Tracking quartz: a methodological approach to an elusive type of sources using chemical characterization according to their geological origin

IZETA, ANDRÉS D.; COLLO, GILDA; SALVATORE, MARCOS; SARIO, GISELA; CAMINOA, JOSÉ MARÍA; CATTANEO. G.R.

Washington D. C.

Congreso; 83rd SAA Annual Meeting; 2018

SAA

In the archaeology of the Sierras Centrales of Argentina more than one hundred years ago studies have reported the presence of a lithic technology centered on the use of quartz as a predominant raw material. However, little effort has been made to try to characterize its chemical composition so as to understand the circuits of mobility or the exchange networks in the archaeological sites of the region.The results of provenance studies have allowed us to advance in a geochemical characterization of quartz sources and discuss an appropriate set of chemical trace elements useful for comparison between archaeological sites and quarries depending of the geological origin (hydrothermal or pegmatite quartz). We report here a chemical characterization of archaeological and geological samples using thin sections, X-Ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction. The detection of trace elements of 100 quartz outcrops and its comparison with archaeological artifacts from 8 sites from the valleys of Ongamira and Copacabana (north of the province of Córdoba, Argentina) are going to be presented, related with samples that belong to different chronological periods (from hunter-gatherer societies?ca. 6000 BP?to more recent occupations?ca. 300 BP).