PREHISTORIC-PRECERAMIC STAGE

Archaeology has revealed that the early settlement of Northwestern Argentina began at the beginning of the Postglacial, approximately 10,000 to 8,000 B.C., so this is the age at which prehistoric man penetrated the area.

–LOWER COLLECTORS: the oldest culture that populated an area of Santiago del Estero.

Time: 10.000 to 8.000 B.C.

Area: Sumampa and Ambargasta Mountains.

They had no knowledge of pottery.

Lithic industry, primitive, coarse.

– SUPERIOR HUNTERS: nomadic groups, usually specialised hunters, i.e. their economy was based on hunting. Precisely the possibilities of sustenance regulated their permanence in the place chosen for temporary encampment, these being their occupational characteristic. Consequently, they looked for sites near springs or streams, which also served as good hunting grounds and places where there would be plenty of fruit and wild animals.

Time: 6,000 BC

Location: Sierras de Guasayán and Río Hondo.

Lithic material: flakes, scrapers, projectiles, knives and arrowheads.

–GATHERING HUNTERS: they settled in the same geographical area (new migratory wave) as the superior hunters. They also left their testimony in their lithic instruments and in rock walls in the interior of the ravines and in shelters or overhangs.

Time: 3000 to 2000 BC

Location: Sierras de Guasayán and Río Hondo.

Lithic tools: they reached great perfection (mortars dug into the rocks, flat or cone-shaped mills and their hands indicate that the practice of gathering was complemented by hunting, as well as abundant projectile points, but of a smaller size.