Technology from hunting blinds: a study of lithic assemblages in Late Holocene stone structures from Patagonia (Argentina).

FLORES CONI J.; CASSIODORO G.

Simposio; 13th International Symposium on Knappable Materials; 2021

Stone structures called parapetos are a highlighted feature of the archaeological recordin central-western Santa Cruz, Patagonia. They are located in basaltic plateaus,over 700 masl. These hunter-gatherer structures are believed to be mainly relatedto hunting activities though some sites have revealed a more general function (Cassiodoro2011, Flores Coni 2019).The distribution and frequency of parapetos stand out in the region; more than 500have been registered so far with varied sizes and shapes and clustered in differentamounts. Radiocarbon dates reveal that they are a typical Late Holocene technologyas chronologies for these sites start 2000 years BP, when a regional humidity drop hasbeen registered, till Hispanic contact times (Flores Coni et al. 2021).The goal of this presentation is to discuss the characteristics of lithic materials recoveredin these particular sites with a specific spatial and temporal distribution in Patagonia.We seek to evaluate the existence of variability in lithic artefacts related to stonestructures recovered in two different areas: Pampa del Asador- Guitarra Lake plateauand the Strobel plateau. This will enable the study of the strategies hunter-gatherersimplemented in the use of these areas in a context of environmental change. Moreover,describing manufacture and use of lithic artifacts related to these sites will allow abetter understanding of the specific use these structures had.Diverse types of hunting blind sites have been included: isolated structures andgrouped ones located in different topographic and ecological contexts. Materials wererecovered from inner and outer surfaces of structures as well as from stratigraphiccontexts and thus, allow to assess variability over time. The sample includes tools,debitage and cores with a total of more than 10000 lithic artefacts.The evidence discussed summarizes more than 20 years of on-going investigationsin the region. It provides exceptional information based on systematic analysis of asignificant sample of lithic artefacts in hunting blinds.Results show that there is variability between the compared areas, mainly in raw materialuse and the characteristics of artifacts discard.