Understanding continuity and quarries exploitation: lithic production at Rio Las Salinas 2, Tucumán, Argentina

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to present and discuss stone tool production through the analysis of a lithic assemblage recovered at Rio Las Salinas 2 (RLS2), an open-air archaeological locality in the semi-arid western piedmont of Cumbres Calchaquies, Northwestern Argentina. From a methodological standpoint, the lithic material was analyzed as a whole, factoring in the evaluation of lithic raw material use, variability, and toolkit composition. Typological analysis followed the guidelines put forward by Aschero (1975; 1983) and Aschero and Hocsman (2004). The lithic assemblage breaks up into subassemblages based on raw material used and 4 tool classes (i.e. cores; tools; artifacts with tips, edges and surfaces with added traces; and debitage), after which the set of specimens is analyzed based on specific variables for each typological class. Among the results, the selection of locally available raw material (andesite) for tool production is prevalent. Amongst uniface edges, notched flakes, denticulates, choppers, side-scrapers and natural working edges are prevalent. Production of these edges may have been achieved without involving significant costs. The total assemblage shows a low rate of maintenance and discarding that is probably due to being at the sources, meaning high availability of raw materials in various forms.