Technological decisions in Fishtail points from Patagonian contexts: A comparative overview Darío Hermo, Enrique Terranova, Laura Miotti

DARÍO HERMO; ENRIQUE TERRANOVA; LAURA MIOTTI

Buenos Aires

Simposio; 11th International Symposium of Knappable Materials "from toolstone to stone tools"; 2017

IMIHICIHU-CONICET

 Fishtail points (FTPs) are good indicatorsof peopling during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in the Americas. Theseobjects have a wide geographical distribution, from the Magallanes Basin (southernmostpoint in the Americas) to southern Mexico, and are often associated withchronologies ca. 9000?11,500 BP (14C).Moreover, FTPs are usually distributed as isolated artifacts but have also beenfound in assemblages with different contexts, and settled in a wide variety ofenvironments.  Patagonian archaeologicalcontexts show examples of this variability. In this presentation, we consider theevidence from archaeological sites with associated FTPs, located in the DeseadoMassif (Santa Cruz province) and the Somuncurá Plateau (Río Negro Province) todiscuss the reduction sequence of these tools. We observe that decision making could havebeen different, following several technical methods (e.g., blank selection and fluting), and furthermore that there weredifferences in the designs of the morphology of these points (e.g., size, shoulders, maintainability).If we strictly consider the function of FTPs as weapons, where morphology isstrongly related with hafting and aerodynamics, it is not clear why there weredifferences in design or technical decisions. Based on technical features of FTPs, and incomparative analysis we explore interpretations at different scales in order tocomprehend the possible roles played by these pieces during the initialpeopling of Patagonia.