The inter-tidal zone site of La Olla. Early-Middle Holocene human adaptation on the Pampean Coast of Argentina

BAYÓN, C.; GUSTAVO POLITIS

Submerged Prehistoric Archaeology: How climatic change and technology are re-writing history

Springer

Lugar: New York; Año: 2012;

The recent findings in La Olla and Monte Hermoso sites are presented i this chapter. These sites are the oldest in the argentine coast and have produced relevant data to understand the human coastal adaptation. Argentina has a maritime littoral of more than 2,500 km spanning two great natural regions, the Pampa and Patagonia. This remarkable latitudinal extension results in a wide variability in climates and coastal morphology. In the Pampean region the coasts show a gentle declivity, are low, sandy, and are interrupted by scanty cliffs as those of Miramar or Monte Hermoso. In contras abrupt coasts predominate on the Patagonian littoral, with the presence of occasional stretches of inactive cliffs, accompanied by gravel or sandy beaches. Both regions were inhabited in pre-Hispanic times by hunter-gatherer groups since at least the end of the Mid-Early Holocene (see synthesis in Orquera and Gómez Otero 2007). The article summarized the pampean data and discuss it in the context of the human occupation of the atlantic littoral.