And Rockshelters: Mean Hunter-Gatherer Landmarks At Volcanic Landscape In Extra-Andean Patagonia

LAURA MIOTTI

Lisbon, Portugal

Congreso; UISPP ? XV CONGRESS; 2006

Unión Europea de Arqueología

The Deseado Massif (Santa Cruz Province) is one of the most important areas which since 19th century had contributed excellent palaeoenvironmental and archaeological information to the first human settlements in New World.  Caves and rockshelters are the main places were archaeological data were found.  So, these special loci hold not only cultural materials (of pre and post-Hispanic periods) across millennia, but also paleoecological and taphonomic information.  Many caves present extended stratigraphic and archaeological sequences, that allow us to infer the different histories of human colonization, mobility, subsistence, massive extinction of Pleistocene megafauna, relationship between first colonizer and the animals, and symbolic issue related to art, death and use of space. This work details some of the main archaeological contexts excavated and studies developed by our research team over fifteen years at Piedra Museo, Aguada del Cuero, Los Toldos, and La Primavera localities.  The final aim is to present a regional model of the process of colonization and consolidation in the area during last 13 thousand years and discuss the changes in the use of space by people and animals in this particular environment that act as sedimentological traps in the great plateau of Patagonia.