Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Vegetation History and Archaeobotany (2019) 28:465–479 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-018-0705-8 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Methods of acquisition and use of frewood among hunter-gatherer groups in Patagonia (Argentina) during the Holocene Laura Caruso Fermé 1 Received: 17 November 2017 / Accepted: 15 November 2018 / Published online: 26 November 2018 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract The present article examines the ways of obtaining frewood and of using it by Patagonian hunter-gatherer groups and the relationship with their high mobility. With these goals, we have selected a range of archaeological sites in varied types of vegetation: forest, forest-steppe ecotone and steppe (according to pollen reconstructions and current records) in several dif- ferent latitudes of Argentinean Patagonia: Paredón Lanfré (Río Negro province); Cerro Pintado (Chubut province); Cerro Casa de Piedra 7 and Orejas de Burro 1 (Santa Cruz province). The taxa, including Nothofagus pumilio, Austrocedrus chil- ensis, Ribes magellanicum, Embothrium coccineum and Fabiana imbricata, found among the scattered charcoal remains in the sediments of the four Patagonian sites, show how frewood was gathered in types of vegetation similar to the ones that nowadays surround the archaeological sites. The archaeobotanical results allow us to detect diferences and similarities of the supply of wood and its relationship with human mobility, site functionality and the types of occupation. Keywords Archaeobotany · Charcoal · Wood · Hunter-gatherer · Holocene · Patagonia Introduction Wood has been used by people as fuel for millennia and remains today a vital everyday resource that allows the colonization of new spaces, the transformation of other raw materials and the processing of food. Consequently, the socio-economic organization of a society depends upon this particular resource. The use of wood for fuel is con- ditioned by aspects related to concrete activities in every society (Chabal et al. 1999; Dufraisse 2008; Théry-Parisot and Henry 2012; Allué et al. 2017; Vidal-Matutano et al. 2017). The availability and abundance of wood in the envi- ronment is certainly an important factor. However, for the collection of frewood there are several parameters that play a fundamental role: (1) the social and economic organiza- tion of human groups and their range of mobility (Chabal et al. 1999; Théry-Parisot 2001; Allué 2002; Carrión 2005); (2) their perception of the environment (Zapata Peña et al. 2003; Biran et al. 2004; Asouti and Austin 2005; Henry et al. 2009); (3) the type and duration of occupation of a site, (4) the type of need and/or purpose for wood procurement and the function/s assigned to the combustion structures and time of their use (Chabal et al. 1999; Théry-Parisot 2001; Allué 2002; Caruso Fermé 2008, 2012, 2015; Allué et al. 2017). For methods of wood procurement we understand the ways in which diferent groups collect wood, using strate- gies for obtaining certain taxa or in diferent habitats and the selection of particular taxa, depending on their size and characteristics (Caruso Fermé 2012, 2015, 2016). The wood collected in archaeological sites is a result of social activities, but it is also related to the natural environ- ment where the people in question were active. Charcoal remains recovered in archaeological contexts are a by-prod- uct of wood combustion and they may refect wood from the vegetation in the vicinity of the sites (for example, Badal 1992; Shackleton and Prins 1992; Chabal 1997; Chabal et al. 1999; Pearsall 2000; Caruso Fermé et al. 2016). Archaeo- botanical remains may also refect the diferent places from which wood was collected as a result of group mobility patterns (for example, Chabal et al. 1999; Théry-Parisot 2001; Asouti and Austin 2005; Henry et al. 2009; Caruso Fermé 2012). Therefore, it is not possible to assume that all Communicated by W.D. Gosling. * Laura Caruso Fermé lcarusoferme@gmail.com 1 Instituto Patagónico de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas (IPCSH-CONICET-CENPAT), Boulevard Alte, Brown 2915 (9120), Puerto Madryn, Argentina