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This paper presents the results of a Polish-American research project lasting ten years comparing the widely separated hunting gathering societies that experienced similar changing environments in the Old and New World during the final Pleistocene and the early Holocene times. The study intended to compare the technological and economic histories of this societies living in the same time on the North European plain and the North Central United States. Over the period of time in question, they experienced the same changes of climate and environment. The results of the project permit us to say that the hunter gatherers adaptation process was often only slightly, and over time hardly at all dependent on environmental changes.

This paper analyses the petroglyphs from Curapil site, located on the northern piedmont of the Somuncurá plateau. The objective is to characterize motifs and their contexts, and to compare them with the rock art from the plateau in order to evaluate mobility paths and the occupational redundancy of sectors with different water availability. Results point towards weak links with sites from the eastern portion of Somuncurá plateau. Future studies of recently detected sites on the western portion may determine their relationships with Curapil. Although all the analysed contexts bear signs of reoccupation, these are stronger in Somuncurá, where water sources are more punctually distributed than in the piedmont. Despite these intensity differences, Curapil may be considered as a place that persisted until present times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hunter-gatherer rock art of South Africa is ubiquitous and has various themes including people, animals, therianthropes, and objects, such as musical instruments. Musical instruments or sound-producing instruments identified in South African rock art depictions so far include musical bows, flutes, rattles, and bullroarers. This article focuses on the possible depiction of a person playing a drum, from the farm Grootvlei 158 in the Cathcart district, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The depiction is not a new discovery, but little is known about the image. This article draws on a literature review and the SARADA repository, as well as other known drum depictions in rock art globally to consider whether this is a depiction of a drum. Ethnographic and historical sources have been consulted on the use of drums by southern African hunter-gatherers which suggest that drums were played for musical purposes, featured during rituals, and were used as a communication medium to relay messages or during ritual ceremonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knowledge about rocks availability in areas of archaeological investigations is fundamental in order to approach the lithic technology studies and human behaviors associated to its production. The aim of this paper is to characterize the structure of the basis of lithic resources of the area and to contrast previous observations. Here we present the first results of the prospections carried out in an inactive littoral cordon at the archaeological locality of Punta Entrada (Santa Cruz river mouth, Santa Cruz). Also petrographic analysis of samples recovered there are exposed. Patagonian Shingle Formation is the only one with outcrops in the area. This Formation would have functioned as a secondary source of a wide variety of lithologies of different qualities, which are presented in different sizes and morphologies thus offering a wide range of possibilities to the knappers.

The Lake Cardiel basin (Central-West Santa Cruz) has been object of archaeological research seeking to discuss the relationships between climatic/environmental and social change during the Holocene. These researches cha-racterized the basin as a region of late settlement in relation to neighboring spaces. In this basin a drying process during the Holocene generated a reorganization of local populations. This paper approaches the problem from a particular site, Alero Los Guanacos 1, to discuss the way in which these processes are presented at a smaller scale. The site presents occupations during the mid and late Holocene. The technology recovered there is analyzed, and taking this into account, variations in the site use over time are discussed. Some of these variations differ from the general overview known for the basin. It is concluded that these differences are the result of the differential role of the different spaces in the settlement process.

This article presents the research conducted in Las Lágrimas lake (SW Santa Fe), regarding the fieldwork carried out in November 2018. Human skeletal remains were found in the SW of the lagoon beach. The bioarchaeological record contains a minimum number of four adult individuals. A late radiocarbon date was obtained from bone collagen of one of the eroded burials (1450 ± 50 años AP), within the pre-Hispanic occupations of the sector. The relative abundance of pottery and the vessels completeness, as well as the presence of groundstone tools, can be related to an intensive collection and storage of plant foods. The raw materials exploited for stone tool production are similar to other Central Pampean Dunefields sites, and presumably a similar source of supply was used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The copper-using cultures of North America's Archaic Period (10,000–3000 BP) have long been an archaeological enigma. For millennia, Middle and Late Archaic hunter-gatherers (8000–3000 BP) around the Upper Great Lakes region made utilitarian implements out of copper, only for these items to decline in prominence and frequency as populations grew and social complexity increased during the Archaic to Woodland Transition. From a cultural evolutionary perspective, the trajectory of North America's copper usage presents a conundrum, as it is generally assumed that "superior" tools, i.e., metals, will replace inferior ones, i.e., stone. For well over a century, scholars have pondered the reason for the demise of copper technology that was once a wide-spread phenomenon. To address this question, an extensive archaeological experimental program was conducted which compared replica copper tools (spear points, knife blades, and awls) to analogous ones made of stone or bone to assess whether relative functional efficiency contributed to the decline of utilitarian copper implements. Here, the results of this three-part research program are presented in concert with population dynamics and ecological change to paint a broader picture of the complex interrelationships between the social, ecological, and technological spheres of past human behaviors. The synthesis of these approaches reveals that functional explanations—derived from experimental archaeology placed in an evolutionary framework—can shed much light on the trajectory of metal use in the North American Great Lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista del Museo de Antropología is the property of Museo de Antropologia - IDACOR and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, we examine the strategies behind the acquisition and reduction of black obsidian found in rock shelters and shell middens from the north coast of the Santa Cruz Province, in Argentine Patagonia. Geochemical analyses performed on black obsidian artifacts from this area posit the long-distance circulation of this raw material given its source at Pampa del Asador, located approximately 400 km to the west. In a previous article, we suggested that evidence for the initial knapping of obsidian pebbles, added to the identification of artifacts with high cortex percentage, implied that obtaining pieces of said raw material would have been based on pebble morphologies. Here we expand on this proposal, contending that this was the case at least for Late Holocene occupational contexts. During the Middle Holocene an exceptionally low representation of very small-sized debris without cortical reserve was observed; cores and tools were not registered. Knapping activities related to intermediate technical steps in the framework of core reduction and blank production were evidenced, including small and very small flakes as well as bifacial preforms. We inferred that obsidian pieces probably entered into these Middle Holocene sites as part of personal toolkits, cores and bifacial artifacts without cortex, within the framework of exploratory incursions into the area. For the Late Holocene occupations, taking into consideration the presence of obsidian pebbles, of similar dimensions to those registered at the source itself, we suggest that their procurement would have occurred through various mechanisms, such as the establishment and strengthening of social relations within the context of mobility circuits that would have linked the coast to the interior, among other factors.

The knowledge about rocks availability in areas of archaeological investigations is fundamental in order to approach the lithic technology studies and human behaviors associated to its production. The aim of this paper is to characterize the structure of the basis of lithic resources of the area and to contrast previous observations. Here we present the first results of the prospections carried out in an inactive littoral cordon at the archaeological locality of Punta Entrada (Santa Cruz river mouth, Santa Cruz). Also petrographic analysis of samples recovered there are exposed. Patagonian Shingle Formation is the only one with outcrops in the area. This Formation would have functioned as a secondary source of a wide variety of lithologies of different qualities, which are presented in different sizes and morphologies thus offering a wide range of possibilities to the knappers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista del Museo de Antropología is the property of Museo de Antropologia - IDACOR and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Lake Cardiel basin (Central-West Santa Cruz) has been object of archaeological research seeking to discuss the relationships between climatic/environmental and social change during the Holocene. These researches characterized the basin as a region of late settlement in relation to neighboring spaces. In this basin a drying process during the Holocene generated a reorganization of local populations. This paper approaches the problem from a particular site, Alero Los Guanacos 1, to discuss the way in which these processes are presented at a smaller scale. The site presents occupations during the mid and late Holocene. The technology recovered there is analyzed, and taking this into account, variations in the site use over time are discussed. Some of these variations differ from the general overview known for the basin. It is concluded that these differences are the result of the differential role of the different spaces in the settlement process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Holocene, what is now the state of South Australia experienced a shift to a drier climate with more frequent droughts c. 4 ka. The 'intensification model' in Australian archaeology proposes that Aboriginal people adopted subsistence strategies that exploited resources with high processing costs, while the 'risk minimization' model posits that people adopted more flexible foraging strategies. The purpose of this study is to determine whether human groups in South Australia demonstrate evidence for intensification or risk minimisation in response to declining patch quality by examining bone properties of the upper limb in a Holocene skeletal sample from Roonka. Cross-sectional geometry of the humeri and radii was used to examine temporal trends of diaphyseal rigidity and bilateral asymmetry in both sexes. Women show a significant temporal increase in robusticity and rigidity of the upper limbs; men have similar measurements between time periods. Neither sex exhibits a difference in bilateral asymmetry of the humeri and radii over time. These results support risk minimisation at Roonka. In the late Holocene, it is possible that men hunted large game, while women had mixed foraging strategies that involved hunting small game, digging tubers, processing seeds, and collecting shellfish to mitigate high resource variance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a specific examination of the introduction of grain cultivation and the processes of development in the Japanese Archipelago. In fact, no definitive archaeological evidence has been found that Jomon hunter–gatherers cultivated grain in the Japanese Archipelago; the earliest potential evidence of grain is a stamp mark of rice on the surface of a final late-Jomon, in about 11th century BC, pottery found at the Itaya 3 site in Shimane Prefecture. Current evidence indicates that the first grain cultivation was started by Jomon people who adopted irrigated wet rice cultivation that had arrived from the Korean Peninsula to northern parts of Kyushu, and gradually spread eastward thereafter. This study specifically examines four regions, including northern Kyushu, Kinki, southern Kanto, and northern Tohoku, in order to investigate the processes of grain cultivation initiation and spread. First, the years during which wet rice cultivation started in each region are estimated based on carbon-14 dating of earthenware types used during that period. Secondly, the timing of the spread of wet rice cultivation has been estimated based on carbon-14 dating of earthenware. Subsequently, differences in the periods between the initiation and dissemination of wet rice cultivation were estimated. Results suggest that dissemination took place over approximately 250 years in northern Kyushu, where wet rice cultivation first started. The time required for adoption decreased gradually as the trend moved eastward. It was estimated to have taken approximately 150 years in Kinki and 20–30 years in southern Kanto, taking place at about the same time. A factor, significantly contributing to such differences in timing and development processes among regions, was likely the relationship between the first farmers who introduced wet rice farming and the indigenous hunter–gatherers who lived there.

Copyright of Revista del Museo de Antropología is the property of Museo de Antropologia - IDACOR and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Intersecciones en Antropología is the property of Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Intersecciones en Antropología is the property of Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Occupants of coastal and island eastern Africa-now known as the 'Swahili coast'-were involved in long-distance trade with the Indian Ocean world during the later first millennium CE. Such exchanges may be traced via the appearance of non-native animals in the archaeofaunal record; additionally, this record reveals daily culinary practises of the members of trading communities and can thus shed light on subsistence technologies and social organisation. Yet despite the potential contributions of faunal data to Swahili coast archaeology, few detailed zooarchaeological studies have been conducted. Here, we present an analysis of faunal remains from new excavations at two coastal Zanzibar trading locales: the small settlement of Fukuchani in the north-west and the larger town of Unguja Ukuu in the south-west. The occurrences of non-native fauna at these sites-Asian black rat ( Rattus rattus) and domestic chicken ( Gallus gallus), as well as domestic cat ( Felis catus)-are among the earliest in eastern Africa. The sites contrast with one another in their emphases on wild and domestic fauna: Fukuchani's inhabitants were economically and socially engaged with the wild terrestrial realm, evidenced not only through diet but also through the burial of a cache of wild bovid metatarsals. In contrast, the town of Unguja Ukuu had a domestic economy reliant on caprine herding, alongside more limited chicken keeping, although hunting or trapping of wild fauna also played an important role. Occupants of both sites were focused on a diversity of near-shore marine resources, with little or no evidence for the kind of venturing into deeper waters that would have required investment in new technologies. Comparisons with contemporaneous sites suggest that some of the patterns at Fukuchani and Unguja Ukuu are not replicated elsewhere. This diversity in early Swahili coast foodways is essential to discussions of the agents engaged in long-distance maritime trade. © 2017 The Authors International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Intersecciones en Antropología is the property of Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• Chinchorro textilization, on the onset of Andean textile production, was embedded in wider human-camelid interactions. • It reveals the key role played by coastal hunter-gatherers in processes usually seen from a high-Andean view. • The early fibre management shows the roots of textile intensification, often seen as critical threshold in human history. • Textile practices and their embodiment increased as the transformative ties between humans and camelids intensified. • These processes were developed by communities of practice who shared a concern for corporeality through textile clothing. Textilization processes envisioned as technological transformation of animal fibres and the incorporation of textiles into human bodies, is analyzed among Chinchorro hunter gatherers, along the hyperarid Pacific coast of the Atacama Desert throughout the Holocene (ca. 7800–3500 cal BP). The Chinchorro, as producers and consumers of South American camelid fibres and textiles, created a range of textilized mortuary corporealities. We studied bodies (Artificially Treated Bodies, Statuettes, Figurines), tools and textiles. Based on technological analysis of textiles dressing the bodies, we address the technological procedures employed in textile production. We defined: (a) textilization of Chinchorro bodies, (b) the entailed social relations and technological practices and, and (c) the temporal variability of camelid fibre textile production. These results are discussed within the broader context of early Andean textile fibre management and camelid domestication. From a worldwide perspective, we highlighted how Chinchorro textilization processes, as a microhistory, can be seen in the flow of human-nonhuman animal mutual interactions that gave rise to domestication and the later textile industry. We conclude that progressively ties between people and camelids intensified, by increasing the incorporation of fibres and textiles in the bodies, and the development of communities of practice which shared a concern for textile embodiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se presentan los resultados del análisis de un conjunto lítico recuperado en el sitio Alero Cuevas, Cuenca de Pastos Grandes, Puna de Salta, cuyo contexto arqueológico posee fechados correspondientes al Holoceno temprano. Finalmente, se discuten brevemente las tendencias observadas tomando en cuenta el marco de investigación regional y perspectivas de trabajo futuras.The results of the analysis of the lithic assemblage recovered from Alero Cuevas site, Pastos Grandes Basin, Puna de Salta, are presented. The site has an archaeological context dated to the early Holocene. The trends observed are briefly discussed in light of a regional research framework and perspectives for future work.

Como resultado de estudios de impacto ambiental sobre el registro arqueológico se suma nueva información sobre la unidad de paisaje Terrazas, cuenca media del río Coyle (provincia Santa Cruz), principalmente en el interfuvio río Coyle - río Santa Cruz. El análisis se centraliza sobre la distribución espacial del registro arqueológico en superficie, en especial materiales líticos relevados en las diferentes geoformas (terrazas, cañadones y cuencas endorreicas) que componen la unidad de paisaje. El estudio -cualitativo y cuantitativo- se focaliza sobre las densidades y clases artefactuales y las materias primas líticas. La evidencia indica que en las distintas geoformas se habrían desarrollado los mismos tipos de actividades que se relacionarían con el aprovisionamiento de rocas y actividades de talla. No obstante, las densidades artefactuales muestran diferencias en su intensidad, destacándose las cuencas endorreicas. El registro de altas frecuencias de raspadores de vidrio junto con dos nuevas dataciones radiocarbónicas ubica a las poblaciones humanas hacia finales del Holoceno tardío. La presencia de moluscos de procedencia atlántica y artefactos de obsidiana sugiere la interrelación con espacios ubicados hacia el norte, este y oeste. La unidad de paisaje Terrazas habría sido utilizada de manera relativamente homogénea a lo largo del tiempo, indicando una baja intensidad de uso humano vinculada con estrategias de movilidad residencial y con la circulación entre las cuencas de los ríos Santa Cruz y Gallegos.As a result to cultural research management studies on the archaeological record new information is added to the Terraces landscape unit at the Coyle river middle basin (Santa Cruz Province), between the Santa Cruz and Gallegos fuvial basins. The analysis is focused on the spatial distribution of the archaeological record on the surface of geoforms (gullies, closed basins and terraces). Artifactual classes and densities, as well as lithic raw materials, were studied using qualitative and quantitative methods. The evidence indicates that the same types of activities (rock provisioning and fintknapping) were developed along the different geoforms. Nevertheless, artifactual densities show differences related to human intensity use as shown at closed basins. The high frequency of glass scrapers recorded and the results from two new radiocarbon dates place human populations towards the end of the late Holocene. Mollusks from the Atlantic coast and obsidian artifacts suggest the relations with areas located North, East and West. The Terraces landscape unit would have been used in a relatively homogeneous way throughout time, indicating a low human intensity related to residential mobility strategies and to the circulation between the Santa Cruz and Gallegos river basins.

Se presentan los primeros resultados arqueológicos sistemáticos obtenidos en las cuencas de los lagos Tar y San Martín (49° 7´ S, 72° 11´ O), focalizados sobre la distribución espacial y temporal del registro. La información se ordena siguiendo las principales unidades ecológicas (estepa, ecotono y bosque) con el fin de discutir la existencia de diferencias en el uso del espacio por parte de las poblaciones cazadoras recolectoras. A la vez, se brindan valores de isótopos estables (δ13C y δ15N) obtenidos sobre muestras arqueofaunísticas de guanaco (Lama guanicoe) que permiten comenzar a delinear la ecología isotópica regional. Las diferencias en las distribuciones artefactuales articulan un primer modelo del paisaje arqueológico regional que muestra que las mayores intensidades de uso humano se registran en la margen este del lago Tar y en los alrededores del Cerro Cach Aike, decreciendo hacia el oeste (margen sur del lago San Martín). Las ocupaciones humanas se habrían iniciado alrededor de 9700 años AP, manteniéndose de manera discontinua hasta momentos históricos. Por último, se comparan los datos obtenidos con los disponibles en otras cuencas lacustres cordilleranas aledañas, integrando así un nuevo espacio a la discusión del poblamiento humano del suroeste de Patagonia.The aim of this paper is to present the first preliminary results of the systematic archaeological research carried out in the Lago Tar and Lago San Martin basins (49° 7´ S, 72° 11´ O), focusing on the distributional aspects of the record. In order to discuss patterned differences in the space use by prehistoric hunter-gatherers, the information is organized following the main ecologic units (steppe, forest, and the corresponding ecotone). Stable isotope data (δ13C and δ15N) from guanaco (Lama guanicoe) bone samples are also reported as a first step in the understanding of the regional isotopic ecology. On the basis of some differences in the spacial distribution of artifacts it can be proposed that the higher intensity of human use was concentrated on the eastern shore of Lago Tar and around Cerro Cach Aike. Such intensity decreases westward (southern shore of the Lago San Martin). The occupation history of these spaces began around 9700 years BP, following a highly punctuated pattern until historic times. The paper ends with a comparison between the archaeological record of Lago Tar and Lago San Martin basins with other southern Patagonia cordillerean lacustrine basins in order to discuss the prehistoric peopling of the region.

La secuencia ocupacional de la microcuenca de Chiu Chiu (norte de Chile), muestra significativos cambios en el patrón de asentamiento y conjuntos de artefactos en correlación con un intenso proceso de aridización hacia 6000 años AP. Una respuesta a estas condiciones ambientales desfavorables fue el emplazamiento de asentamientos más permanentes en ambientes lacustres estables. Este proceso va asociado a cambios económicos y sociales, que reflejan una incipiente complejidad social de las comunidades cazadoras recolectoras que habitaron el norte de Chile.The occupational sequence of Chiu Chiu's microbasin (Northern Chile) demonstrates that the area experienced significant changes in settlement patterns and artifact complexes, in a period of intense desertification, around 6000 years BP. One of the local responses to climate change was to settle more permanently near stable lake environments. This process reflect the economic changes that mark the initial social complexity of hunter-gatherer societies in the region.

Se presentan evidencias directas e indirectas de actividades metalúrgicas por parte de poblaciones cazadoras, recolectoras y pescadoras de la costa arreica del norte de Chile, durante los períodos Intermedio Tardío y Tardío. Se discuten estos hallazgos para finalmente proponer una tradición metalúrgica local con características distintivas para las sociedades costeras, que complementa el conocimiento actual sobre el uso y significado de los metales en el Área Andina.We present direct and indirect evidences of metallurgical activities by hunter-gatherer and fishers populations of the arid coast of Northern Chile during Late Intermediate and Late periods. We discuss these evidences and propose the existence of a local metallurgical tradition with particular characteristics for the coastal societies in this region. This tradition complements current knowledge about the use and significance of metals in the Andes.

Se presentan los resultados de los trabajos conducidos en un asentamiento bajo reparo rocoso en el sector de estepa de la Región de Aisén, Chile. Las ocupaciones identificadas cubren el lapso entre 11.400 y 2.700 años calendarios AP, lo que hace del sitio una interesante contribución para entender la temporalidad de la presencia humana, ya sea la cronología del poblamiento inicial, como la recurrencia en el uso del espacio a lo largo del Ho-loceno. En el trabajo se presenta la metodología desarrollada, se describen las características del asentamiento, haciendo hincapié sobre los procesos de formación de sitios, y se expone la cronología de las ocupaciones humanas y su relación con los materiales culturales recuperados, principalmente líticos. Los resultados se discuten a la luz de los problemas de la ocupación humana de la cuenca del río Cisnes y en función de su relevancia en la región más amplia de Patagonia CentralThis paper presents the results of research conducted at a rock shelter in the steppe area of the Chilean region of Aisén. Occupations spanning a period between 11.400 to 2.700 calendar years BP have been identified at the site, making it an ideal context to understand the time scale of human presence, both in terms of the chronology of initial settlement and as regards the recurrent use of space during the Holocene. Our paper summarises the methods employed, describes the characteristics and formation processes of the site, presents an overview of the chronology of human occupations, and emphasizes associated artefact assemblages, mainly lithic tools. We conclude by discussing our results in the light of knowledge of human occupations of the Cisnes river basin and the broader region of Central Patagonia

Se presentan los resultados del análisis espacial de la información recuperada en la campaña de terreno de 2005 en el Alto río Cisnes, en la estepa extra andina de la XI Región (Chile). Se integran los datos obtenidos por medio de prospecciones sistemáticas, recolección de artefactos arqueológicos y la implementación de criterios de relevamiento de información cualitativa y cuantitativa. Particularmente, la distinción de dos conjuntos característicos generales (contextos superficiales y acumulaciones intencionales de piedras) se utiliza en un ejercicio comparativo. Finalmente, se consideran variables formales que pudieron condicionar el asentamiento humano para el periodo de interés del proyecto de investigación, los últimos 5000 años. Las características de los principales yacimientos registrados a la luz de propuestas teóricas regionales, son discutidas a fin de aportar a los estudios de las modalidades de ocupación de espacios abiertos en los valles esteparios del centro de Patagonia.This paper presents results of a spatial analysis based on surface information gathered during the 2005 field season at Alto Río Cisnes, extra Andean steppe of XI Región (Chile). Information obtained through systematic surface surveys, archaeological artifact collection and the use of qualitative and quantitative criteria is integrated. Particularly, the distinction between two characteristic assemblages (surface contexts and intentional stone accumulations) is used in a comparative exercise. Finally, formal variables, which may have conditioned human settlement, are considered for the last 5000 years, a time span of interest for the research project. The sites main characteristics are discussed in light of theoretical regional proposals in order to contribute to the study of occupation of open air spaces on steppe basins of Central Patagonia

El objetivo de este trabajo es discutir las implicaciones tafonómicas y arqueológicas de episodios de mortalidad catastrófica de guanacos provocado por estrés invernal. Para ello se presentan los datos relevados en un sitio ubicado en la margen oeste del lago Cardiel. El conjunto faunístico fue caracterizado en función de las siguientes variables: estado de conservación, estructura etaria, posición de muerte, grado de enterramiento, grado de articulación, la acción de carnívoros, pisoteo y la asociación entre individuos y artefactos líticos. Se plantea que este tipo de eventos se presentan bajo determinadas condiciones que son normales en los ecosistemas del sur patagónico; asimismo, presentan una localización espacial predecible y redundante, fundamentalmente en lugares reparados. En términos tafonómicos, esto implica un potencial de mezcla de acumulaciones naturales y culturales en lugares utilizados como reparo tanto por el hombre como por los guanacos. Al considerar el impacto de este tipo de mortalidad de animales en las poblaciones humanas, se sugiere que, en el corto plazo, genera una oferta importante de recursos explotable a través de una estrategia de carroñeo. Esta es una opción poco costosa y de bajo riesgo (Borrero et al. 2005) que emplea una oferta inmediata que se presenta en una escala regional. Por estas razones, la implementación del carroñeo por parte de las poblaciones cazadoras recolectoras no sólo sería esperable en momentos iniciales de poblamiento, sino que pudo ser sistemáticamente utilizado a lo largo del tiempo. Por otra parte, debido a la baja diversidad que caracteriza a los ecosistemas del sur patagónico, la productividad de una región puede variar enormemente en el largo plazo. De esta manera, las fluctuaciones en la biomasa animal generadas por este tipo de mortalidad puede ser un factor que regule el abandono de determinados espacios, fundamentalmente aquellos asociados con una alta variabilidad climática como los cercanos a la cordillera.The aim of this paper is to present a case study that consists of an episode of catastrophic mortality of guanacos caused by winter stress in the west margin of Lago Cardiel (Santa Cruz, Argentina). The faunal assemblage is described in terms of the following variables: preservation state, age structure, death postures, degree of interment, disarticulation, carnivore marks, trampling, and association between carcasses and lithic artifacts. The taphonomic and archaeological implications of this kind of mortality events in guanacos are discussed. It is suggested that this kind of events occur under certain conditions which are normal in southern Patagonian ecosystems. Also, they show a predictable and redundant spatial location, mainly in sheltered places. In taphonomic terms, this implies a potential mixing of natural and cultural assemblages in places used as shelter by guanacos and humans. In terms of the impact of this kind of animal mortality events on human populations, it is suggested that, in the short term, they constitute an important supply of resources that is exploitable through a scavenging strategy. This is a low cost and low risk option (Borrero et al. 2005) which makes use of an immediate supply of the resource in question on a regional scale. Therefore, the implementation of a scavenging strategy by hunter-gatherers populations could be expected not only during the early peopling of the region, but also as a common strategy practiced through time. On the other hand, due to the low diversity that is characteristic of southern Patagonian environments, catastrophic death events can severely affect the productivity of a region in the long term. This implies, in turn, that the consequent fluctuations on animal biomass could constitute a factor controlling the abandonment of certain spaces, mainly those suffering a high climatic variability, such as areas near the Andean Cordillera.

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This paper discusses the relationships between rock art and the production of social networks among hunter-gatherers from the Late Holocene in central-northern Chile. Despite the low visual integrity of the paintings under study, the use of D-Stretch software allowed us to digitally improve the images, and conduct formal and quantitative analyses at different levels of variability. The comparison between two areas of the region showed two systems of visual communication that structure themselves along divergent principles. Such results point to the existence of two different social network systems due to social complexity processes and the increasing spatial demands of the communities living in the area. The very existence of rock art is interpreted in the light of these historical processes. The results we present help expanding the discussion on rock art and social networks considering the multiscalar nature of the networks as well as by weighing the role of history and environment in such a process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se caracterizan las poblaciones de cazadores recolectores que habitaron el sur del estuario río Gallegos, cuenca hídrica más austral de Patagonia continental argentina. Se acota cronológicamente parte del espacio utilizado mediante el fechado de suelos, relaciones geomorfológicas y el análisis de los conjuntos líticos. Se evalúa el papel del estuario como concentrador de mayor actividad humana en comparación con espacios relativamente alejados del ámbito costero. Se concluye que el sector costero habría tenido un uso más intensivo que el resto del valle del río Gallegos y que a su vez, la costa del estuario fue ocupada más recurrentemente que el litoral atlántico. Estas ocupaciones pueden ser atribuidas a la parte final del Holoceno tardío.This contribution describes the populations of hunter-gatherer that inhabited the southern portion of the Río Gallegos estuary, the southernmost river basin of Argentinean continental Patagonia. Soil dating, geomorphological relationships, and the study of lithic assemblages are used to narrow down chronologically the use of space. The role of the estuary as a concentrator of human activity is evaluated by comparison to relatively distant upland spaces. We conclude that the coastal environment would have been used more intensively and recurrently than both the region upstream the Gallegos river and the neighbouring Atlantic coast. These occupations can be assigned to the terminal late Holocene.

The aim of this paper is to generate new data on raw material sourcing of multiple activities sites at La Primavera locality to describe some provisioning strategies adopted by mobile hunter–gatherer societies, and contribute to the study of the local settlement in the wider regional context. The local structure of lithic resources is characterized; the natural distribution of useful rocks is modeled and the raw materials of artifacts from multiple activities sites are sourced. The classification and sourcing technique applied is not a determinant method, but a preliminary approach adequate to deal with a very large lithic artifact sample. The rock distribution across the landscape was analyzed using a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for compiling the available data and estimating the distances from the sites to the sources for each raw material found in them. Based on the circulation distances and different considerations regarding the characteristic of the lithic sources, three different provisioning strategies are delineated. They suggest that settlement at the locality involved a certain permanence time that surpasses a logistic use, while keeping trade and social networks with other localities in the regional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Alero 4 site is a rock shelter located in the vicinity of the northern edge of the Deseado River in the Santa Cruz province of Patagonia, Argentina. The stratigraphic studies recorded evidence of human occupation assignable to late Holocene. Stone artifacts, bones, malacological and anthracological remains were identified. Based on the study of these items, the features and functionality of this type of site in the context of coastal occupations so far recorded in the lower basin of the Deseado River are discussed, mostly shell middens on coastal dunes. The study of the archaeological record of the Alero 4 site suggests that human hunter–gatherer groups who occupied the lower basin of the Deseado estuary and its vicinity during the late Holocene used rock shelters in a complementary and synchronously manner with the occupations with shell middens on dunes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Menopause is the transition from reproductive to non-reproductive life well before natural death. Rather than involving a smooth, rapid change, it is normally preceded by a long period of erratic hormonal fluctuation that is accompanied by a plethora of unpleasant symptoms. Here, we (1) suggest that this turbulent period owes to conflict, between a woman's maternally inherited (MI) and paternally inherited (PI) genes, over the trade-off between reproduction and communal care; (2) perform a theoretical analysis to show that this conflict is resolved either through silencing or fluctuating expression of one of the genes; (3) highlight which of the symptoms preceding menopause may result from antagonistic co-evolution of MI and PI genes; (4) argue that ecological differences between ancestral human populations may explain the variability in menopause among different ethnic groups; (5) discuss how these insights may be used to inform family planning and cancer risk assessment based on a woman's ancestral background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]