Was the Central Pampean Dunefields of Argentina Occupied during the Late Pleistocene? A Reappraisal of the Evidence

Abstract

In this paper, we integrate different lines of archaeological evidence to generate a model of early human peopling for the Central Pampean Dunefields (an aeolian system of central Argentina), based on several sites found in the area. The first traces of human occupations date back to ∼10,000 calendar years ago, and they correspond to burials. During the middle Holocene, the archaeological signal increases and subsistence included a wide variety of faunal resources. The archaeological evidence is representative of hunter-gatherer adaptations to semi-arid landscapes, which involved high residential mobility, broad-spectrum foraging, and an elevated degree of technological flexibility. We also discuss the lack of occupations in the Central Pampean Dunefields during the late Pleistocene, when neighboring areas were already inhabited.