Abstract

This work presents several thermoluminescence (TL) dates of six archaeological sites located in the Andean valley of the Chacabuco River, central Patagonia. We discuss the advantages of this method to assess the chronology of human occupations, employing samples of lithic artefacts with evidence of fire exposure from surface contexts in the area. We compare the results with stratigraphic archaeological dating by C-14. We discuss these results in the context of previously formulated hypotheses on the past behaviour of the human population in this area.