Pablo Geronimo Messineo

This project aims to examine how human groups occupied and adapted to semi-arid landscapes of the inland Pampas of central Argentina from Late Pleistocene through the Holocene. It will contribute to broader anthropological debates regarding the initial peopling of South America and the long-term resilience of hunter-gatherer societies in changing environments. Focusing on the Central Pampean Dunefields, a transitional area between grasslands and xerophilous forests, the research seeks to investigate how ecological diversity, water availability and landscape permeability shaped human mobility, territorial arrangements, settlement and social interaction. By integrating archaeology, bioarchaeology, geomorphology, and paleoecology, this project intends to reconstruct human-environment relationships over the past 13,000 years. Methods will include excavations, isotopic, geochemical, technological and faunal analyses, GIS modeling of mobility and exchange networks. If field access becomes limited, the research can proceed by expanding field survey areas and analyzing existing collections, environmental archives and digital modeling. The research will be conducted in close collaboration with Indigenous communities and local museums, ensuring ethical engagement and co-production of knowledge. Beyond generating new archaeological and paleoenvironmental data, the project aims to shed light on how past human experiences of adaptation and connectivity in marginal landscapes can inform contemporary understandings of resilience and sustainability.