Study on the development of rockshelters and caves located in different regions and geologic contexts in Argentina: towards a characterization of patterns and processes

Abstract

This paper is part of a broader research project focused on analyzing rockshelters and shallow caves located in different regions and geological contexts in Argentina. The main goal is to evaluate patterns and peculiarities in the development of their morphologies and stratigraphies from a geoarchaeological perspective. These sites provide restricted environments with particular dynamics that form, evolve, fill up, and collapse in many different ways that need to be studied at a regional scale to interpret the archaeological and taphonomic records they contain. In one same area, these geoforms can be found at different steps of evolution; but the velocity of this change process, as well as their characteristics, are poorly known for different regions of the country. Thus, 24 case studies, located in different areas, are analyzed in this contribution to start evaluating patterns and recurring processes. So far, some interesting regularities have been observed, regarding the sites themselves (morphologies, types, and dimensions) as well as their sedimentary deposits (characteristics and chronologies). The preliminary results obtained, begin to offer useful information for their archaeological and taphonomic interpretation.