Abstract
The goal of this study is to report the progress regarding the procurement and circulation of obsidian by hunter-gatherer populations during the Late Holocene in the province of La Pampa, Argentina. A total of 25 samples were analyzed in two stages; in the first stage neutron activation analysis (INAA) was used, while X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was employed in the second stage. This work adds nine archaeological samples from new sites and one from the Lihué Calel obsidian source. The results allow us to take into account the sourcing of the obsidian which was found in archeological sites of four areas of study located in the south and east of the province.
 Both, the results generated in this new stage, and those previously obtained are integrated and discussed in relation to the information produced by other researchers from the region, which are consistent with the existing ones for La Pampa. They indicate that the obsidian recovered was procured from sources located in the Argentinian and Chilean Andes, as well as the pre-cordillera in the provinces of Neuquén and Mendoza. New data expands the spatial perspective of our interpretations to four new research areas: Curacó basin, Lihué Calel hills, Valles Transversales (Transversal Valleys) and Bajos sin Salida (Endorheic low areas).
Highlights
Since the 1980s, the Western Pampa archaeological team has systematically conducted fieldwork and research in the south-central and eastern sectors of the province of La Pampa (Argentina)
We identified obsidian from the subsource Arroyo Paramillos and Maule 1-Laguna Negra (Andean highlands of Argentina and Chile)
The results are based on two key elements: Rb and Sr, expressed in parts per million; 21 of the 25 items found in the ellipses of dispersion of 95% of six known sources, and the other four (LPEC01 and 04, LPTM10 and 11) are at a distance from all of them
Summary
Since the 1980s, the Western Pampa archaeological team has systematically conducted fieldwork and research in the south-central and eastern sectors of the province of La Pampa (Argentina). Different disciplines and research themes have contributed to the understanding of the initial settlement of the region, including livelihoods, settlement patterns, population dynamics, social interaction, strategies of sourcing, and exchange and circulation of goods. Some of these issues can be addressed through different lines of evidence. The spatial distribution of lithic raw materials is one of the subjects used to study mobility, interaction and exchange between different social groups (Jones et al 2003; Meltzer 1989). Each obsidian source has a particular geochemistry that allows the identification of recovered products (cultural and natural) to be traced to their original source(s) (Glascock et al 1998; Glascock & Neff 2003; Hughes 1998; Renfrew 1977; Shackley 2009)
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