Lithic Procurement, Mobility, and Social Interaction in Early Hunter-Gatherer Societies (⁓12,000 Cal. Years BP) in the Humid Pampas Sub-region, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

The Pampas Region (Argentina) was inhabited by hunter-gatherer societies since ⁓14,000 cal. years BP, and around 32 archaeological sites have been identified associated with the early peopling of this area. Particularly, the archaeological records of 27 sites show evidence of human past activities, and the lithic artifacts are the most frequent. More than 15 types of rocks from different sectors of the humid Pampas Region have been identified and the use of these raw materials involved different procurement strategies. Using different spatial analysis scales, this chapter discusses the use of lithic resources, mobility ranges, procurement strategies, and social interaction patterns developed by early hunter-gatherer groups that occupied especially the Humid Pampas sub-region. Results show a direct procurement strategy (by special purpose and/or embedded strategies) for local resources located in the vicinity of the sites as well as at greater distances (⁓110 km) like orthoquartzite from the Sierras Bayas Groups (SBGOs) are a fine grain quartz rocks that show a restricted spatial availability but a wide regional distribution in their use. In addition, a possible indirect procurement strategy for resources located ⁓300 to 400 km from the sites was also recognized. Other rocks located at ⁓500 km from the study area may have entered the Pampas region with the first waves of the human population.