Levallois technology in southern Patagonia (Argentina and Chile): current knowledge and future perspectives

Abstract

Situated on the extreme point of South America, southern Patagonia has yielded the southernmost evidence of Levallois lithic technology. There, enough evidence of the use of a method of core preparation for production of predefined flakes similarly structured to the known Levallois technology (LT) in the Old World is present. An overview of the currently available information (distribution, chronology, frequency, artifact classes, raw materials and techno-morphological attributes) on Levallois technology in southern continental Patagonia and on the Isla Grande of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina and Chile) is presented here in order to discuss its place in the shared technological background of local hunter-gatherers during the Holocene. The analysis of the information shows that the LT occurs at very low frequency, mainly involving cores, knives and sidescrapers on local raw materials but encompassing a high diversity in terms of ecological contexts and human subsistence. These findings are an indicator that several populations were simultaneously familiar with this technology, possibly through long-distance movements of individuals or social networks to share ideas and information on how to make and use these artifacts. In this regard, the middle Holocene was an important period when the LT became a shared technological phenomenon on a macro-regional scale. However, the evidence on LT is still scarce in Patagonian contexts and emphasizes possible linkages with other reduction strategies, especially the Discoid flaking method, the search for maximize lithic raw material exploitation and even the need to produce versatile tools to deal with a diversity of tasks. It is still unclear therefore whether the LT reflects a truly method to get predetermined flakes with specific morphological features or it mainly attended to other circumstances due to the influence of environment, the spatial organization of human groups or the lithic reduction systems. This issue probably requires an exhaustive study of Levallois cores, specially their own particular sequential development of reduction, frequency and relationship with other knapping techniques recorded in the Patagonian lithic assemblages.