Procurement and circulation of obsidian in the province of La Pampa, Argentina

Abstract

The goal of this study is to report the progress regarding the procurement and circulation of obsidian by hunter-gatherer populations during the Late Holocene in the province of La Pampa, Argentina. A total of 25 samples were analyzed in two stages; in the first stage neutron activation analysis (INAA) was used, while X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was employed in the second stage. This work adds nine archaeological samples from new sites and one from the Lihué Calel obsidian source. The results allow us to  take into account the sourcing of the obsidian which was found in archeological sites of four areas of study located in the south and east of the province. Both, the results generated in this new stage, and those previously obtained are integrated and discussed in relation to the information produced by other researchers from the region, which are consistent with the existing ones for La Pampa. They indicate that the obsidian recovered was procured from sources located in the Argentinian and Chilean Andes, as well as the pre-cordillera in the provinces of Neuquén and Mendoza. New data expands the spatial perspective of our interpretations to four new research areas: Curacó basin, Lihué Calel hills, Valles Transversales (Transversal Valleys) and Bajos sin Salida (Endorheic low areas).