NEW APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF HUNTER-GATHERERS OF THE NORTH COAST OF SANTA CRUZ (ARGENTINA): THE USE OF ROCK SHELTERS

PABLO AMBRÚSTOLO; MIGUEL A. ZUBIMENDI

SAA Archaeological Record

Anna M. Prentiss

Año: 2015 vol. 15 p. 16 - 20

1532-7299

In the lower Deseado basin and its surroundings we have identified several rock shelters that have provided evidences of human settlements in the past. We began systematic studies to evaluate this possibility and analyse which role they might have had within the settlement and subsistence system of the human groups that occupied the NCSC during the Holocene. We believe these studies will complement the information generated so far in the excavation of stratified shell middens on the coast and distribution of lithics artefact in the intermediate zone. Also, this information will allow us to deepen discussion related to the mobility ranges of these hunter-gatherer populations in contexts of effective use of space, considering the coastal and the intermediate zone. In both, we found rock shelters with evidences of human occupation with radiocarbon dates from Middle and Late Holocene.