ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Archaeol.

Sec. Archaeological Isotope Analysis

Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fearc.2025.1535551

This article is part of the Research TopicResource Use and Subsistence Strategies on Island FrontiersView all articles

At the Southern Limit: The Arenal Central Site and the Guaraní Occupation of the Paraná Delta (Argentina)

Provisionally accepted
Daniel LoponteDaniel Loponte1*Mirian CarboneraMirian Carbonera2Fernanda SchneiderFernanda Schneider3Neli MachadoNeli Machado3Aline BertoncelloAline Bertoncello2Maicon Telles SzczygelMaicon Telles Szczygel2Alejandro AcostaAlejandro Acosta1Barbara MazzaBarbara Mazza1Sheila AlíSheila Alí1Isabel CapparelliIsabel Capparelli4
  • 1National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 2Regional Community University of Chapecó, Chapeco, Santa Catarina, Brazil
  • 3University of Vale do Taquari, Lajeado, Brazil
  • 4Instituto Nacional de Antropologia y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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This study analyzes the archaeological record of Arenal Central, a Guaraní residential site on Martín García Island within the Río de la Plata estuary, situated in the southernmost region colonized by these Amazonian populations. It presents data on technology, subsistence, procurement networks, catchment areas, stylistic behaviors, and chronology, providing five new radiocarbon dates that make this site the best-dated Guaraní context in the region, and the second Guaraní residential base analyzed for this area. The results are integrated with previously known data to examine key aspects of Guaraní colonization, including chronology, subsistence strategies, resource acquisition, hunting ranges, and settlement spatial distribution, contributing to a new synthesis of Guaraní archaeology at the southernmost extent of their expansion in South America.Finally, the findings are contextualized within the broader framework of human occupations in insular settings.

Keywords: Guaraní archaeology, Guaraní expansion, La Plata Basin, Arenal Central site, Martin Garcia Island

Received: 27 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Loponte, Carbonera, Schneider, Machado, Bertoncello, Szczygel, Acosta, Mazza, Alí and Capparelli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Daniel Loponte, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

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