Miraflores rocks in Tierra del Fuego (southernmost South America): Hunter-gatherer procurement, optimal pathway analysis and social interaction

Abstract

Using GIS applications to simulate optimal human movements from archaeological sites to the lithic source known as Miraflores Valley (Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, Southernmost South America), this paper discusses potential pathways for the spatial distribution of artifacts made of the two distinctive Miraflores raw materials (tuff and silicified tuff). In addition, we discuss possible models of exploitation and transport for Miraflores rocks through a distributional analysis on the depositional environment of the findings. Archaeological collections aswell as petrographic and geochemical studies showa large-scale archaeological distribution of Miraflores rocks; however they are absent from most Fuegian lithic assemblages and scarce in those wherein they appear.We propose and discuss the provisioning strategies applied in their procurement. Potential pathways through the islandscape are correlated with a statistical analysis based on the location of sites with the presence or absence of Miraflores raw materials. Spatial analyses provide a robust framework to discussMiraflores distribution and circulation, humanmobility aswell as the social interactionamong terrestrial hunter-gatherers and maritime populations of southernmost South America.Our results indicate that Miraflores rocks procurement varied across Fuegian geography.While independent circuits andmultiple accesses to the source may have existed in the north of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, the distribution of these rocks southwards may have had a higher dependence on a few optimal routes connected to northern archaeological localities of San Sebastián and Inútil Bays. Therefore, southern populations may have drawn heavily on social interaction for the supply of Miraflores raw materials. Nevertheless, Least Cost Path model suggests that the participation of canoe people was not required to explain the current distribution of Miraflores materials throughout the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego.