Cueva Los Bancos, A New Archaeological Site with Early Occupations in the Southernmost Sector of the Eastern Sierras Pampeanas of Argentina

ABSTRACT

We present new chronological data for the southernmost sector of the Eastern Sierras Pampeanas system of central Argentina. Recent excavations at the Cueva Los Bancos site in Sierra del Morro hill provided a date of ca. 9400 calendar years ago. This is the earliest absolute chronology of this sector, considered an ecotone between mountains and plains. Data provided will allow us to include this site in the discussion of the initial peopling of the region.

KEYWORDS:

• Early Holocene
• initial peopling
• ecotone landscape
• Sierras Pampeanas
• Sierra del Morro

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Fernández family for allowing them to enter their property; to Walter Muñoz for guiding them through the landscape; and to Pipera, Dante, Agustín, Eimi, Sol, Valentín and Emilia for collaborating during fieldwork. Also thanks to Gustavo Politis and Laprei (Pretreatment Laboratory for isotopic samples) for managing radiocarbon analyses; to the authorities of the province of San Luis and San José del Morro locality for allowing us to investigate; and to INCUAPA-CONICET for supporting the research and laboratory studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Research under Grant PICT 2019-03515.

Notes on contributors

Rafael Curtoni

Rafael Curtoni is a researcher for the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET). He obtained his degree at the National University of Buenos Aires and his PhD from the National University of La Plata, Argentina. He also has a MA degree from Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He carries out anthropological and archaeological research in the provinces of La Pampa and San Luis from the perspective of landscape anthropology.

Guillermo Heider

Guillermo Heider is a researcher for the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET), and he obtained his degree and PhD from the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. His research interests are lithic technology and human adaptation to arid and semiarid environments through time.

Augusto Oliván

Augusto Oliván, is a doctoral fellow of the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET), and he obtained his degree at the National University of the Centre of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. He is researching the rock art of the province of San Luis from landscape archaeology and archaeoastronomy.

María Clara Álvarez

María Clara Álvarez is a researcher for the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET), and she obtained her degree and PhD from the National University of the Centre of Buenos Aires province. Argentina. Her research focuses on the subsistence of human groups in the past, bone technology, and taphonomic studies.

Ivana Ozán

Ivana Ozán is a researcher for the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET), and she obtained her degree of Anthropology and PhD of Archaeology at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She works on past human-environmental interactions by using Soil and Earth Sciences. She has specialized in cave archaeological contexts and rock art painting archaeometry.

Julián Tobal

Julián Tobal is a student of Earth Sciences at the National University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is carrying out his undergraduate thesis on the sedimentology and geomorphology of a cave archaeological context. He is interested in environmental studies and climate-social topics.

Mariángeles Borgo

Mariángeles Borgo is a researcher for the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET), and she obtained his degree and PhD from the National University of the Centre of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. She analyzes the technological organization of hunter-gatherer groups in San Luis province.

Alfonsina Tripaldi

Alfonsina Tripaldi is a researcher for the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET), and she obtained her degree in Geology and PhD in Geology at the National University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She works on landscape evolution during the late Quaternary, mainly in drylands, applying geomorphology and sedimentology and associating with paleoecologists and archaeologists to explore past human-environmental interactions.