Exploring morphometric variations in Fishtail projectile points from Uruguay, Pampa and Patagonia

CAROLA CASTIÑEIRA, JUDITH CHARLIN, MARCELO CARDILLO, JORGE BAEZA

Current Research in the Pleistocene

Center for the Study of the First Americans.

Lugar: Michigan. EEUU; Año: 2012 vol. x p. 57 - 61

8755-898X

The Fishtail points or Fell I type (FTPP) are usually associated with the early huntergatherer populations who inhabited South America in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. These artifacts were defined by convex blade, rounded shoulders, slightly concave stem sides,concave base and sometimes fluting in one or both faces (Bird 1969).The major number of these points were collected from the Pampas region of Argentina, Uruguay and Patagonian region(Argentina and Chile).In order to explore quantitatively the FTPP changes in shape and size in mentioned areas,we have implemented geometric morphometric analysis. Geometric morphometrics allow us to describe size and shape changes of the specimens based on cartesian coordinates in two or three dimensions, using reference points called landmarks and semi-landmarks (Bookstein 1982,1996/97). This methodology generates a quantitative and continuous description of the artifacts shape which can be used to characterize and compare sets of artifacts from their outlines. Thesestudies were applied to FTPP from Uruguay and showed the existence of relations between theshape, size and life history of artifacts independently of the procedence of the samples and type of lithic raw material used (Castiñeira et al. 2010). In this study, we evaluate in a comparativemanner, the FTPP morphometric variations in a supra-regional scale. For this purpose we includeto the Uruguayan sample, published images of specimens of Argentinean Pampa (Bayón and Flegenheimer 2003, Flegenheimer 2009, Flegenheimer et al. 2010, Nami 2007) and southern Patagonia (Amorosi et al. 2007; Bahamondes and Jackson 2003; Bird 1969, 1988; Nami 1985-86,1987, 2003), summarizing a total of 48 FTPP.