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The aim of this paper is to present the first record of engraved stone plaquettes recovered at the Laguna Azul site (LA-P3) located in the Somuncurá plateau (Río Negro, Argentina). The stone plaquettes record is wide and varied in Argentina and especially in the North Patagonia region; however, it mostly consists of surface finds. The four plaquettes from LA-P3 are associated with Late Holocene dates (c.1906–1756 years BP) and in this paper the authors describe their designs and motifs, as complementary studies using different microscopy techniques. LA-P3's plaquettes displayed red residues which were analysed by SEM-EDX and allowed identification of iron and titanium on their surfaces. This study contributes to the stone plaquette register of North Patagonia, and provides novel information related to their production techniques (mostly incision) and their motifs identified (non-figurative). The low frequency of similar motifs between the sets analysed allows us to propose a certain regionalization of their production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper discusses provisioning strategies of lithic raw materials at Maripe Cave site (province of Santa Cruz, Argentina). The archaeological sequence represents different moments of human occupation at the cave and in the study area, which show different lithic technologies. The morpho-typological analysis of the lithic cores recovered contributes to our knowledge about the strategies related to procurement and provisioning of the lithic raw materials used for artifacts production. We identified different raw materials from the analyses of lithic cores and other artifacts from the site. This allowed analyzing trends in selection and provisioning processes and interpreting the mobility strategies of the groups that inhabited the Deseado Massif since the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. Trends suggest that, during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition and early Holocene, abandoned cores from Maripe Cave mainly indicate people provisioning strategies. During middle Holocene, the cores shows blades extractions and raw material use from long distance, discarded with remaining potential utility. Finally, at late Holocene the cores were mainly prepared for blade extractions. Our results do not fully agree with Kuhn's proposal, probably due to both the theoretical polarization between the provisioning strategies and the palimpsest effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]