Holocene landscape changes and wood use in Patagonia: Plant macroremains from Cerro Casa de Piedra 7
- 20 January 2014
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in The Holocene
- Vol. 24 (2), 188-197
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683613516816
Abstract
This paper studies the different practices employed in the acquisition of woody material used by hunter–gatherer societies from the northwestern region of the Santa Cruz Province, Argentine Patagonia, during the early and middle Holocene. In addressing this theme, we study carbonized and non-carbonized wood recovered from six stratigraphic levels from the Cerro Casa de Piedra 7 site. This research revealed that during the lowest level of occupation, a distinct range of woody species were utilized; these were subsequently absent in the rest of the stratigraphical levels studied. In fact, all the other levels analyzed presented the homogeneous presence of a single plant species: Nothofagus pumilio. This species has the largest representation among both the charcoal and uncharred wood fragments of the six levels studied. The study of the assemblage samples allowed us to identify differences between the various archaeological levels, which could be the product of behavioral and/or environmental differences.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Seasoned or green? Radial cracks analysis as a method for identifying the use of green wood as fuel in archaeological charcoalJournal of Archaeological Science, 2012
- The ethnoarchaeology of firewood management in the Fang villages of Equatorial Guinea, central Africa: Implications for the interpretation of wood fuel remains from archaeological sitesJournal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2011
- Holocene vegetation and climate changes from a peat pollen record of the forest – steppe ecotone, Southwest of Patagonia (Argentina)Quaternary Science Reviews, 2009
- Families and Firewood: A Comparative Analysis of the Costs and Benefits of Children in Firewood Collection and Use in Two Rural Communities in Sub-Saharan AfricaHuman Ecology, 2004
- Firewood use in Bulamogi County, Uganda: species selection, harvesting and consumption patternsBiomass and Bioenergy, 2003
- Early human occupations in Western Santa Cruz Province, Southernmost South AmericaQuaternary International, 2003
- Vegetation and climate during the Holocene in Southwest Patagonia, ArgentinaReview of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 2002
- Vegetational changes during the Holocene in Extra-Andean Patagonia, Santa Cruz Province, ArgentinaPalaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 1998
- Three Late Quaternary pollen diagrams from Southern Patagonia and their palaeoecological implicationsPalaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 1995
- A record from Lake Cardiel of climate change in southern South AmericaNature, 1990