ABSTRACT

The use of high-quality rocks and heat-treatment by hunter-gatherers during the initial exploration of America has been emphasized by different authors. Here we present the case of the Southern End of the Deseado Massif (Patagonia, Argentina), where human occupations have been dated from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition until historical times. An intense survey of lithic resources has shown the presence of primary and secondary sources of high quality siliceous rocks, most of them of hydrothermal origin. These siliceous rocks have a highly localized occurrence. In most cases, their quality does not match the one found at the archaeological record, which encompasses caches of artifacts, logistic and multiple activity sites. We present the results of heat treatment experiments on samples from local primary sources. Results obtained are compared with the artifacts found, in order to evaluate the potential utilization of the sources and the presence of heat treatment in the archaeological record.

摘要

不同的作者都强调了狩猎采集者在对美洲的初步探索期间使用优质岩石和热处理。在这里，我们展示了 Deseado 地块南端（阿根廷巴塔哥尼亚）的案例，那里的人类活动可以追溯到更新世 - 全新世过渡到历史时期。对岩屑资源的深入调查表明，存在优质硅质岩的主要和次要资源，其中大部分为热液成因。这些硅质岩具有高度局部化的产状。在大多数情况下，它们的质量与考古记录中发现的质量不符，其中包括文物、后勤和多个活动地点的藏匿处。我们展示了对来自当地主要来源的样品进行热处理实验的结果。