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Desert environments have generally been considered unsuitable places for the development of human communities. However, archaeological research shows that they have been intensively populated and traveled landscapes. These environments share common characteristics (scarcity of surface water, desert vegetation, high evapotranspiration, water imbalance, among others). But archaeological investigations account for the variability of both, desert settings and social trajectories of their populations. In Western Pampa (southwest of La Pampa province, Argentina), the distribution and availability of fresh water is the main variable for spatial organization of prehispanic populations. Also the crossroads of Indian trails or rastrilladas, articulated and connected places that mitigated its hostility, such as dune fields, springs, hill ranges, natural pools, temporary or permanent ponds. It is around these reservoirs that prehispanic human activities are recorded. Archaeological sites are sometimes ephemeral, in other of recurrent use. Considering the significant environmental dynamics of this landscape, it is possible to discuss the differential organizational patterns recorded alongside this arid region. Fil: Beron, Monica Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

The ethnohistorical and archaeological bibliography on mortuary practices of the indigenous societies of Pampa and Patagonia refers extensively to the use of the envelope of bodies, for different purposes. One has been to facilitate the transport of the deceased until their final place of burial. This practice has been registered on the Chenque I site, a hunters- and-gatherers cemetery located in the Parque Nacional Lihue Calel, La Pampa, Argentina, used during the last part of late Holocene. It was applied both for primary as to secondary burials, being single and multiple. Some burials surrounded by a whitish doughy substance, where shell beads are imbricated, were recovered during the excavations carried out in various areas of the site. The purpose of this paper is to communicate the results of the verification methods applied to the aforementioned substance to corroborate that it is the product of the taphonomic degradation of leather. These methods allowed an approach to the identification of the species employed, possibly Rheidae. Secondly, the state of preservation of enveloped burials was compared with others without it, in order to inquire whether this mortuary practice had an effective role in protecting the human remains.

This paper introduces the results of the study of the silicifications from Meseta del Fresco (Fresco Formation), a vast source of chert in La Pampa province (Argentina), that was widely used by hunter-gatherer groups from the Pampas as a source of raw material. Petrographic analysis of different thin sections, both from geological samples from different parts of the unit, as well as from cultural material associated with the outcrops, was performed. The objective that guided these studies was to develop a detailed description of the type of siliceous replacement upon the prior rock (limestone) and from the filling of its cavities.The results obtained let us inquire about the nature and origin of silicification, about the diversity depending on the location in the profile of the carbonate rock replaced during the diagenetic process, and about the extent to which this process affected the Fresco Formation at various points sampled. From an archaeological perspective, the analysis constitutes an advance in the study of lithic resources procurement behaviors developed by hunter-gatherer societies in the past because: 1) a database about the characteristics and variations of the silicification present in the outcrop was generated, as a tool to compare the archaeological samples from different sites, 2) different degrees of rock silicification that could favor its aptitude for knapping, were tested. This could have motivated preferential selection for making lithic artifacts. The archaeological information recorded in different sites on the eastern and western slopes of Meseta del Fresco is quantified in order to show the differential use of both areas. Fil: Carrera Aizpitarte, Manuel Pedro. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Museo Etnográfico "Juan B. Ambrosetti"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina Fil: Beron, Monica Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil. Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Paleontológicas del Cuaternario Pampeano. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Paleontológicas del Cuaternario Pampeano; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Museo Etnográfico "Juan B. Ambrosetti"; Argentina Fil: Blasi, Adriana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Mineralogía y Petrología; Argentina

The radiocarbon chronology of the sites and cultural sequences is, at the regional level, a benchmark for evaluating different types of processes: cultural, demographic, taphonomic, environmental. Although it is assumed that chronological signal is closely related to the density and intensity of the processes of settlement, colonization, occupation and use of spaces and landscapes, this signal is mediated by many complex factors affecting its representation. In the case of the province of La Pampa (Argentina), which covers the western part of the Pampean region, where research data discussed in this paper are developed, several of these factors should act or be present. However, in the present state of research in the region it is possible to assess and discuss the significance of the radiocarbon signal, not only intra - regionally but in correlation with neighboring areas. In this paper a set of published radiocarbon dates (n=64) is presented, that constitute all available Western Pampa published 14C dates. While still scarce and random, these dates establish that the timescale in which colonization events and use of regional space happened, archaeologically evaluated, covers a span comprised between mid-Early Holocene and final Late Holocene. The results will be discussed in comparative terms, into two scales: the intra and inter-regional and considering different type of archaeological sites. Fil: Beron, Monica Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina