SESSION 13 - Obsidian - methodological issues of obsidian provenance studies and a new perspective of archaeological obsidian
Obsidian in the northern coast of Patagonia (San Matías Gulf, Argentina)

The study of the presence of obsidian at different archaeological sites in the northern coast of Patagonia (Argentina) has begun to be systematized in recent years. In particular, on the coast of the San Matías Gulf (Río Negro province) it has been determined that this raw material is mostly represented along the west coast of the gulf (Figure 1) and there has been a general pattern of declining abundance from South to North. That is, on the northern coast of the study area, the representation of this rock is significantly lower (Cardillo and Scartascini 2007). Different sources of origin of this rock have been detected through geochemical studies of recovered samples: Telsen and Sacanana in Chubut province (225 and 380 linear km distant, respectively), the Somuncurá Plateau and Cantera Lolog (Neuquén province), the latter located 560 linear km from the study area (FavierDubois et al. 2009).