Beyond the Mighty Projectile Point: Techno-functional Study in a Late Pleistocene Artifact, Pilauco Site, Osorno, Northwestern Chilean Patagonia

ABSTRACT

The Pilauco site, in northwestern Chilean Patagonia, presents evidence of human occupation in South America ca. 16,500 cal yr BP. This article presents the techno-functional analysis of a unifacial artifact belonging to a 17,300 cal yr BP level, found in association with five other lithic pieces. Artifacts of this type have long been considered expedient rather than formal or curated pieces. These artifacts remain in the shadow of bifacial pieces, particularly so-called projectile points. The results of the techno-functional analysis made it possible to diagnose the unifacial artifact as a plano-convex volumetric structure with two parallel backs, on which two different tools were produced at different manufacturing stages via the technical operations of affordance, debitage, and shaping. The detailed description of this type of artifact is crucial for a more complete definition of the technical phenomena associated with the first occupations in South America.

KEYWORDS:

• Unifacial technology
• lithic technology
• late Pleistocene
• northwestern Chilean Patagonia
• Peopling of the Americas

Acknowledgements

To Pablo Mollenhauer for the 3D modeling of the artifact through photogrammetry. To Paolo Matissine for the Munsell codes. To the entire Pilauco research team, excavation and laboratory. We also want to thank the anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions helped improve and clarify the original version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

Notes

1 In French literature, chaîne opératoire and schème/schéma opératoire are different concepts. Inizan et al. (1995, 1999) explain the general difference between them. On the one hand, the chaîne opératoire corresponds to a theoretical-methodological instrument that allows reconstructing the temporal and spatial order of the different stages used to produce an artifact. The schéma opératoire (operative scheme), on the other hand, designates the series of knapping operations guided by a schéma conceptuel (conceptual scheme) (Inizan et al., 1999, p. 15). The techno-functional analysis applied in this paper rather uses the term schème opératoire (Boëda, 1991, p. 39), because it is interested in the study of the techno-functional genesis of the artifact (Simondon, 2012) and not only in technological criteria of production. See these terminological and conceptual differences in the instructive text written by Djindjian (2013).

2 Here we use the term “debitage” in the sense of “flaking”, as it was translated in Inizan et al. (1999, p. 30). In this way, debitage is understood as an operation and not as the product or byproducts obtained after performing this operation.

3 One of us (Antonio Pérez) is carrying out this study as part of his doctoral thesis.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Nucleus TAQUACH and the project DID PEF I – 2018–06 from the Universidad Austral de Chile, with a grant from the Municipality of Osorno (Council Act n°24). This is the first scientific contribution of the Foundation for the Pleistocene Heritage Studies of Osorno (FEPPO). This work was also supported by the Ecole doctorale 395 “Espaces, Temps, Cultures” (ETC).

Notes on contributors

Antonio Pérez-Balarezo

Antonio Pérez is an archaeologist and PhD student in the team Anthropologie des Techniques, des Espaces et des Territoires au Pliocène et au Pléistocène of the laboratory ARSCAN (UMR 7041) at Paris Nanterre University (France). His dissertation research is focused on the techno-functional description and interpretation of the earliest Pleistocene lithic industries of South America.

Ximena Navarro-Harris

Dr Ximena Navarro-Harris is an archaeologist and researcher at the Trandisciplinary Center for Quaternary Studies (TAQUACH). His research interests include lithic artefacts in early human settlements in Southern Chile.

Eric Boëda

Dr Eric Boëda is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Paris Nanterre University (France). He is a prehistorian and an archaeologist. His research interests include the Evolution of Techniques and the prehistory of the Americas.

Mario Pino

Dr. Mario Pino is a Full Professor at the Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra and the Trandisciplinary Center for Quaternary Studies (TAQUACH), Austral University of Chile. He is a quaternary geologist. His research interest include early human settlements in Southern Chile.