The use of the metallic saw in urban historical contexts. Analysis of test pit I in the Pedro Molina District, Guaymallén, Mendoza province

Abstract

The bone analysis allowed to contrast favorably the use of the saw in an archaeological context around in Mendoza City wich functioned during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. The marks are mostly found to the Bos taurus species, in a typical discarding garbage urban context of this time. with a few species and represented mostly domestic animals introduced from Europe. The use of mechanical saw represents a major change in the final stretch of cattle managing, facilitating their subsequent distribution through the market. The sequence of deposition shows their use for a bounded period of time. The place digged is representative of the urban boundary –in late colonial and independent times- and the transition to the process of increasing urbanization occurred in the twentieth century, which was occupying an area of old farms.