Costs of Acquiring Lithic Materials in High Altitude Environments (Northwestern San Juan Province, Argentina): A GIS-Based Evaluation

CASTRO, S.; LUCERO, G; CORTEGOSO, V. DURÁN, V. LUCERO. G; MARSH, E.

Vancouver

Congreso; 82nd Annual Meeting. SESSION ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR LITHIC TECHNOLOGY; 2017

Society for American Archaeology

The upper Taguas river valley is rich in high-quality lithic sources and humans have used these sources continually over the last 10,000 years. A multi-year project of survey and excavation revealed a material signature dominated by lithics and analyzed 32,622 lithic artifacts, almost exclusively made from sources within the valley. The representation of lithic sources varied between sites and stratigraphic levels, suggesting shifting preferences for different source. To better understand these preferences, we ranked each the quality of the raw material of each source. Next, we ranked the time required to travel from each site to all sources with anisotropic least cost paths. This GIS analysis was based a surface elevation model and Tobler?s cost for movement on slopes. This step was particularly important given the abrupt topography of this high-altitude area. These two factors allowed us to evaluate differences in preferences between sites and stratigraphic layers. The results show that people were willing to travel to more distance sources in order to acquire higher quality materials. This is likely because all of the sources are within an eight-hour walk of the valley bottom, where most of the sites are located. The time required to walk to each sites was also an important factor in explaining the variable use of sources.