Étude technologique des collections lithiques de Nord-Patagonie Orientale (Argentine) pendant l’Holocène récent

Abstract

The lower Colorado River is considered the geographical boundary between the Argentinean regions of Pampa and Patagonia. The aim of this study is to define the technological patterns of hunter-gatherer groups who inhabited the studied area during the Late Holocene (3000–250 BP). In order to do so, the nature and presentation of raw materials exploited is stated, and the different methods of débitage and economic analysis of the lithic assemblages are identified, within the theoretical and methodological approach of chaîne opératoire. The results allow concluding that during the Late Holocene the basis of technological knowledge is kept constant. The technological changes experienced in behavior toward the final Late Holocene (1000–250 years BP) are due to the choice among methods, materials, and types of instruments known and available, of those with proven efficacy, whose production was intensified in the last 1000 years BP. The behavioral changes linked to lithic technological system are accompanied by – or produced as a result of – reorganization of the social system as a whole.