THE THETIS BAY FACTORY, HISTORIC BACKGROUND AND TAPHONOMY OF PINNIPED BONEBEDS

Abstract

Several Otarid rookeries are located along the coasts of the Península Mitre, at the Eastern end of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, which were the subject of intensive exploitation by European, American and Criollo sealers since the 18th century. In the 1940s, a factory for extracting leather and oil from these animals was established in Thetis Bay. Remains of its facilities are still preserved, along with large accumulations of bones from animals slaughtered there. This paper provides historical data on the exploitation of pinnipeds in Península Mitre and on the methods for obtaining and exploiting these marine mammals at an industrial scale. The paper likewise includes the zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses of pinniped bonebeds located in a sector of Thetis Bay. The presented results allow us to delve into some previous proposals which argue that these bonebeds are the product of a secondary accumulation - generated by tidal action - of remains discarded after the animal slaughter at the factory.