Rodrigo Loyola

Rodrigo LOYOLA will defend his thesis on 17 June at 4pm at the University of Paris Nanterre (Grappin building):

Lithic technology and interaction networks of the hunter-gatherer societies of the Puna de Atacama

The social organisation of hunter-gatherer groups in the Atacama Puna is still little studied. This is not due to a lack of research, but rather to the questionable weight of environmental and palaeoclimatic approaches that have led to a reductionist vision of nomadic societies. Throughout the 10,000 years of the archaic period (12,800 to 3,500 cal BP), from the settlement of populations to the emergence of agro-pastoral societies, hunter-gatherer societies have often been perceived as passive players, subject to the constraints of the environment and climatic variations. In this work, we explore the interaction networks of archaic groups in the Atacama Salar basin (21-22°S/68°W, 2200 metres altitude), in northern Chile. We are focusing on the context and organisation of the production and circulation of lithic raw materials in the landscape. Petrographic and geochemical studies are combined with a techno-economic reading of the lithic industries.