Sección Tiempo y vivencia cultural: artefactos, arquitectura, representaciones – 549-573 CRÓNICAS MATERIALES PRECOLOMBINAS. Arqueología de los primeros poblados del Noroeste Argentino LA VARIABILIDAD DE UN ESTILO: AVANCES Y DISCUSIONES EN TORNO A LA CERÁMICA VAQUERÍAS DEL NOROESTE ARGENTINO Lucas Pereyra Domingorena * , María Eugenia De Feo ** y María Fabiana Bugliani *** A B S T R A C T Vaquerías is a distinctive polychrome formative pottery style with broad geographic distribution in Northwestern Argentina (NWA) but meagerly represented at particular sites. Its chronology goes from the fourth century B.C. until the end of the irst millennium D.C. he occurrence of this style is regularly mentioned in the literature of the period, but few authors have advanced detailed characterization of its distinctiveness in each area. his paper contributes to its characterization by reviewing the information and interpretations reached to date and providing new evidence from two sectors of NWA: Quebrada del Toro (Salta) and southern Cajon Valley (Catamarca). Pottery materials recovered from these areas were stylistically and technologically analyzed through the deinition of morphological and iconographic attributes and the application of petrographic techniques. While Vaquerías-style pottery usually occurs in domestic contexts a tvillage sites in the areas considered here, it has also been found in burials in Quebrada del Toro. Although both assemblages share attributes that allow deining Vaquerías as a stylistic and morphological unity, there is also considerable variability in fabric composition. here are also diferences in the way in which this style behaves in each sector relative to local pottery styles. his information is discussed in relation to questions about technological choices made by ancient potters, as well as wider circulation and social interaction issues in the Northwestern Argentina during the Formative. Keywords: Vaquerías – style – petrography – iconography * CONICET. Museo Etnográfico. UBA. ** CONICET. Museo de La Plata, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. *** CONICET. Museo Etnográfico. UBA. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. 17