From the highest desert Hunter-gatherer resources, mobility and interactions. Antofagasta de la Sierra 9000-3000 BP, Argentine Southern Puna

ASCHERO, CARLOS A.; PINTAR, ELIZABETH; MARTÍNEZ, JORGE G.; HOCSMAN, SALOMÓN; BABOT, MARÍA DEL PILAR

Valle de Uco (Mza)

Congreso; 4º Southern Desert Conference; 2014

Laboratorio de Paleo-Ecología Humana

 The sites studied in Antofagasta de la Sierra (3400-4100 masl) and their radiocarbon chronology show a sequence of human occupation with minimal temporal gaps that suggest that at some point during the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene people arrived and stayed from thereon. The presence of megamammals in the Late Pleistocene ?such as Megatheriinae, Mylodon sp. and Hippidion sp.? whose feces contents show a diet based on vegetation that currently surrounds stream wetlands and lakes, reveals an environment with good availability of water as well as hunting and gathering resources for the initial colonization. We analyze human presence that began ca. 10,000 BP until 3000 BP. We examine the data provided by lithic provisioning, particularly obsidian, the designs in rock art, the variability and change in the morphology and technology of projectile points (unstemmed triangular, stemmed, lanceolate, etc.) as well as grinding equipment, macro and micro-botanical remains, in addition to technofactures made of wood, seeds, vegetal fibers and mollusk shells throughout the sequence mentioned. This data enables us to configure a scenario of wide interaction networks sustained by hunter-gatherers from ca. 8600 BP that were later continued by agro-pastoral societies. These interactions respond to social strategies that, in addition to resources, suggest genetic and information exchanges that were necessary for the survival of demographically reduced groups of people throughout the timeframe studied. Finally, data also reveal the first records of local cultivation that correspond to Chenopodium quinua and a series of cultivated resources that were utilized in human subsistence beginning ca. 3500 BP.