Abstract

A recent model predicts certain features of human occupation during the Late Holocene in central-south Patagonia (2500-200 yrs BP). In contrast to earlier periods, mobility was more restricted, and a system of relatively stable residential camps and cemetery chenque. Were supported developed in lower eastern steppes. Whereas the higher forest or ecotonal lands to the west were utilized logistically. In the summer of 2000, a binational team, by Andes and Antorchas foundations, undertook fieldwork to survey and excavate several sectors of the Salitroso, Ghio, Pueyrredón-Posadas basins in Argentina, and the Alto Chacabuco basin in Chile (ca. 47°30' LS). The results responded to the model's expectations, in that no human burials were located in the western sectors in Chile which contrasts greatly with the concentration of localities with chenques in the eastern Argentine sectors. © 2007 Universidad de Tarapacá Facultad de Ciencias Sociales Administrativas y Económicas Departamento de Antropología.