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Assessing the integrity and resolution of archaeological sites in sandy environments is a key issue for understanding site formation processes in hunter-gatherer's contexts. A case study from the lower course of the Colorado River, at the eastern Pampa-Patagonian transition (Argentina) is presented here. The studied area is characterized by a sand dune relief that is superimposed upon ancient fluvial and marine environments. The sites date to between c. 2000 and 250 14C yr BP (late Holocene) and they are mostly located in eolian contexts. The objective of this paper is to understand environmental dynamics and the site formation processes that operated in archaeological sites of the late Holocene through the integration of geoarchaeological and taphonomic information. The obtained results allowed the identification of site formation processes related to the different environmental settings (coast, ancient delta and inland). However, general patterns that relate some taphonomic effects as root action and weathering with landscape processes such as pedogenesis at an areal scale were also recognized. Despite the varied and highly dynamic environmental conditions of this arid-semiarid area, archaeological contexts with good degrees of resolution and integrity were recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic analysis of the shellfish assemblages recovered from Heshkaia 35, an archaeological site located in the southern tip of South America. Possible arguments concerning to environmental variations and resource depression are considered in an attempt to explain taxa composition and shell size. Results are also discussed in light of expectations based on optimal foraging models and taking into account other factors beyond biological parameters. Shellfishing activities were focused on small mussels, with statistical significant changes in mean shell size along the archaeological sequence of the site. Current knowledge about past variations in sea surface temperature does not seem to explain changes in shell size. Gathering of small mussels appears to be the corollary of resource depression at a local scale. This interpretation reinforces arguments that foraging decisions would have derived from territorial packing on the southeastern coast of Tierra del Fuego during the Late Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses provisioning strategies of lithic raw materials at Maripe Cave site (province of Santa Cruz, Argentina). The archaeological sequence represents different moments of human occupation at the cave and in the study area, which show different lithic technologies. The morpho-typological analysis of the lithic cores recovered contributes to our knowledge about the strategies related to procurement and provisioning of the lithic raw materials used for artifacts production. We identified different raw materials from the analyses of lithic cores and other artifacts from the site. This allowed analyzing trends in selection and provisioning processes and interpreting the mobility strategies of the groups that inhabited the Deseado Massif since the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. Trends suggest that, during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition and early Holocene, abandoned cores from Maripe Cave mainly indicate people provisioning strategies. During middle Holocene, the cores shows blades extractions and raw material use from long distance, discarded with remaining potential utility. Finally, at late Holocene the cores were mainly prepared for blade extractions. Our results do not fully agree with Kuhn's proposal, probably due to both the theoretical polarization between the provisioning strategies and the palimpsest effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to begin to understand human mobility through rock transport at different times in two areas with different environmental characteristics: the Southern Deseado Massif and the basaltic canyons north of the Santa Cruz River. We focus on obsidian, which has a clear geochemical signature and an uneven distribution. Additionally, we use macroscopic information on siliceous rocks, which at present have only been identified in northern areas, although they may also be recovered randomly and in low frequencies in southern ones. During the initial peopling of the Southern Deseado Massif (ca. 10,800 BP), inhabitants were transporting black obsidian as well as translucent chalcedony, probably as part of the individual gear. During the Late Holocene, the number of obsidian artifacts decreased in the Southern Deseado Massif, related to a better knowledge of the high-quality local lithic resources and/or to the existence of higher population densities. Obsidian artifacts are more abundant in the northern Santa Cruz River basin than in the southern Deseado Massif, suggesting the existence of a relationship with areas located to the northwest, close to the obsidian source, as other lines of evidence suggest. In addition, the presence in the basaltic canyons of artifacts made from high-quality siliceous rocks, more abundant and predictable in northern areas, could also be the result of human movements following a north-south direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, results of archaeological studies conducted in the central San Jorge gulf sector (north coast of Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina) are presented. A distributional approach was employed, and a systematic surface sampling in several landscape units were performed, registering all lithic artifacts and other variables that could influence the archaeological visibility. The landscape units identified in this sector were: high plateau, plateau flank, cañadón León, temporary lagoons, and coast. The artifactual assemblage recovered is presented, analyzed and discussed in relation to several archaeological expectations derived from the resource availability of the different landscape units. Results are discussed in relation to ways in which these landscape units could have been used by hunter–gatherer populations that inhabited this sector during Late Holocene, considering the differential availability of resources of importance to Patagonian human groups. In this sense, the archaeological expectations were contrasted, with higher densities near the coast and lower densities on inland landscape units. Among the first, the availability of alimentary resources (mainly shellfish, fish and pinniped) would have produced longer residential settlement. Among inland landscape units, some differences were observed, which were related to variation in resources availability, such as fresh water sources and lithic raw materials. In this latter, more variability than anticipated according to the archaeological expectations was detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes and discusses the main results achieved over three decades of research on paleodemographic aspects of Late Holocene hunter-gatherers in Northwestern Santa Cruz (Argentina). Research has been guided by a model of regional settlement that proposes that, as a result of the progressive aridization process recorded in Patagonia during the Late Holocene, human groups would have reduced their residential mobility and concentrated their settlements in low altitude basins with water availability, such as Lake Cardiel and Lake Salitroso. Paleodemographic questions derived from the model relate to population regional continuity and dynamics and were tested using several lines of research at regional and local scales. The assessment of the chronological information and temporal trends of the archaeological record at the regional level allowed for a coarse grain paleodemographic approach, and acted as a mean to support hypotheses related to changes in mobility and land use strategies. Building on this, several lines of bioarchaeological evidence were used to address paleodemographic aspects of the model, including temporal, distributional, and compositional studies of the mortuary record, isotopic, morphometric and DNA analyses and the sex and age structure of the skeletal samples recovered in Lake Salitroso basin. Results point to a biological and cultural population continuity in the region during the Late Holocene. Also, a reduction in residential mobility would have favored a slight population growth of Lake Salitroso populations during the last millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]