Land-use and ceramics in the Andean highlands of Patagonia, Argentina

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the use of ceramics of small-scale societies during the late Holocene in northern Patagonia. The technological investment model predicts that use-time and utility will determine the investment spent in ceramics. We explore how ceramics were used in short-term camps and aggregation sites during summer at high elevations, and residential camps during winter at lower elevations. To test the investment in ceramics we use fourtechnological variables: temper size, average thickness, surface treatment and firing. Our results indicate that hunter-gatherers expected a short-term use in summer locations and therefore made a low investment in ceramics.

V prispevku proučujemo uporabo lončenine v manjših skupnostih v poznem holocenu v severni Patagoniji. Modeli tehnološke investicije predvidevajo, da so uporaba in uporabnost določala način nabave in izdelavo keramičnih posod. V prispevku raziskujemo, kako so keramične posode uporabljali v kratkotrajnih poletnih taborih in zbirališčih na visokih nadmorskih višinah ter v zimskih ribarih taborih na nižjih nadmorskih višinah. Za testiranje modela uporabimo tri tehnološke spremenljivke: velikost posod, pesek, površino obdelave, dolžino žganja. Rezultati kažejo, da so lovci in nabiralci načrtovali uporabo keramičnih posod na poletnih lokacijah, zato je bila naložba v takšno posodje majhna.