BONE AS RAW MATERIAL IN PATAGONIA

SCHEINSOHN, V.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 11th Symposium on Knappable Materials; 2017

IMICIHU-CONICET

Hunter-gatherers have made use ofdiverse raw materials to make tools.Although the dominance of stone inthe archaeological record (possiblyowing to preservation issues impliedfor other raw materials) there isevidence of the use of bone since veryearly times (Shipman 1989). DuringLower and Middle Palaeolithic times,hominins used bones either withoutany modification (taken advantage ofits natural shape as they were found)or worked by knapping, as if it werea stone raw material. During UpperPalaeolithic times, manufacturetechniques suited to its particularitiesarose.Those particularities, related withits organic nature, are determined byits material, geometric and structuralproperties (Ferretti and Scheinsohn1993) which make it suitable forthe manufacture of certain toolsthat either requires a certain degreeof deformation, an elongatedmorphology or a differentialdurability. In this work, I will presentthe main characteristics of bonematerial exploitation in Patagonia,a region in which bone technologyappeared relatively early, and prettymuch developed, in two differentcontexts: in the insular area (Pacificchannels and Tierra del Fuego), foundin association with maritime littoraladaptations (Orquera and Piana1999) and in continental Patagonia,found in association with terrestrialhunter-gatherers