Lithic Artifacts and the Information about Human Utilization of Large Areas. En P. Escola y S. Hocsman

FRANCO, NORA VIVIANA

Artefactos Líticos, Movilidad y Funcionalidad de Sitios: Problemas y Perspectiva

BAR, South American Archaeology Series

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2014; p. 116 - 127

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the utility of lithic information in order to evaluate the extent of the area usually utilized by a human group. Theoretical expectations on the characteristics of artifacts are derived for situations of direct versus indirect acquisition of raw material, taking into account principles of economy of raw materials. The case of the south of Lago Argentino is analyzed. For different time periods, a direct acquisition can be defended for the cases of chalcedony with impurities and grey-green banded obsidian, suggesting that the area located between the sources and the places of recovery of the artifacts was habitually used by humans living in the area. An indirect acquisition can be defended in the case of green obsidian,which source was probably located outside of the area regularly exploited by human groups living at Lago Argentino.