CAVES AND ROCKSHELTERS: HUNTER-GATHERER LANDMARKS AT VOLCANIC LANDSCAPE IN EXTRA-ANDEAN PATAGONIA

LAURA MIOTTI

British Archaeological Reports. International Series

Archaeopress, England

Lugar: London; Año: 2007; p. 1 - 24

Abstract The Deseado Massif (Santa Cruz Province) is one of the most important areas which since XIX century until today had contributed with excellent palaeoenvironmental and material culture information about the first human settlements in New World. Caves and rockshelters are the main places where archaeological data were found. So, these special loci hold not only value referred to cultural materials (pre and post-Hispanic periods) across the centuries and millenniums, but also palaeoecological and taphonomic success information. A lot of caves present extended stratigraphic and archaeological sequences, allow us to infer the different histories about the human colonization, mobility, subsistence, massive extinction of pleistocenic megafauna, relationship between first colonizer and the animals, and social and symbolic issue related to art, death and use of space. Comparison contexts through time from multivariate analysis support confident information to present a regional model of the process of colonization and consolidation in the area during last 13 ky BP and discuss the changes in the use of caves and rockshelter by people and animals.