CLIMATE CHANGES AND HUMAN PEOPLING DURING THE LATE HOLOCENE IN CENTRAL-SOUTHERN PATAGONIA (ARGENTINA): A REGIONALISATION CASE?

GOÑI, R; RE, A.; GARCIA GURAIEB, S.; CASSIODORO, G.; TESSONE, A.; RINDEL, D.; DELLEPIANE, J.; FLORES CONI, J; GUICHÓN, F.; AGNOLIN, A.

QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2018

1040-6182

The main contribution of this paper is to generate a deeper understanding of hunter-gatherers populations? dynamics in Central-Southern Patagonia during the Late Holocene, under fluctuating environmental conditions.Climate change in Southern Patagonia towards the Late Holocene, last 2500 years, was mainly related to changes in the direction (beginning during the Middle Holocene, ca. 6000 BP) and intensity (ca. 1800 BP) of Southern Westerlies (Gilli et al., 2001), and a gradual drying of the environment with ?Epic Droughts?, during the Mediaeval Climatic Anomaly ca. 972 and 860 BP (Stine, 1994).Therefore, we seek to understand the settlement and mobility strategies implemented by human populations to cope with environmental changes. In order to achieve this aim, we consider different lines of evidence: technology; zooarchaeology, rock art, mortuary record and paleodietary studies.In a meso-regional scale, the Late Holocene is characterized by changes in the composition of different aspects of the archaeological record, namely, the incorporation of new technologies, new rock art motifs designs, new compositions in archaeofaunal assemblages, changes in the human burial types and their sex-age composition, among others. Also, variations in the distribution and density of these records are observed, specially linked to the ecological and altitudinal characteristics of different regions. Based on this information, hunter-gatherers´ mobility and land use models were proposed which stated a reduction of residential mobility, a concentration of settlements in lowlands and a logistical and seasonal use of highlands, in a process of extensification. In this paper we try to evaluate if this model is applicable in a macro-regional scale and if, consequently, a process of regionalisation can be considered.