Was there a Process of Regionalization in North Eastern Patagonia during the Late Holocene?

MARTÍNEZ, GUSTAVO; SANTOS VALERO, FLORENCIA; CARDEN, NATALIA; STOESSEL, LUCIANA; FLENSBORG, GUSTAVO; ALCARÁZ, ANA PAULA; BORGES VAZ, ERIKA

Congreso; 4th Southern Deserts Conference; 2014

The objective of this presentation is to evaluate changes in the social organization of huntergatherer groups who inhabited the lower Colorado River during the end of the late Holocene (∼1000?250 BP) and whether they can be understood as regionalization processes. If this was the case, significant changes in several spheres of social organizations are expected. This arid?semi-arid area was occupied between ∼5600?250 BP, although most occupation is concentrated from 1000?250 BP. Earlier (∼3000? 1000 BP), a pattern of ephemeral occupations and a strategy of residential mobility is observed in conjunction with a primary burial modality of inhumations. Subsistence was mainly based on a strategy of land-resource exploitation (ungulates and large birds). Lithic technology was based on relatively simple chaînes opératoires including the exploitation of largely local but also exotic lithics from the neighboring region of the humid Pampa, Cuyo, and northern Patagonia. Two fragments of engraved Rheidae eggshells were also recorded for this period. These two lines of evidence suggest a fluent circulation of rocks and images in an extra-regional space throughout the Pampa and northern Patagonia. In the following period (∼1000?250 BP), several changes were recorded. Settlements were more stable, they were re-occupied, and occupied for longer periods. There were higher artifactdeposition rates and intersite variability. Both residential and logistic mobility strategies were in use simultaneously. There were new secondary burial patterns and formal burial areas. Subsistence was characterized by resource diversification (e.g., river and marine fish, armadillos, and birds), the intensive use of some resources (e.g., guanaco), and an intensification process. During this period, the systematic use of pottery was incorporated. There were more complex chaînes opératoires, an increased frequency of formal artifacts, and a predominant use of local lithic sources. The low frequency of exotic lithic sources may indicate that the connections with some sub-regions (e.g., the humid Pampa) was not as fluid. Engraved Rheidae eggshell fragments disappear from the record. Based on this, we suggest that in some sectors of northeastern Patagonia during the initial late Holocene (3000?1000 BP) relatively open social networks operated, but at the end of the late Holocene (1000?250 BP) relatively closed social networks existed during increasing regionalization. This change was probably related to factors such as population growth, changes in population dynamics, more intense and competitive social interaction networks and territorial behaviors, spatial circumscription, and demographic packing. Naturally, regionalization processes operate at much larger spatial scales than those evaluated here. Therefore, this analysis is partial and exploratory. The results are briefly compared with information from neighboring regions (northern Patagonia, the Pampas, and Cuyo) in order to evaluate the existence of this process on different temporal and spatial scales.