Obsidian provenance in the Late Period of Antofagasta de la Sierra (Catamarca province, Southern Argentine Puna)

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of the circulation of resources, people and ideas among societies that inhabited the basin of Antofagasta de la Sierra (Catamarca Province, Argentinean Southern Puna) between ca. 1100-450 years BP. We approach to this problem through the obsidian traffic, using provenance geochemical analysis of archaeological artifacts of this rock collected at sites ascribed to this temporality and formative sites (ca. 2400-1300 years BP) at the micro-region. On one hand, we attempt to approach the variability in the representation of different obsidian sources between sites dating after ca. 1100 years AP and the places to which groups accessed (directly or indirectly, through mechanisms such as exchange, reciprocity, complementarity, caravans). Furthermore, we intend to advance on the variation in access to different sources of this rock among formative societies and their successors. Finally, we discuss and evaluate the observed patterns considering models of social, political and environmental changes for-mulated for these periods at the micro-region and South Central Andes.