Tracking sources: a chemical characterization using DRX and FRX of lithic artifacts from archaeological sites and quartz outcrops (Sierras Centrales, Córdoba, Argentina)

SARIO, GISELA; RUBIO, MARCELO; IZETA, ANDRES DARIO; CATTANEO. G.R.; COLLO, GILDA; FAUDONE, SONIA; CAMINOA, JOSÉ MARÍA; GERMANIER, ALEJANDRO; SALVATORE, MARCOS

Buenos Aires

Simposio; 11 Symposium on knapping Materials; 2017

IMICIHU-CONICET

The presence of a lithic technology centered on the use of quartz as the predominant raw material in the Southern Pampean Sierras of Argentina (Córdoba and San Luis provinces) has been described for over a hundred years.However, there has been little effort in trying to progress in describing, from the geochemical point of view, its characterization, which would have provided data to understand the mobility circuits of the societies that inhabited those spaces or exchange networks in the region, or even in other parts of the world because their composition is almost 99% of silica.The results of our studies have allowed us to reflect on the choice of aset of really useful techniques for comparisons (presence / absence, percentages) between quartz sources and different types of sites where these where used in the past.This work presents the first results of this type of analysis using petrographic thin sections, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) in 212 quartz samples (outcrops and archaeological sites of the Ongamira and Copacabana valleys of Córdoba, Argentina) belonging to different periods (including occupations of hunter - gatherer societies between 6000 and 3600 years BP and later contexts with mixed economies previous to the Spanish colonization of the area).