First Peopling and Lithic Raw Material Use in Lacustrine Basins and Highlands of Central-Western Santa Cruz Province (Argentine Patagonia)

ABSTRACT

In the steppe and forest ecotone of central-western Santa Cruz province, Argentina, there are three lithic raw materials whose primary and secondary sources have been recognized. These are the obsidian, the siltstone, and a silicified green tuff. Moreover, the characteristics of their use during the late Holocene are well known. In this paper, we evaluate diagnostic and comparative information regarding their use during the early stages of hunter-gatherer settlement in this southern region. The analysis is based on debitage, tools, and cores recovered in contexts with early and middle Holocene chronologies from the low basins of Tar, San Martín, and Cardiel lakes as well as the highlands of the Guitarra plateau and Perito Moreno National Park. We also discuss the importance of these knappable materials in the human settlement processes and the initial learning of the landscape.

KEYWORDS:

• Initial peopling
• lithic raw material
• technological change
• Patagonia

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ted Goebel, Nora Flegenheimer, and Peter Hiscock for allowing us to participate in the symposium about early peopling and lithic raw materials in the ISKM held in Buenos Aires. We also thank Josefina Flores Coni for her help with the translation and her helpful comments on the correction of the work. Finally, we thank the team members.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Agustín Agnolin is a doctoral researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Lationamericano (INAPL). His research interests center on hunter-gatherer archaeology and the relationships between cultural change and environmental change. He has participated in archaeological research in the Argentine Patagonia and the Buenos Aires city.

Silvana Espinosa earned her PhD at Universidad de Buenos Aires and currently works in the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia. Her research has concentrated in the peopling process of the lacustrine basins of southern Patagonia and the technology used by hunter-gatherer groups of this region. She has conducted archaeological research in Perito Moreno National Park and San Martin and Tar Lake basins.

Gisela Cassiodoro is a researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (Argentina) and a professor at the University of Buenos Aires. She received her PhD from the University of Buenos Aires in 2008. She has participated in different archaeological research projects in Santa Cruz (Patagonia). She has worked on regional problems of hunter-gatherers from a lithic and ceramic point of view.