Taphonomic results allowed the detection of avian raptors-owls in particular-as the principal accumulating agents of small mammal bone and tooth accumulations of open-air archaeological sites from the Monte Desert. The action of postdepositional processes, like weathering and trampling, also were analysed. In order to identify the agents responsible for such accumulations relative abundance trends, bone breakage patterns and digestive corrosion were evaluated. The present study analyses the taphonomic features and the palaeoenvironmental implications of small mammal bone and tooth accumulations recovered in open-air archaeological sites from the Monte Desert plains of northern Mendoza (Central Western Argentina) in the South American arid diagonal. The distinctive characteristic of the Monte Desert, the most arid rangeland of Argentina, is reflected in the varied composition of its small mammal fauna. Although strong alterations can be observed in these remains, as they are deposited in the dunes, these do not hinder the interpretation of the process of use of riverside environments with occupations linked to subsistence modes, focused on fishing and technologies, which took advantage of mineral resources in the north of Mendoza, as well as others to the east of the study area.

400 years BP during the Little Ice Age are also recorded. Occupations, within a logistic mobility pattern, around ca.

1200 and 800 years BP, during the Medieval Climate Optimum, populations intensified the occupation of the area and of this site in particular. Based on the results of radiocarbon dating and of ceramic, archaeofaunistic, and lithic material analyses, it is postulated that between ca.

This article presents the results of the archaeological study of the PA68 site in the El Quebrachito lagoon, located on a lunette sand dune next to an old wetland of the Desaguadero River (Gran Llanura de la Travesía, west-central Argentina).

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