An Early Holocene water well in the Pampas Plains (Pampean Region, Argentina)?

MARTÍNEZ, G.; GUTIÉRREZ, M.A.

Sacramento, CA

Congreso; 76th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology; 2011

Society for the American Archaeology

The recently excavated site Paso Otero 4 (Pampean Region, Argentina) has yielded significant archaeological and paleoenvironmental information for the region. A remarkable feature of the site is a circular U-shaped hole of ca. 1.4 m depth assigned to the early Holocene (ca. 8700-8000 years BP). The aim of this paper is to discuss the probably functional assignment of this trait to a water well through the use of different lines of inquiry such us radiocarbon dating, sediment textures, pollen, diatoms, and silicobioliths analyses. Paleonvironmental proxy indicates that it would have been dug during a period where arid conditions prevailed.