Rethinking Early Objects and Landscapes in the Southern Cone: Fishtail-Point Concentrations in the Pampas and Northern Patagonia

FLEGENHEIMER, NORA; MIOTTI LAURA; MAZZIA, NATALIA

Santa Fe

Simposio; Paleoamerican Odyssey Conference; 2013

CSFA- A&M Texas University

Title: Rethinking Early Objects and Landscapes in the Southern Cone: Fishtail-Point Concentrations inthe Pampas and Northern Patagonia. Trabajo completo verlo en sección de revistas científicas. Abstract: The Southern Cone exhibits a variety of early contexts with unique features, including isolated sites, such as Monte Verde, or groups of related sites, as the Puna contexts. Yet, the single feature with most widespread geographical distribution is the Fishtail or Fell 1 projectile point. It is found in a variety of contexts and environments throughout South America; specifically in the Southern Cone, in Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. Its typical design and technical traits, such as fluting, are shared in different regions and have been used in proposals about exchange, social identity and migration routes. This presentation will update information and focus on two localities with concentrations of Fishtail points, one in the pampas and the other in Patagonia. Localities Cerro El Sombrero and Los Dos Amigos exhibit similar features regarding objects and landscapes. Both hilltops were chosen to discard broken Fishtail points as well as other artifacts, including discoidal stones and small spheres. Based on the assumption that past selections of objects and landscape, were socially significant, we propose that people living in both regions in the Southern Cone during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition were sharing meanings and had more in common than technical knowledge and designs.