Early Holocene water well in the Pampas of Argentina: Implications for hunter-gatherer social organization

MARTINEZ, G.A.; GUTIERREZ, M. A.

The Holocene

Sage

Lugar: New York; Año: 2019 vol. 29 p. 145 - 157

1477-0911

Water wells are ethnographically and archaeologically described in Australia and the plains of North America. Recently, a prehistoric water well from theearly Holocene was recorded in the Pampas of Argentina. The aim of this paper is to present the main characteristics of the water well, considering itsform, dimension, sediment analyses (texture and chemical parameters), and material culture content. This is the first water well recorded in the Pampasof Argentina. Consequently, a discussion about natural or cultural origins of this kind of features is provided. An evaluation of similarities and differenceswith well-described water wells from the United States and Australia is included in order to highlight the cultural origin of the pit. Also, the meaning of thecultural response to water availability in terms of early-Holocene hunter?gatherer adaptations as well as the implications of this strategy for understandingpaleoenvironmental scenarios of the Pampas of Argentina are discussed. The well seems to have mitigated an exceptional lack of surface water in theeastern Pampas or offered an alternative for the non-drinkable quality of the available surface water. The strategy of digging water wells was available inthe behavioral repertoire of the Pampean hunter?gatherer populations as early as c. 8700?8000 14C yr BP (c. 9700?8800 cal. yr BP), as these groups werefairly flexible and resilient in dealing with short-term shortages of water.