Raw Material Consumption Strategies in Holocenic Hunter-Fisher-Gatherer Groups from the South-Eastern Coast of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina): A Use-Wear Perspective.

Abstract

Hunter-fisher-gatherer societies who inhabited the south-eastern Atlantic Coast of IslaGrande de Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) exploited a wide range of local raw-materialsthat includes, among others, metamorphic, fine-grained rocks and slates that exhibitdifferent physical properties.The aim of this work is to discuss raw materials procurement and production strategiesin relation to tool usage. For that purpose, we studied eight archaeological sitesretrieved in the Late Holocene. We will focus on the economic practices that involvelithic raw materials to understand technological organisation based on use-wear methodand morpho-technical analysis.The results show that these societies developed a technological strategy that implied theselection of rocks with specific properties for performing different and singularactivities. Fine grained rocks were mainly exploited for manufacturing small retouchedtools used for scraping hides whereas metamorphic rhyolites and slates were mostlyprocured to produce long retouched blanks for sawing hard materials.