Contributions of Actualistic Taphonomy to the Archaeological Study of Pseudoartifacts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31048/1852.4826.v13.n1.23846Keywords:
lithic technology, lithic taphonomy, experimental archaeology, Casa de Piedra de Roselló, PatagoniaAbstract
The increasing interest in understanding and quantifying the effects of postdepositional processes in the formation of lithic assemblages promoted the application of taphonomic approaches that allowed discussing the genesis of patterns considered of behavioral origin (technological, functional). Indeed, those taphonomic approaches showed that different environmental contexts within a region (with their specific combination of agent and processes) possess variable effects on lithic assemblages. Thus, a taphonomic approach to the settings of the archaeological record and to their local and regional dynamic make us aware of morphological and distributional characteristics of the taphonomic background noise (pseudoartifacts). In other words, the systematic incorporation of actualistic taphonomy –including both naturalistic and experimental components- to the archaeological research contributes to building frames of reference that allow refining our interpretations of the archaeological record. This paper presents and compares actualistic and archaeological data obtained from the application of this approach to the study of Casa de Piedra de Roselló site (Chubut, Argentina). I conclude that taphonomic background noise may inflate the representation of the local raw material in the lithic artifact assemblages recovered at the site.
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