Abstract

EGEA, Débora  and  MORENO, Enrique. QUARTZLITHIC INSTRUMENTS, SOCIAL PRACTICES AND PEASANTLIFE DURING THE FIRST MILLENIUM OF THE ERA AT EASTERN CATAMARCA, ARGENTINA. Relaciones [online]. 2021, vol.46, n.1, pp.81-100. ISSN 0325-2221.

Humanpopulations used different lithic tools in order to address daily activities in everyday social reproduction. One way of approaching these instruments is by studying how lithic edges, points and surfaces were formatted. In this work, we are interested in introducing tool manufacturing by human populations that inhabited El Alto-Ancasti mountains (Catamarca, Argentina) during the first millennium of the era. For this purpose, we evaluate technical, morphological and functional characteristics of lithic instruments retrieved from excavations in different sites of eastern Catamarca, and then analyze the differences among the latter. In addition, this work is a contribution to the study of instruments made of quartz, a raw material that displays particular features in terms of hardness and quality for knapping. It also practically represents the whole lithic technology found in archaeological sites in a wide area of central and northern Argentina.

Keywords : lithic technology; quartz; El Alto Ancasti mountains; peasents; first millennia a.

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