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Storage of artifacts is a common behavior among hunter-gatherers. Archaeologically, caches have been identified in different places and time periods. In this paper, we focus on the discussion of the role of caches recovered along the southern boundary of the Deseado Massif, Argentine Patagonia. Two caches, attributed to the colonization of this environment have been identified. Cache information is integrated into the known archaeological record of this space and spaces nearby and compared with data on raw material availability. In order to evaluate the location of the caches and understand human strategies of landscape utilization during this time period, we use GIS approaches along with available paleoenvironmental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithic resource management is one of the most important variables for the analysis of technological organization in hunter-gatherer societies. As essential resources for the manufacturing of tools that are themselves involved in processing and consumption of other types of resources, lithic raw materials constitute the starting point of all production processes. Although well studied in different environments, lithic resource management is difficult to analyze in mountain contexts, especially due to problems of site formation and archaeological visibility. In this paper, we present the research strategies adopted in order to study lithic resource management in mountains and piedmont areas in the Andean sector of Tierra del Fuego. We carried out a program of systematic surveys in different landscapes according to the methodology of distributional analysis and considering two different perspectives: location and characterization of raw material sources, and evaluation of land occupation by hunter-gatherer societies. Lithic materials were studied following a techno-functional perspective that includes the interrelated study of technology (raw materials and manufacturing techniques) and use wear (microscopic analysis). Then, results were confronted with those of excavated sites, which are located in different landscapes and landscape units and have different functionalities, such as campsites, ceremonial sites, etc. The results obtained confirm that local materials from secondary sources were the most used, although there are also some allochtonous good quality rocks, coming from sources located at different distances. This research let us adjust field methods for surveys in wooded mountain environments, as well as discuss some more general aspects regarding the exploitation of lithic resources in mountain regions. These landscapes may seem, at a first glance, as ideal provision places for hunter-gatherers because of abundance of lithic materials. However, these are not always available in terms of visibility and accessibility; on the other hand, not all rocks can be used for the manufacture of all types of tools. We can then propose that hunter-gatherer societies that highly depend on lithic resources seek to exploit outcrops where visibility and accessibility are high, but that also search for a variety of raw materials with different characteristics that allow manufacturing of different artifacts. From these data, it is possible to discuss mobility, seasonality and interaction of hunter-gatherer groups. [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]