The Southern Deseado Massif (Patagonia, Argentina): Spatial Knowledge and Changes in Its Use from the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition to the Late Holocene.

NORA V. FRANCO; GEORGE A. BROOK; AGUSTÍN ACEVEDO; DÁNAE FIORE; MARÍA VIRGINIA MANCINI

Vancouver

Encuentro; Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting; 2017

Society for American Archaeology

The semiarid Southern Deseado Massif (SDM) is highly variable in geology, geomorphology and the spatial and temporal availability of water. To the south it transitions into open lowlands and basaltic plateaus dissected by canyons that extend to the Chico River. The La Gruta 1 rockshelter in the extreme south of the SDM has provided the oldest evidence of human logistic occupation in the area, with ages between ca. 12,800 and 12,000 cal yr BP, when conditions were wetter than today. Human use and knowledge of the area?s lithic resources increased between ca. 10,700 and 7700 cal yr BP, although rock art is scanty and isolated. Following a dry period, there was an increase in human presence from ca. 5550 cal yr BP, a change in lithic technology, and more frequent rock art, including adult and child hand motifs, in places with better water availability. Hunting blinds in areas devoid of outcrops and complex geometric rock art motifs are attributed to the last 2,000 years, being the only gap in occupation during the Late Holocene probably related to the effect of the Medieval Climatic Anomaly