Raw-material Procurement and Landscape Use during the Pleistocene/Holocene Transition in the Eastern Tandilia Range (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the use of lithic resources by hunter-gatherer groups during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition (c. 10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP) in the eastern Tandilia Mountain Range (Pampas region, Argentina). The lithic assemblages of nine archaeological sites were recovered in sedimentary sequences from caves and rockshelters. The results show that the first human groups who inhabited the micro-region had a wide knowledge of the landscape and sources, and developed a highly selective acquisition of rocks, transporting them from different sources. Among these rocks, two different sedimentary rocks (orthoquartzites) were the most used: the first locally available and the second located 100 km away from the study area. Additional raw-material sources are located 400 and 500 km away from the archaeological study area and were used with different intensities in the studied sites.

KEYWORDS:

• Lithic technology
• Pleistocene/Holocene transition
• Pampas region

Acknowledgements

Specials thanks to Dra. Diana Mazzanti and Dr Peter White for the meticulous reading of this manuscript and the suggestions made. Also, I want to thank three anonymous reviewers whose comments truly enriched this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Gustavo Federico Bonnat is postdoctoral fellow for the National Research Council Argentina (CONICET) and professor in the history career at the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNMDP). Dr Bonnat obtained his PhD at the Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires in 2016. He excavated sites related to early hunters-gatherers in the Pampas region and specializes in lithic technology.

ORCID

Gustavo Federico Bonnat http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2274-3326

Additional information

Funding

These results were a part of my PhD study, financed by a scholarship from Concejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnologicas. The researchers were financed by the Agencia Nacional de Promocion cientifica y Tecnologica, through PICT 2008 No. 1390, and the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata.