Rituality and landascape in The tandilia hill range (Pampa Grasslands of argentina) during the late Holocene

BARROS, P.; PAL, N.; POLITIS, G.; KAUFMANN, C; DI PRADO, V.; SCHEIFLER, N; MESSINEO, P.; ALVAREZ, M.; MATARRESE, A.

Paris

Congreso; 18th UISPP WORLD CONGRESS; 2018

Union Internationale des Sciences Préhistoriques et Protohistoriques

The Pampa grassland of Argentina is a vast plain only interrupted by the Tandilia and Ventania hill ranges, located in the central east of Argentina. Since the early peopling of the region, during the end of the Pleistocene, these ranges have had a spiritual connotation for pre-historic hunter-gatherers. One example is the deliberated abandonment of particular lithic tools such as shtail projectile points in particular buttes. Along the Holocene the hills were also used as support for rock art and their abundant primary and secondary outcrops constituted the main areas for the acquisition of raw materials for manufacturing stone tools.In this paper, we present and discuss the main results of Calera, a ritual site located in a high valley in the north-western sector of the Tandilia hill range. This context has been interpreted as a place where a series of ritual activities were performed by hunter-gatherers during periods of band aggregation between ca. 3400 and 1700 14C years BP.