Bone technology in the Pampas of Argentina: The case of Laguna de los Pampas site (Lincoln county, province of Buenos Aires)

Abstract

Laguna de los Pampas is an archaeological locality situated in the West area of the Humid Pampas (Buenos Aires province), in an environment without local lithic raw materials. At least two dense concentrations of archaeological remains in surface and one in-stratigraphic position have been identified in Laguna de los Pampas. In this presentation we integrate the results of the animal bone remains with technological evidences (N=47) from the three sectors. Most of them correspond to guanaco and a few to Greater rhea or undetermined species. A bone debitage from surface was dated to 5,684±61 years C14 BP and specimens from the excavation are associated with a date of 7,024 ± 45 years C14 AP, meaning that this technology was developed at least during the Middle Holocene. Previous results indicate that tibia and metapodial were favored as cores for the production of shaft splinters, probably because of their straight shape. However, new analyses allowed identifying technological evidences on radius-ulna and femur. Some of them present sawing or grooving, but most of these specimens have helical fractures, indicating that the tools were crafted on random fractured bones. In conclusion, different techniques were used to obtain blanks according to the bone element type.