Uso del espacio durante el Pleistoceno final en el sitio Casa del Minero 1, Patagonia argentina

This article presents a distribution analysis of the archaeofaunal assemblage from Unit 4 of the Casa del Minero 1 site– located in the Central Plateau of Santa Cruz, Argentine Patagonia– to understand the social organization of sheltered spaces during the early human occupation of the region during the Final Pleistocene. The results support the idea that the site experienced a succession of brief and low-intensity human occupations. The spatial distribution and concentration of bones, in association with hearth structures and higher densities of lithic artifacts, suggest a preference for and redundancy in the use of the southeastern area of the cave, where most domestic activities related to fauna processing and consumption likely took place. The distribution of remains from three camelid species with anthropogenic marks indicates that almost all activities were carried out around the hearths, where lithic tools used for processing fauna were also located. However, the defleshing of a guanaco limb appears to have occurred away from the fire. Finally, a comparison of the spatial pattern at Casa del Minero I with those from other archaeological sites in the region reveals both similarities and differences.