Litos discoidales tempranos en contextos de Patagonia

Abstract

Polished discoidal stones are diagnostic artefacts associated to fish tail projectile points and extinct fauna in a number of Paleoindian cave sites in southernmost South America (Patagonia). In this paper we examine the contextual associations of currently known and hitherto unreported finds of discoidal stones and their relations to similar artefacts found along the Pacific coast of South America. We also discuss their potential symbolic functions and explore the suggestion that they signal cultural relations between the human groups that peopled the continent during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.