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This paper presents the paleogeographic reconstructions of flooded areas of the Tar - San Martín lacustrine system during the late Pleistocene - Holocene. The dimensions of lacustrine and glaciolacustrine levels of this basin are higher than the current levels of the lakes. The organic matter of lake levels recorded on stratigraphic profiles was described, sampled and dated using AMS, while other paleobathymetric indicators were also identified (height of the fan-delta apex and paleo-coast levels). Deriving out of the reconstruction of flooded areas it was established that the lake system was formed before 28 ka ago and would have reached its maximum expansion around 12 ka ago. The first hunter-gatherer occupation of the basin (11 ka) corresponds to the period of initial contraction of the lake system and the composition of the current configuration of the coastlines. This scenario would have allowed the exploration of western areas and the gradual incorporation of the forest to the action range of hunter-gatherer populations. Similarly, the levels of lakes Tar and San Martín would not have hindered the movement of human populations through the steppe throughout the Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we focus on the regional/local scale of the archaeological record of the Central-West area of Chubut (Argentinean Patagonia) through the characterization of its regional taphonomy, considered from an archaeological perspective. We focus our research in the comparison of three different landscape situations: 1) a slope leading to highlands, 2) an azonal vegetal community (wetland or mallín ), and 3) a salt lake. Our main goal is to compare those situations, in order to determine the main taphonomic factors that regulate the archaeological material distribution in those locales. The ultimate goal is to address how past hunter–gatherers inhabited these landscapes. We depart from the assumption that distributions of artifacts are mainly explained by the action of post-depositional processes. To evaluate this assumption first we postulate a series of hypothesis and expectations for each locale, considering the main post-depositional agents present in them, and we evaluated if the patterns of material distributions can be explained by one or many of those processes. Only if explanation cannot be achieved by them, we recurred to human depositional activities. As a result we managed to explain most of the archaeological distributions in terms of post-depositional processes. Only in two cases we propose that human deposition occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]