First results of the hunter-gatherer weapon system studies in the middle basin of the Salado creek (Pampas Region, Argentina)

In this paper we present the results of the study of 32 projectile points from Hangar site, located in the Salado creek basin (centre of the province of Buenos Aires). Archaeological materials recovered from the site include some isolated human remains, several potsherds, faunal materials, and lithic artefacts. The presence of pottery and small triangular points, together with the radiocarbon dating results, indicate that the main occupations occurred during the end of the Late Holocene. Methodology used included the techno-typological study of the lithic assemblage. Results showed that the outcrops of some rocks present in the sample are found in the Humid Pampas (100-190 km distant from the site) and the Dry Pampas (400-530 km distant from the site). The projectile points show variability in design and size, attributes that have implications for distinguishing different weapon systems (e.g., arrow and dart). In the Pampas region, the Late Holocene is a period characterized by an increasing complexity in hunter-gatherer societies, as it is indicated by long-distance exchange networks and different strategies of intensification and diversification on faunal resources. In accordance with this scenario, we propose that the variability that is observed in the lithic points is a reflex of an increase in the amount of the hunted species in relation with technological innovations such as the introduction of the bow and arrow.

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Human occupation strategies and related environmental-climate during the middle and late Holocene in central Pampas of Argentina

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683618810407 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 244-261 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Pablo G Messineo ◽

Marcela S Tonello ◽

Silvina Stutz ◽

Alfonsina Tripaldi ◽

Nahuel Scheifler ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Late Holocene ◽

Specific Activity ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Hard Material ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Lithic Assemblage ◽

Depositional Rate ◽

Archeological Site ◽

Middle And Late Holocene

The main objective of this work is to generate and integrate interpretations of human occupation strategies and inferences of the environmental-climatic conditions in the central Pampas during the middle and late Holocene. We present a novel archeological–geological–paleoecological analysis in the area of the Cabeza de Buey lake, placed in an aeolian landscape. During the middle Holocene, two events of human occupations were recognized at Laguna Cabeza de Buey 2 archeological site. Both events present a small amount of lithic materials, a low diversity of tools and activities developed with them (principally hard material), and the hunting and primary processing of artiodactyls. These evidences suggest a locus of specific activity associated with an ephemeral human settlement under climate conditions drier than present and the presence of small, brackish, and shallow water bodies. For the late late Holocene, the hunter-gatherer occupation has a higher depositional rate of lithic assemblage, stones with diverse origins, presence of pottery fragments, a great lithic tool diversity, knapping techniques, and activities developed with these tools (processing wood, bone, hide, non-woody plant, and soft material). These evidences reveal an occupation with a higher degree of recurrence represented by a locus of multiple activities associated with a more stable landscape, such as an environment of dunes fixed by grass vegetation, and the establishment of a permanent water body. The different environmental characteristics for the middle and late Holocene in this area promoted that human groups develop two different patterns of mobility, settlement and use of space.

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Made for exchange: the Russian Karelian lithic industry and hunter-fisher-gatherer exchange networks in prehistoric north-eastern Europe

Antiquity ◽

10.15184/aqy.2021.133 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-17

Author(s):

Alexey Tarasov ◽

Kerkko Nordqvist

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Large Scale ◽

Scale Production ◽

Long Distance ◽

Exchange Networks ◽

North Eastern ◽

Agricultural Societies ◽

Lithic Industry ◽

Distance Communication

The hunter-fisher-gatherers of fourth- to third-millennium BC north-eastern Europe shared many characteristics traditionally associated with Neolithic and Chalcolithic agricultural societies. Here, the authors examine north-eastern European hunter-fisher-gatherer exchange networks, focusing on the Russian Karelian lithic industry. The geographically limited, large-scale production of Russian Karelian artefacts for export testifies to the specialised production of lithic material culture that was exchanged over 1000km from the production workshops. Functioning both as everyday tools and objects of social and ritual engagement, and perhaps even constituting a means of long-distance communication, the Russian Karelian industry finds parallels with the exchange systems of contemporaneous European agricultural populations.

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Paleoecological implications of the first prehistoric record of water vole (Microtus richardsoni) from Washington state, USA

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1017/qua.2019.15 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 92 (2) ◽

pp. 381-387

Author(s):

R. Lee Lyman

Keyword(s):

Late Holocene ◽

Sampling Error ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Cascade Range ◽

Western Montana ◽

Water Vole ◽

Long Distance ◽

The North ◽

Long Distance Transport ◽

Distance Transport

AbstractRemains of the North American water vole (Microtus richardsoni) have previously been recovered from late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits in southwestern Alberta, western Montana, and north-central Wyoming. All are within the historically documented modern range of the metapopulation occupying the Rocky Mountains; no ancient remains of this large microtine have previously been reported from the metapopulation occupying the Cascade Range. Four lower first molar specimens from the late Holocene Stemilt Creek Village archaeological site in central Washington here identified as water vole are from the eastern slope of the Cascade Range and are extralimital to the metapopulation found in those mountains. There is no taphonomic evidence indicating long-distance transport of the teeth, and modern trapping records suggest the local absence of water voles from the site area today is not a function of sampling error. The precise age of the Stemilt Creek Village water voles is obscure but climate change producing well-documented late Holocene advances of nearby alpine glaciers could have created habitat conditions conducive to the apparent modest shift in the range of the species represented by the remains.

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A MICROSCOPIC HYPER-SPHERICAL MODEL: APPLICATION TO 6He

International Journal of Modern Physics E ◽

10.1142/s0218301308011641 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 17 (10) ◽

pp. 2374-2378 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

I. BRIDA ◽

F. M. NUNES

Keyword(s):

Ground State ◽

Cluster Model ◽

Spherical Model ◽

Theoretical Models ◽

Halo Nuclei ◽

Asymptotic Region ◽

Neutron Halo ◽

Long Distance ◽

The Core ◽

First Results

We have developed a microscopic cluster model for two-neutron halo nuclei with special attention paid to long distance correlations between the core and the valence neutrons. The emphasis put on a good treatment of the asymptotic region is necessary for nuclear reaction calculations involving these nuclei. In this contribution, we present the first results of our model applied to the ground state of 6 He bound by an effective central Minnesota N-N interaction, and compare with experiment and other theoretical models.

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INSTRUMENTAL APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING MESOAMERICAN ECONOMY: ELUSIVE PROMISES

Ancient Mesoamerica ◽

10.1017/s0956536114000157 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 251-269 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Ronald L. Bishop

Keyword(s):

Material Characterization ◽

Personal Experience ◽

Compositional Data ◽

Analytical Techniques ◽

Cultural Complexity ◽

Long Distance ◽

X Ray ◽

Resource Limitations ◽

Archaeological Materials ◽

Instrumental Approaches

AbstractMore than four decades ago, instrumental developments, such as those involving neutron activation and X-ray florescence, began to generate relatively large quantities of data from the analysis of archaeological materials. These data served as the basis for many models of long-distance exchange as a means of explaining the development of cultural complexity. I review aspects of this early history and the how use of compositional data is now more directed toward localized investigations of economic activity. Even with this refocus of research interest, studies involving material characterization appear to be declining. Using traditional citation, personal experience, and highly selective examples, I discuss the use of analytical techniques for studies of long-distance trade, as it developed and now confronts interpretive difficulties that are inherent in the data and rendered more so by use of abstract constructs and resource limitations.

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The Folsom (Paleoindian) Type Site: Past Investigations, Current Studies

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/2694875 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 67 (1) ◽

pp. 5-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

David J. Meltzer ◽

Lawrence C. Todd ◽

Vance T. Holliday

Keyword(s):

Faunal Remains ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Projectile Points ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Lithic Assemblage ◽

Wild Horse ◽

Field Investigations ◽

Type Site ◽

High Utility ◽

Cultural Origins

Research on the Folsom Paleoindian type site, involving renewed field investigations and an analysis of extant collections from the 1920s excavations, was undertaken between 1997 and 2000. The preliminary results of that research show that all excavations to date have been in the kill area, which took place in a small and relatively shallow tributary to the Pleistocene paleovalley of Wild Horse Arroyo as well as in the paleovalley itself. Preliminary butchering of ∼32 Bison antiquus took place near where the animals were dropped. The kill area is dominated by low-utility bone elements and broken projectile points; high-utility bones and tools for processing meat and hides are rare or absent, and either occur in another, as-yet undiscovered area of the site, or altogether off-site. Faunal remains are generally in excellent condition. Those in the tributary are mostly in primary context, and underwent rapid burial beneath fine-grained (dominantly aeolian) sediments, which in turn were subsequently armored by a shingle shale; those in the paleovalley experienced postdepositional transport and redeposition. The small lithic assemblage is dominated by projectile points and comprised of material mostly from two sources in the Texas panhandle, several hundred kilometers southeast of the site. It also includes stone obtained from sources at comparable distances north and northwest of the site. A series of radiocarbon ages is available for the stratigraphic units, nearly all from charcoal of non-cultural origins; radiocarbon dates on bison bone put the age of the kill at 10,500 B.P.

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The Archaeological Record of Indian Ocean Engagements

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935413.013.46 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Sunil Gupta

Keyword(s):

Indian Ocean ◽

Bay Of Bengal ◽

Far East ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Neutral Model ◽

Long Distance ◽

Archaeological Evidence ◽

Deep Time ◽

Exchange Networks ◽

The Far East

With the Bay of Bengal littoral as its focus, this chapter reviews the archaeological evidence for human expansions, migrations, formation of exchange networks, long-distance trade, political impulses, and transmissions of technocultural traditions in deep time, from around 5000 bc to 500 ad. In doing so, the author offers the idea of the Bay of Bengal Interaction Sphere, a “neutral” model of analysis that sets aside the constraints of the old Indianization debate for South-Southeast Asian interaction and situates the Bay within a broader global framework extending from the Mediterranean to the Far East in a new narrative of contact and change.

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Change and continuity in the long-distance exchange networks between western/central Anatolia, northern Levant and northern Mesopotamia, c.3200–1600 BCE

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology ◽

10.1016/j.jaa.2017.12.003 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 49 ◽

pp. 65-87 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Michele Massa ◽

Alessio Palmisano

Keyword(s):

Central Anatolia ◽

Long Distance ◽

Exchange Networks

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The introduction of the bow and arrow in the Argentine Andes (29–34º S): A preliminary metric approximation

Journal of Lithic Studies ◽

10.2218/jls.2969 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Silvina Celeste Castro ◽

Lucía Yebra ◽

Erik Marsh ◽

Valeria Cortegoso ◽

Gustavo Lucero

Keyword(s):

Maximum Width ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Projectile Points ◽

Weapon Systems ◽

European Contact ◽

Rapid Spread ◽

Bow And Arrow ◽

Metric Approximation ◽

Reduced Mobility

The study size patterns in projectile points (n=39) from six sites in the Argentine Andes (29–34°S) associated with 17 radiocarbon dates with medians spanning 3080–470 cal BP. This is the region’s first attempt to metrically distinguish arrows and darts, which is based on shoulder or maximum width, following Shott. The northern part of the study area (29°S) includes the earliest arrow point, slightly after 3080 cal BP. This suggests a rapid spread of this technology from the central Andes 16–26°S, where early arrows are dated ~3500–3000 cal BP. However, at 32 and 34°S, arrows are not clearly present until 1280 cal BP. For 1280–400 cal BP (European contact), 96% of points were identified as arrows, suggesting the bow and arrow replaced spear-based weapon systems. A single late dart from 34°S may reflect a late use of this space by hunter-gatherers. The predominance of arrows beginning at 1280 cal BP is associated with broader changes such as demographic growth, reduced mobility, low-level food production, and herding economies, following similar trends in other regions.

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Biogeografía humana en la cuenca del Río Diamante: información arqueológica y perspectivas

Revista del Museo de Antropología ◽

10.31048/1852.4826.v10.n0.14270 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 21 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Miguel Giardina ◽

Clara Otaola ◽

Fernando Franchetti

Keyword(s):

Residential Mobility ◽

Late Holocene ◽

General Trend ◽

Alternative Hypothesis ◽

Regional Model ◽

Archaeological Research ◽

Use Of Resources ◽

First Results ◽

Mobility System ◽

Del Rio

En este trabajo se presentan los resultados iniciales de un proyecto de investigación arqueológica para la cuenca del río Diamante, provincia de Mendoza y se realiza una síntesis de la información disponible. Como objetivo general y de largo plazo, buscamos analizar si hubo una disminución en la movilidad residencial y una ampliación en la variedad de recursos consumidos durante el Holoceno tardío como plantea el modelo de poblamiento del área propuesto a nivel regional. O por el contrario, analizar si existió un continuum de sociedades con alta movilidad residencial sin una saturación del espacio que implicara cambios en el uso de los recursos. Las evidencias arqueológicas disponibles para evaluar estos modelos alternativos no son suficientes como para inclinar la balanza hacia uno u otro modelo. Sin embargo, la tendencia general observada apunta hacia una amplia movilidad residencial y el aprovechamiento de recursos de todos los pisos ecológicos. Abstract In this paper, first results of an archaeological research project at Diamante river basin, Mendoza province are presented. The main objective is to analyze whether there were a diminution in residential mobility and an intensification in the use of resources during the late Holocene as posed by a regional model. The alternative hypothesis is that existed a continuum of economic and social lifeways that implied a high residential mobility system that would not involve changes in the use of resources. Even though there are not enough archaeological evidences yet to incline the balance to one model or the other, the general trend points to a high residential mobility and the use of resources from all the ecological floors.

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