An “ecoshelter” in the Laguna de Antofagasta basin (Salt Puna) between 7900 and 6200 years BP

Abstract

This paper deals with the impact that the transformation of the landscape and the environment had on groups that exploited the salt puna during a period of approximately two thousand years. Data from lithic assemblages from various levels at Cueva Salamanca 1 are presented and compared with data from other sites in the region of Antofagasta de la Sierra. It is proposed that during the Middle Holocene, the generalized aridity and the discontinuous distribution of resources in the puna would have contributed to a geographic circumscription of these hunter-gatherer groups who would have increased their interactions with groups from the eastern lowlands. Group dynamics, strategies of fusion-fission used during arid periods and their archaeological correlates are also discussed. It is concluded that problems of environmental variability would have been solved with social strategies of concentration and dispersion, as well as with contacts with groups inhabiting the eastern lowlands.