The Quarry in the Forest. The Case of the Upper Guanaco River (Southern Patagonia, Argentina)

BELARDI, JUAN BAUTISTA; ESPINOSA, SILVANA LAURA; HORTA, LUIS; CARBALLO MARINA, FLAVIA

Congreso; 86th SAA Meeting; 2021

Hunter-gatherer forest use is an ongoing discussion in Southern Patagonia. The recent finding of a silicified rock quarry on the upper Guanaco River (close to the Andean range in Southern Santa Cruz, Argentina) adds new and important data to the debate focused on forest intensity use and it is germane to model forest-steppe interactions. In this vein, even when the hunter-gatherer use of the forest could be seen as marginal (Borrero 2004), it is expected that internal archaeological differences will shed light on dissimilar interactions between the steppe and the forest.