Revisiting Deodoro Roca Rockshelter (Ongamira, Córdoba, Argentina). Seventy years of archaeological ideas

Abstract

The hunter-gatherer archaeology of the Ongamira Valley has been a landmark in the archaeology of Argentina's Central Region. The cultural sequence built in the 1950s is still used by many archaeologists to interpret regional peopling, subsistence, land use and mobility. However we believe it is time to review the use of rockshelter-generated data under a new approach that embraces landscape archaeology. Stable isotope-based paleo-environmental reconstructions create a baseline and permit insights into the role of rockshelters through time. Surveys looking for new sites, outcrops and lithic quarries, in addition to the study of the intervisibility between them are integrated into rockshelter data to improve understanding of the social use of space, peopling and mobility. The interconnection of data constructed through the analysis of technology and the acquisition and use of faunal and botanical resources leads to new ideas about social strategies and networks. We discuss how these theoretical changes were made and relate them to Argentinian archaeology.