Plants and Patagonian hunter-gatherers:

CARUSO FERMÉ, LAURA; CAPPARELLI AYLEN

Thessaloniki

Congreso; 16th Conference of the International WorkGroup for Palaeoethnnobotany; 2013

Aristotele University of Thessaloniki

The extreme dryness of the site Cerro Casa de Piedra 7 (CCP7) (9390 ± 40 BP to 3480 ± 70 BP) –province of Santa Cruz, Argentina-, allowed the recovery of abundant plant material, such as wood charcoal, wood, fruits, seeds, leaves, fragments of bark and wooden artifacts. This fact, together with the long occupation sequence of the site (Aschero, 1996; Civalero et al., 2006-2007), both infrequent situations in Patagonia, has allowed us to study the role of plant resources in the subsistence strategies of the hunter-gatherers of the area. The overall objective of this paper is, first, to study plant resources exploitation dynamics in a context of high residential mobility and, second, to analyze the effects of environmental changes and its degree of influence in relation to the plant obtaining strategies.The archaeobotanical record of CCP7 shows peculiarities such as a wide variety of taxa towards the earliest moments of occupation of the cave, which is not seen in the more recent levels. Among the anthracological remains (Nothofagus pumilio, Escallonia ruba,