Transporting rocks to an empty environment of lithic raw materials. The case of Central Pampean Dune Field (Argentina)

PAL, N.; BARROS, P.; MESSINEO, P; SCHEIFLER, N

Buenos Aires

Simposio; 11 International Symposium on Knappable Materials. "From toolstone to stone tools"; 2017

IMHICIHU- CONICET

Transporting rocks to an empty environment of lithic raw materials. The case of Central Pampean Dune field (Argentine).Pablo G. Messineo , María P. Barros1, Nélida Pal , and Nahuel Scheifler1The main objective of this presentation is to explore the causes of the lithic raw materials transport by hunter-gatherer groups toward the Central Pampean Dunefield (West area of the Humid Pampas sub-region), a landscape lacking lithic raw materials. For this porpoise we present macroscopic and petrography determinations of stone tools and we analyze different production sequences and strategies of use obtained on lithic remains from La Cabeza de Buey 2, Laguna de los Pampas S2E, La Susana 1, and Huancú Nazar, four stratified archaeological sites occupied along the Holocene (from 7400 years C14 BP up to historical times). In these sites the lithic assemblages are formed mainly by orthoquartzite and chert from the Tandilia Range System (southeastern), following by other exotic lithic raw materials in low frequencies (silicified dolomite, siliceous chert, silex, obsidian, sandstone, granite, metaquartzite, ryolite, micaceous schist, etc.), which came from diverse vectors of provenience (south, west, and northwest). Different kind of lithic raw materials, reduction sequences, and chipping techniques were recognized along the Holocene, which are related with the access to resources, the mobility patterns, and the social interactions with other groups who inhabited different territories.