Strategies for Quartzitic Raw Materials Procurement in the Eastern Pampa-Patagonia Transition of Argentina during the Initial Late Holocene

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to contribute with new information for the understanding of the provisioning strategies of quartzitic raw materials carried out by the hunter-gatherer groups who inhabited the eastern Pampa-Patagonia transition (Argentina) during the Initial late Holocene (ca. 3000–1000 ¹⁴C years BP). To achieve this objective, our study case is focused in Campo Monaldi archaeological locality. Previously proposed provisioning strategies of these raw materials in the study area are re-evaluated. For this purpose, the information provided by the petrographic thin sections of quartzitic rocks, the represented artifactual categories, the weight of transported rocks and the stages of the chaînes operatoires were considered. As a result, two different provisioning strategies are established, suggesting that the hunter-gatherer groups who inhabited the study area during the Initial late Holocene relied on different and complementary mechanisms to obtain quartzitic rocks. In this sense, meanwhile the orthoquartzites of the Tandilia ranges could have been obtained through exchanges, the metaquartzites and quartzite sandstones from the Ventania ranges could have been directly acquired in the outcrops and/or in secondary sources.

KEYWORDS:

• Provisioning strategies
• hunter-gatherers
• Initial late Holocene
• eastern Pampa Patagonia transition
• Argentina

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT-242-12) and the National Geographic Society (NGS 9756-15). Special thanks to Paula Barros, Pablo Messineo, Nora Franco, Juan Belardi and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments that improved the manuscript. Thanks to Natalia Carden for improving the English. Thanks to UE-INCUAPA-CONICET and the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dra. Florencia Santos Valero obtained her Ph.D in Archaeology from the Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (Facultad de Ciencias Sociales), Argentina, in 2017 and is currently working as a post-doc scholar at CONICET (National Research Council of Science and Technical Research).

Dr. Gustavo Martínez obtained his Ph.D. in Natural Sciences (1999) from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo), Argentina. Currently, he is a Principal Researcher at CONICET (National Research Council of Science and Technical Research) and Titular Professor at the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT-242-12) and the National Geographic Society (NGS 9756-15)