Transporting rocks to an empty environment of lithic raw materials. The case of the Central Pampean Dunefield (Argentina)

PABLO G. MESSINEO; MARÍA P. BARROS; NÉLIDA PAL; NAHUEL SCHEIFLER

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Congreso; 11 th Symposium on Knappable Materials : From Toolstone to Stone Tools.; 2017

IMHICIHU

The main objective of this presentation is to explore the reasons for hunter-gatherer raw material transport towards the Central Pampean Dunefield (West area of the Humid Pampas sub-region, Argentina); a landscape lacking lithic raw materials. For this purpose we present macro- and microscopic characterizations of stone tools and analyze different production sequences and use strategies obtained on lithic remains from four Holocene stratified sites: Laguna Cabeza de Buey 2, Laguna de los Pampas S2E, La Susana 1, and Huencú Nazar. In these sites the lithic assemblages are formed mainly by orthoquartzite and chert from the Tandilia Range System (southeast), followed by other exotic lithic raw materials in low frequencies (silicified dolomite, siliceous chert, silex, obsidian, sandstone, granite, metaquartzite, chalcedony, ryolite, micaceous schist, etc.), which came from diverse vectors of provenience (south, west, southeast, southwest, and northwest). Different kinds of lithic raw materials, reduction sequences, and chipping techniques were recognized. These are associated with the distance and access to resources, mobility patterns, and social interactions with hunter-gatherer groups who inhabited other territories during different periods of the Holocene.