Dunes, hills, waterholes, and saltpeter beds: Attractors for human populations in western Pampa, Argentina

Abstract

Desert environments have generally been considered unsuitable places for the development of human communities. However, archaeological research shows that they have been intensively populated and traveled landscapes. These environments share common characteristics (scarcity of surface water, desert vegetation, high evapotranspiration, water imbalance, among others). But archaeological investigations account for the variability of both, desert settings and social trajectories of their populations. In Western Pampa (southwest of La Pampa province, Argentina), the distribution and availability of fresh water is the main variable for spatial organization of prehispanic populations. Also the crossroads of Indian trails or rastrilladas, articulated and connected places that mitigated its hostility, such as dune fields, springs, hill ranges, natural pools, temporary or permanent ponds. It is around these reservoirs that prehispanic human activities are recorded. Archaeological sites are sometimes ephemeral, in other of recurrent use. Considering the significant environmental dynamics of this landscape, it is possible to discuss the differential organizational patterns recorded alongside this arid region.