Andrés Ignacio Robledo

This project will explore the changes and continuities in the practices on the use of fire as a central activity that was structured by social decisions, as well as the human adaptation in order to contribute to the current models of human colonization and occupational dynamics. This research will study the relationship between the use of fire by human groups through the Pleistocene/Holocene in a mountain semi-arid region from South America and the transition to different types of social organizations. In order to answer this question, it will focus on the excavation of three types of archaeological sites (rockshelters, open air sites and pit-houses) and the study of anthropogenic evidence of the use of fire, well registered and taphonomic interpretation of the occupations evidence in order to understand the behavioral adaptations of the humans groups as well as chronological and paleo-ecological samples for understanding climate variations and environmental adaptations of vegetation and social response. This project will contribute to the study of human-fire relationship from an anthropological perspective involving single human events related with the use of fire for unique archaeological contexts in the semi-arid mountain environment through the Holocene.