ESTUDIO DE HERRAMIENTAS LÍTICAS DEL HUMEDAL DEL PARANÁ INFERIOR. ANÁLISIS DE LOS GRÁNULOS DE ALMIDÓN

Starch is a polysaccharide produced by green plants as an energy stock and is found in many foods, mainly seeds, but also in some roots and tubers. It is stored in the form of granules with distinct morphological characteristics, typical of the different botanical sources. Starch grains have proved to be a powerful tool as a proxy for inference in archaeological research, due to its high resistance to degradation and the possibility of taxonomic identification if they were not heated at high temperatures in the presence of water. In this work, starch granules were extracted from lithic tools recovered from archaeological sites of the wetland of lower Parana River. Residues were recovered by sonication and centrifugation using Cesium chloride, and then the sediments were analyzed using a microscope with polarized light. The forms of the starch grains observed under the microscope were dissimilar, resembling those of algarrobo seeds. Nevertheless, as because of the limited number of granules recovered, its origin is uncertain.