Edens in the desert: Signs of paths and places in the history of colonization of the Argentine Patagonia

Abstract

We present a series of reflections on the exploration of and the time for learning about new environments during the initial colonization of America. We consider theoretical elements from archaeology and other fields of study, in order to frame the processes that human groups face when migrating and adapting to uninhabited territory. These landscapes with no history were transformed into social landscapes through practices developed over time. From the perspective of environmental learning, we have analyzed archaeological sites in the Argentine Patagonia indicating human occupations from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and the Early Holocene era, in order to provide data regarding the modes and times of environmental learning, as well as the materiality and distribution of the first settlements in unknown terrain.