Hunter-gatherer?s lifestyles in semi-arid landscapes at central Argentina

MESSINEO, PABLO GERONIMO

Shanghai

Congreso; 4th Shanghai Archaeology Forum; 2019

Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

The goal of this work is to synthesize different lines of archaeological evidences (e.g., faunal, bio-archaeological, lithic and bone technology, and chronological analyses) in order to understand the hunter-gatherer?s lifestyles in the Central Pampean Dunefields of Argentina during the Holocene. This area is one of the semi-arid environments located in the center of Pampean plain of Argentina whose main landform is parabolic dunes. The archaeological sites are usually recorded in the border of permanent and temporary shallow lakes and some of them were occupied by hunter-gatherers recurrently along the Holocene. The early traces of humans in the Central Pampean Dunefields date back to ca. 10,000 years cal BP, when the lakes were the preferred places for installing residential camps. This seems to be a consequence of the improved climatic conditions and the progressive knowledge of local environments (fresh water sources and animal behaviors) due to several generations of explorations. During the Middle Holocene, the bio-archaeological record indicates a most recurrent use of this space for inhumations, suggesting that these lakes functioned as persistent places. Zooarchaeological analysis indicates that the human groups consumed a wide variety of species during this period. In addition, complete eggs of Greater rhea are linked to a shortage of sources of fresh water, and they are similar to that used by hunter-gatherer groups that inhabit desert environments in Africa. Along the Holocene, hunter-gatherers were highly mobile, as indicated by the variety of non-local lithic raw materials and the presence of marine mollusks from the Atlantic coast. Most stone tools came from 250-350 km to the southeast (Tandilia Range System), but small quantity of rocks come from other areas of the center of Argentina. During the Late Holocene the archaeological visibility increased significantly, a fact that suggests a rise in the population density, a reduction in residential mobility and a more continuous occupation by pre-hispanic hunter-gatherer groups. Another significant change occurred in the Late Holocene is the appearance of important innovations such as pottery. The adoption and integration of this technological innovation by these hunter-gatherers took place within a cultural context characterized by changes in social complexity. To sum up, hunter-gatherer groups modified the adaptability and mobility patterns as a response to the cultural and environmental changes that occurred in this semi-arid landscape of the center of Argentina.