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This paper shows the preliminary results of the zooarchaeological analysis of Dupuy Rockshelter (La Toma, San Luis Province, Argentina). This rock shelter has evidence of Late Holocene (Last Millennium) human occupation dating from 340 ± 40 BP. Some species, including Lama guanicoe and Ozotoceros bezoarticus , were exploited and their bones were used as raw material to make instruments. The zooarchaeological analysis is complemented by geological and phytoarchaological evidence which indicates a humid environment during the Holocene and a mixed diet that included vegetables. [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]

Archaeologists make inferences about past human behaviour based on patterned material residues in various depositional contexts, including existing landsurfaces. These deposits are generated by processes that may obscure patterns at some observational scales while highlighting others, and interpretive differences can arise from a lack of explicit models of deposit formation. Here, an exploratory agent-based model based on the concept of the palimpsest is used to examine the effects of episodic sediment transport on the visibility and preservation of surface archaeological deposits in a fluvial context. Outcomes from the model indicate that the compound influences of preservation and visibility are capable of transforming a static radiocarbon record into one of increasing intensity towards the present, while simultaneously displaying periodic chronological gaps – features that have been used in our Australian study area to argue for demographic change driven by social or environmental factors. To differentiate between interpretations, expectations derived from the model are assessed against a second proxy from the same study area: Optically Stimulated Luminescence dates from hearth stones in surface contexts. Results indicate that patterns in the chronometric proxies from the study area are more consistent with episodic geomorphic change than explanations invoking changes in the local organization of human activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]