Abstract
Investigations of the first South American settlements have revealed great environmental diversity, to which the first humans adapted as they colonized the continent. In this chapter we focus mainly on the description and interpretation of a set of expeditive lithics, from the sites Pilauco and Los Notros, knapped in local and exotic rocks ascribed to the unifacial edge-trimmed tradition. The lithic assemblage is composed of 140 knapped and 7 non-knapped stones that were classified as cores, knapped pebbles, and other pieces. To determine the provenance of the raw materials used for the production of archaeological pieces we integrated geological and geochemical analyses of archaeological and non-archaeological samples. Additionally, we describe and interpret other cultural materials present at the sites. The most likely source of the rhyodacitic and dacitic glass artifacts is the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcanic Complex. The sites show clear evidence of a chain of production tasks, suggesting that most of the work process was executed and maintained in the same place. Thus, the early cultural context of Pilauco and Los Notros sites is supported by the presence of an operative chain production, but also by a clear stratigraphic record and precise age dating.
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The sample mentioned by Stern (2018) as the oldest obsidian used in Patagonia originates from the site Los Notros.
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Navarro-Harris, X., Pino, M., Guzman-Marín, P. (2020). The Cultural Materials from Pilauco and Los Notros Sites. In: Pino , M., Astorga, G. (eds) Pilauco: A Late Pleistocene Archaeo-paleontological Site. The Latin American Studies Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23918-3_16
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