Cambios tecnológicos durante las primeras estrategias agropastoriles en Barrancas, provincia de Jujuy, Argentina.

This article on lithic technology addresses the technological changes that occurred during the occupations of the last hunter-gatherer-domesticator populations and early farmer and shepherd societies in the Puna of Jujuy. It has as a particular objective to reconstruct operational chains and technical systems from three sites in the Barrancas basin around 3750–1550 cal BP. Results include various quantitative analyses. These are divided into four parts: raw materials, knapping and shaping methods, and grasping techno-functional units. We present frequencies and percentages for each of these. In the case of not rejecting the null hypothesis and of sufficient richness (>4), we exposed the Shannon-Weaver, dominance, and evenness indices. Even if we observe continuities, the results show that the technological changes are significant and include breaks. Evidence indicates new operative chains, lithic raw material economy, and restructuring of technical systems. We highlight that Middle Holocene hunting technical systems are hafting systems, including processing tools, whereas Late Holocene technical systems are fully grasping systems, with hafting exclusively reserved to arrowheads. These changes are interpreted within the framework of a social, economic, and ecological restructuring. Interactions between farming and herding economies, full sedentary settlements, and llama caravans for long-distance traffic are the proposed phenomena that could explain these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]