Microscopic Use-Wear analysis in Latin America. Its contribution to new problems, raw materials and taphonomic contexts.

MANSUR MARIA E.; ALONSO LIMA M.; DE ANGELIS H.

Traceology today. Methodological issues in the Old World and the Americas

Archaeoporess - B.A.R. I.S. 2643

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2014; p. 75 - 85

Since the publication of Semenov´s Prehistoric Technology in Europe in 1964, microscopic analysis of archaeological materials has developed continously, although it has followed an uneven rhythm -sometimes more rapid and sometimes slower-. In Latin America, microscopic analysis started at about the same time - and developed in a parallel way- as in Europe and North America. Nevertheless it had its own course to follow, as it tried to solve different methodological problems, mainly concerning raw materials used, depositional contexts, etc. Different reasons led it to be little known, not only in the Old World but also in North America. We believe that the first meeting of the Commission Tools function and socio-economical reconstructions of the past, which took place in a Latin American country, was an excellent opoortunity to attempt to dress a preliminary sinthesis of the principal investigations and lines of research developed, as well as their contribution to micro wear analysis as a whole. In this paper we present a preliminary bibliogrhapical list of publications concerning microwear analysis produced in Latin America, as well as publications produced in the old world but concerning Latin American archaeology.