To what extent do raw material or design travel? Distribution of artifacts in central-western Santa Cruz province (Patagonia, Argentina)

ESPINOSA, S.; CASSIODORO, G.; AGNOLIN, A.; FLORES CONI, J.

Congreso; 11th International Symposium on Knappable Materials; 2017

In central-western Santa Cruz province (Argentina), a variety of black stones has been identified which have aphanitic texture, vitreous characteristics and concoideal fracture. These are basalts, tuff, lava and breccia, and were selected for manufacturing long edges and big artifacts (Espinosa et al. 2016).In the study region, the sources of these raw materials have been registered which include many lake basins such as Salitroso, Belgrano, Guitarra, Strobel, Cardiel, San Martin as well as Pampa del Asador. Previous analyses have stated a limited circulation of these stones outside these basins (Espinosa et al. 2016). Having in consideration that other lithic resources do circulate among basins (e.g. obsidian), we seek to evaluate if in this case artifact design is the element that might have been transported. In order to evaluate the scale of circulation and transport, we use geochemical, morphometric and assemblages? composition information. We focus mainly in the distribution of bifaces and artifacts manufactured on blades.