Technological and functional analysis of pleistocenics components from La Maria locality, province of Santa Cruz

Abstract

Technological studies related to late-Pleistocene hunter-gatherers from the Central Plateau of Santa Cruz, Argentina, have historically tended to describe morphologically and typologically samples of lithic artifacts from individual sites (Cardich and Flegenheimer 1978; Cardich et al. 1987; Miotti 1996). Very few comparative studies have been done, especially in relation to early technologies. Here we present a comparative analysis of samples of lithic artifacts from two different early cultural components from the Patagonia Central Plateau. We study the kinds of tasks tools were made for and analyze differences and similarities between both sites, taking into consideration the information provided by analyzing stone-tool production and use strategies. The materials we analyzed come from unit 4 (U4) of the Casa del Minero 1 site (CDM1) and from units 8, 9 and 10 (U8/10) of the Cueva Túnel site (CT). Both are multicomponent sites located in caves and dated to ca. 10,600 calybp.