Estado de la investigación arqueológica del Valle Del Chacabuco. Andes Centro Patagónicos. Xi Region De Aisén, Chile

Abstract

Chacabuco River has its sources at Aisén Mountains (southern center Patagonia), near the Chilean- Argentinian border, joining then to the pacific drainage Baker River. Thus, links the eastern steppe plains with the western mountain forests, allowing the possibility for human circulation since at least eight thousand years, the earliest available evidence of human presence within this basin. The first surface descriptions of isolated archaeological sites were published four decades ago, providing the grounds for systematic excavations and surveys and thus to distributional, lithic and zooarchaeological studies. The early research was restricted to the steppes at the upper section of the valley and throughout later years we have conducted a research program aimed towards finding, recording and discussing archaeological evidences on the other sections, down to the more forested areas at its confluence with the Baker River. Herein we present a general synthesis of these studies, referring to 106 sites and 75 isolated finds disperse across a 190 km2 area, as well as the chronological information today available. In sum, the characteristics and variability of this archaeological record are systematically presented, discussing both the contrasts within the valley's different sections, as well as its overall relations with the hunter-gatherer prehistory of the steppe-forests transition in Central Patagonia.