Bolas, projectile points and hunting technologies in Southern Patagonia (Santa Cruz, Argentina) during the Late Holocene

Abstract

The late Holocene in the central-western region of the Santa Cruz province (Southern Patagonia, Argentina) was characterized by the occurrence of climatic and environmental change processes which implied a progressive drought, markedly recorded after ca. 3000 years BP. Peopling processes in the region during this period implied mobility strategies that included residential mobility in lowlands combined with logistical mobility in highlands. In this changing context, local hunter-gatherer groups used a variety of weapons for obtaining prey: bolas, bow and arrow and spears or darts.

In this context, this work analyses the distribution and chronology of the lithic components of these technologies (arrow and spear/dart stone points and stone balls) including evidence of their manufacture (preforms and raw materials). For this, we consider different environments (different low basins and high basins and plateaus) and different types of sites (open air site, basaltic wall, rock shelter, hunting blind and burial). The aim is to assess the role of these technologies in the context of changes in mobility strategies and landscape use. The evidence collected suggests that these three technologies had important differences in their use and production, especially in their replacement potential, manufacturing possibilities, transport and repair. These differences possibly made them complementary. Our main argument suggests that hunter-gatherers diversified technologies, specifically those used to obtain prey, in a context of landscape and resource fragmentation. Therefore, there was a complementary but differential use of technologies and not a process of adoption and abandonment. New technical options were incorporated into previously established ones, thus offering greater flexibility to the subsistence system.