Wood Technology: Production Sequences and Use of Woody Raw Materials among Hunter-Gatherer Patagonian Groups (Argentina)

CARUSO FERMÉ, L.; CIVALERO, M. T.; ASCHERO, C. A.

Environmental Archaeology

Tyalor & Francis Group

Año: 2021 p. 1 - 14

1461-4103

The objective of this work is to reconstruct production sequences and use of woody rawmaterials among Patagonian hunter-gatherer groups. To this end, we studied smallfragments of non-carbonized wood, pieces of wood with distinct types of technologicalfeatures and formatized artefacts and/or wooden tools from two archaeological sites insouth-central Argentine Patagonia. The taxonomic results showed the recurrent use of twotaxa, Nothofagus pumilio and Berberis sp., among distinct occupations corresponding to boththe early and late Holocene. The morphological and traceological results demonstrate theimplementation of different technical operations such as the debarking and the roughing ofthe wood, as well as bevelled and perimeter cuts. They also show the recurrent presence ofcertain technological features and traces in woods and artefacts associated with distinctoccupations in the Holocene. To sum up, the results reached reaffirm the existence of aselective practice of woody plant species to be used as raw material, and at the same time,the results reveal the existence of a sustained formatization over time and suggest theexistence of production sequences related to the development of wood technology amongPatagonian hunter-gatherer groups.