OBSIDIANS IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN THE PROVINCE OF LA PAMPA, ARGENTINA: THEIR SOURCES

Sixteen samples of obsidian collected from three archeological sites in the west and southwest of La Pampa province have been analyzed. Twelve samples were selected from the excavation of "Casa del Piedra 1", Department of Puelen, on the banks of the Rio Colorado, where the available radiocarbon dates indicate that obsidian was utilized, at least episodically, from the earliest occupational levels at >= 8620 +/- 190 C-14 years BP (or >= 9720 +/- 250 calibrated years BP). Four samples were selected from the surface of two sites north of the Meseta Basaltica, Department of Chicalco. The 16 samples analyzed are derived from multiple different distant sources that include principally Laguna del Maule, located to the west of these sites in Mendoza province along the frontier with Chile, and also, after about 4000 years BP, from Cerro Huenul and Portada Covunco, located in the north and central-west of Neuquen province. Samples of obsidian from other archeological sites in La Pampa province, such as Tapera Moreira and Chenque i in Lihuel Calel, also come from these same distant sources as well as others even more distant such as Cerro Planicies/Lago Lolog in the southwest of Neuquen.