Short-Term Occupations in Paleolithic Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Critical aspects on the understanding of prehistoric lifestyles are how hunter-gatherers moved on the landscape and how they organize their technological and subsistence strategies in relation with climatic fluctuations and environmental changes. Ethnographic studies documented that in homogeneous environments, where resources are particularly scattered on the region, foragers tend to move frequently their central base. Conversely, in areas where resources are patchy due to seasonal climates, logistical mobility is preferred. In the last decades, many studies applied these ethnographic concepts to understanding the mobility patterns in archaic humans but, in several regions, it is still unclear how the environment influences hominins displacement strategies and whether biological and technological differences are also reflected in the management of the territory. This symposium aims to explore the issue of hunter-gatherers mobility focusing on short-term anthropogenic occupations. This type of mobility strategy might generate a variety of archaeological contexts such as residential bases, locations, hunting stations or temporary camps. The comparison of these short-term occupations between different regions will contribute to a better understanding on how hunter-gatherers adapted and moved in different climatic and environmental areas. Speakers are very welcome to present new data, as well as theoretical and methodological approaches.