Wood technology of patagonian hunter-gatherers: selection and use of woody resources as raw material

CARUSO FERME, LAURA

Liverpool

Congreso; 7th International Anthracology Meeting; 2019

University of Liverpool

In the Patagonian archaeological record, the conservation of wooden artefacts is very restricted. The taxonomic, technological and functional analysis is a way of approaching to the production processes of wood artifacts.In this work the results of the taxonomic analysis of the recovered wooden objects in the sites of Cerro Casa de Piedra 5 (6,780 ± 110BP and 2,805 ± 105BP), Cerro Casa de Piedra 7 (10,690 ± 120 and 3,400 years BP) and Cueva Milodón 1 (7,982 ± 45 and 1,950 ± 30 BP) -province of Santa Cruz, Argentina- and the taxonomy study of museum pieces (province of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) are presented. The taxonomy analysis of all the wooden pieces evidence the use of the same woody shrub specie -Berberis sp.-. The wood of Berberis sp. was chosen by the different groups that inhabited the Argentine Patagonia from, at least, 10,690 BP until the contact with the Europeans, for the manufacture of different types of instruments. Historical sources on hunter-gatherers from the southern tip of America also mention the use of this same shrub to make artifacts.