Cerro El Sombrero Cima, un lugar particular para los pobladores tempranos

Abstract

Cerro El Sombrero Cima is an open air site that occupies all the summit of the highest hill in the central east portion of the Tandilia Ranges. The material assemblage has been vastly studied providing an image of a unique place during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. The characterization of the site and the interpretation about the way in which it was inhabited by the early settlers takes into account several analysis mainly based on the study of material culture and spatial references. The aim of this paper is to present a synthesis of these analysis and their results enhancing those aspects related to the uniqueness of the place. Material culture at the site was studied through the analysis of bifacial artifacts, tools worked by grinding, abrasion and polishing, fishtail projectile points, flakes, raw materials and their transport, the past symbolic values of toolstone, tool fracture and, finally, tool use, both through microscopic studies and fatty acid analysis. Spatial analyses have focused on issues such as site placement, its dimension and density, access, visibility and visualization. Information obtained from both, the objects and the space, is combined to propose that the hilltop was a distinctive place in the landscape of the early hunter gatherers that inhabited the Pampas.