THE USE OF THE FORM: FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF LOWER COMPONENT OF PIEDRA MUSEO SITE (SANTA CRUZ, ARGENTINA).

LYNCH VIRGINIA , HERMO DARIO Y ÁLVAREZ MYRIAN

La Plata

Simposio; V Simposio "Hombre temprano en América: a cien años del debate Ameghino-Hrdlicka (1910-2010)?; 2010

The interest in determining the use of different archaeological tools has been one of the main issues of attraction by archaeologists since the beginning of our discipline. In Argentina, especially in Patagonia, the microscopic lithic analysis was initiated by the innovative work of Mansur in 1983, focused on the application of this methodology to early contexts (Cardich et al. 1973). These studies as well as the work of Castro (1994) created new expectations and questions in regional archaeology. The use of an instrument reflects a complex set of social behaviors so their study is a prerequisite for understanding past societies dynamics (Semenov 1964, Keeley 1980, Mansur- Franchomme 1983; Álvarez 2003). For this reason the aim of this paper is to obtain information about the processing activities carried out by hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Deseado Massif during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. This will be carried out by studying lithic materials from the lower component of Piedra Museo archaeological site using use-wear analysis. Other aim is to identify the degree of conservation of use traces and whether the differences detected in techno-morphological and archaeofaunal analysis between stratigraphic units (U) 4 / 5 and 6 are correlated with changes in the use of instruments.