Jordi Estévez Escalera

Autonomous University of Barcelona | UAB · Departamento de Prehistoria

Summary: In this paper we introduce whom do we should adress archaeological research. We argument that it is essential to offer the integrity of this research in a open and universal access way. We present the repository of our work in Tierra del Fuego as an example.

Curso de sistemas de analíticos de estudio de los instrumentos líticos prehistóricos para conocer los procesos de fabricación y uso.

S'expliquen una serie de programes per tractar estadísticament conjunts arqueològics seguint el processament proposat en els seminaris Internacionals de Prehistòria d'Arudy.

This paper presents a synthetic overview of the results of a multidisciplinary approach –archaeological, experimental and ethnographic – that provides new insights into the fire-related management strategies (from firewood procurement to fire use and cleaning activities) adopted by Yamana groups. We bring to the fore the significance of recent resu...

For over 25 years several Spanish-Argentine ethnoarchaeological projects have been conducted in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) in order to contrast archaeologically the ethnographic record of Hunter-Gatherer societies. The main objective has been the development of a methodology capable to rebuild the social organization of these societies. A methodo...

This paper presents a part of an ethnoarchaeological research whose main objective is the development of methodological and conceptual instruments to advance the study of prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies. We have proposed ethnoarchaeological experimentation in order to contrast the relationship between spatial organization and social relations...

This paper proposes some general methodological reflections for the study of hunter-fisher-gatherer societies (HFG) and presents, as an example and case study, a comparative analysis of the development of two societies considered in the literature as representing two extremes in the social organisation of HFG. Despite long lasting discussion (Sass...

The authors propose that the ways in which a society organizes its social relations are the essential principle that characterizes it and distinguishes it from others. The first step is a critical reappraisal of the complex information available regarding quasi-contemporary or ethnographic hunter-gatherer societies. The recurrence of a division of...

Fa uns 7.500 anys a la Terra del Foc va aparèixer una societat basada en l'explotació especialitzada de recursos litorals i estructurada en una estricta divisió sexual del treball. La combinació de dades arqueològiques i geològiques permetrien explicar aquesta aparició sobtada com una estratègia de resposta al canvi climàtic provocat per la megaexp...

The different explanatory hypotheses for the predominance of the current human form over the Neanderthal form were characterized. The theories are summarized in broad categories and their relationships are shown graphically. Most of them focus on competition or ecological incompetence. In the paper a new approach is proposed. It is not focused on m...

En: Aitor Calvo, Aitor Sánchez, Maite García -Rojas, & Mónica Alonso-Eguiluz (eds.) Seis décadas de Tipología Analítica. Actas en homenaje a Georges Laplace. : 48-60.

Since 1988, a Spanish‐Argentinian team has been developing ethnoarcheological projectsin Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). Our objective was to develop a methodology andconceptual instruments in order to go further in the study of prehistoric hunter‐gatherersocieties. In the frame of these projects, we excavated some archeological sitescorresponding to...

Los grupos de gente canoera del sur de Tierra del Fuego entraron en contacto con los navegantes europeos que a partir de la expedición de Magallanes intentaron circumnavegar el extremo sur de América rumbo al Pacífico. Las descripciones que de esos grupos se hicieron a partir de entonces fueron cambiando a medida que fue cambiando la propia socieda...

Early Holocene (>8500 cal BP) littoral sites are well documented along the Pacific coast of Chile north of 32°S, but they do not occur south of this latitude. It has been proposed that canoe Indians of Fuego-Patagonia, the earliest evidence for which is mid-Holocene (Punta Santa Ana; 7440 cal BP), adapted themselves to the sea from terrestrial hunt...

The paper explores the feasibility of a comparative analysis of the elements related to the social reproduction of hunter-gatherer-fisher societies. Those living on both extremes of the Pacific coast of America have been used to discuss the Evolutionist approach. There are common traits in the evolution of the societies in both extremes. Their evol...

The barbed points made of biotic hard tissues in ethnographic collections from Tierra del Fuego and from the Palaeolithic of the Mediterranean basin of the Iberian Peninsula are investigated. Following the guidelines in the work of Gerd-Christian Weniger (1995), we demonstrate that the criteria proposed in his original book are valid and that their...

Based on our work in Tierra del Fuego, we offer some ideas on midden formation processes. We discuss our aims in conducting excavations on midden sites (Túnel VII and Lanashuaia) and we describe the specific methodology used. Our experience demonstrates that it is possible to obtain ‘fine grade’ results about the societies who built these middens p...

From the middle of the 1980s we have carried out a series of ethnoarchaeological research projects on the northern coast of the Beagle Channel –Tierra del Fuego – Argentina (Fig. 5.1). This area was inhabited by groups of hunters-fishers-gatherers from approximately 6500 BP until the first half of the 20th century. These groups, named after the fir...

In archaeozoological studies, taphonomic analyses have focused largely on identification of chemical and mechanical changes of the bones recovered during excavation. The quantification of bone remains is usually made using the number of remains (NR). One of the major drawbacks in the use of the NR method is that it does not take into account the va...

We describe the problems and issues that have emerged during the development of an application using multiagent systems to test a hypothesis about the development and impact of social norms that affect the reproduction of small scale hunter-gatherer societies.

During recent excavations at Camas Daraich, Skye an incised bevelled pebble was discovered at the base ofa midden layer dating to the Mesolithic (Hardy and Estevez 2011). Finds of incised or decorated stone andbone from this period are rare in Britain as a whole and this is the first of its kind from Scotland. For thisreason the object is being pub...

The use of agent-directed simulation in archaeology has a relatively long tradition. However, these simulations have been always oriented mainly to study spatial processes and resource management and systematically ignore an essential aspect of any society: the use of social and institutional norms as a mechanism to regulate the behaviour of the in...

The use of agent-directed simulation in archaeology has a relatively long tradition. However, these simulations have been always oriented mainly to study spatial processes and resource management and systematically ignore an essential aspect of any society: the use of social and institutional norms as a mechanism to regulate the behaviour of the in...

The mid-Holocene has been widely used to test the performance of the numerical models that are commonly employed to estimate the future evolution of world climate. This period, as the pollen record shows, was characterized by higher temperatures than present in northern and Central Europe, while cooler conditions occurred in the south of the contin...

Organical chemical analysis of archaeological soils is a recently developed technique, which considerably increases the information available from ancient remains. The present study gives an example of their capabilities in the reconstruction of the paleoenvironment in the Middle Paleolithic Mediona 1 site. Pyrogenic chemical-markers have been ide...

Based on ethnographic accounts from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, functional areas have been identified within Fueginian shell middens. In this context, archaeological microfacies acquire a functional meaning when the microscopic record is compared to information gathered from ethnology, macroscopic observations made during excavation, a...

Shells of Nacella magellanica are abundant in archaeological shell middens distributed along the Beagle Channel. In this study we analyzed the oxygen isotopic composition of shells of this species to obtain information on its seasonal exploitation patterns by hunter-gatherer-fisher groups in this region during the nineteenth century. Oxygen isotopi...

Este trabajo ha sido llevado a cabo por un equipo de investigadores que han realizado un trabajo de campo sobre unas sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras, las fueguinas, en la Costa Noroeste de América del Norte. Estas sociedades al ser las más primitivas y más simples, sirven para explicar el cambio prehistórico hacia sociedades productoras de alimen...

Commonly used in archaeological contexts, micromorphology did not see a parallel advance in the field of experimental archaeology. Drawing from early work conducted in the 1990’s on ethnohistoric sites in the Beagle Channel, we analyze a set of 25 thin sections taken from control features and experimental tests. The control features include animal...

Due to their problematic stratigraphy, shell middens have traditionally been excavated by artificial stratigraphical cuts. This approach has often led to the obliteration of the original depositional sequence, removing important information regarding depositional and post-depositional processes, and human frequentation. Since the 1970s, an Argentin...

This paper analyses the work of Hugo Obermaier on the Spanish Paleolithic from epistemological and theoretical perspectives. As almost a century has elapsed since he began his work, this is a good moment to review his achievements. We highlight the way he was influenced by ideological issues and the role played by successive political events in the...

The explanation for prehistoric hunter-­‐gatherer societies is based on inferential and analogical processes which refer to the modern hunter-­‐gatherer societies. But any society studied by ethnography was primitive and much less prehistoric. On the specific point in history we look at these societies, they are organized with relationships that co...

The processes of social development at the geographical extremes of the American Pacific Coast resulted in very different hunter-fisher-gatherer societies, despite the apparent environmental similarities. Comparing these two developments may be a way to understand the intrinsic features and fundamental causes of change in HFG societies. Staring fro...

Es parla de la arqueologia i dels exploradors de la costa Nord-oest de Nordamèrica. Publicat a la revista ARGO nº8: 46-47 . Noviembre 2010

Since 1988, a Spanish-Argentinian team has been developing ethnoarcheological projects in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). Our objective was to develop a methodology and conceptual instruments in order to go further in the study of prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies. In the frame of these projects, we excavated some archeological sites correspondin...

There are still many archaeological contexts where soil micromorphology has been little applied. Examples of such are anthropic shell deposits, common in coastal settings worldwide. These archaeological sites have complex stratigraphies composed mainly of shell from diverse species of local mollusks and gastropods. They have the peculiarity of bein...

RESUMEN Los estudios etnoarqueológicos llevados a cabo en yacimientos Yámana de la costa norte del Canal Beagle (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina), han permitido desarrollar una metodología de excavación y análisis de concheros potencialmente aplicable en yacimientos similares de la Península Ibérica. El estudio de los restos malacológicos integrando di...

RESUMEN el uso de simulación de agentes dirigida en arqueología tiene, relativamente, una larga tra-dición. sin embargo, estas simulaciones han estado orientadas, principalmente, a estudiar los procesos espaciales y la gestión de los recursos y sistemáticamente han hecho caso omiso de un aspecto esencial de toda sociedad: el uso de las normas socia...

The results of the joint research of Spanish and Argentinean teams since 1986 on shell middens of Tierra del Fuego can be useful guidelines for excavating and explaining similar archaeological sites around the world. We assume that human activity is organized in space and time and, as a consequence the random, non-random or homogeneous structure th...

Desde 1986, nuestros proyectos de investigación (en colaboración con una contraparte argentina) en la Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego han tenido como objetivo destacado el desarrollo de una metodología para un adecuado reconocimiento de la organización social a partir de la evidencia arqueológica. El trabajo aquí presentado se concentra en uno de l...

Our ethnoarchaeological research projects since 1986 have focused on testing and developing archaeological theories, inference systems, and methodologies for recovery and analysis of prehistoric European hunter-gatherer societies. The research began by contrasting the ethnographic image of the Tierra del Fuego gatherer-fisher-hunter groups with the...

It was at the 1998 Computer Applications in Archaeology (CAA) conference in Barcelona that we first met—Juan Barceló (the CAA organizer), Jordi Estévez, Assumpció Vila, and Hans Peter Blankholm. We did, of course, know of one another’s work, but had never before had the opportunity to sit down and discuss topics of mutual interest— the archaeology...

For 20 years there has been research in Tierra del Fuego in order to contrast ethnographically the archaeological record of hunter-gatherer societies. The objective was to build a specific methodology for an archaeological approach to these societies, that could be applied to various contexts. In this paper we present the projects and the main conc...

RESUMEN El texto recoge una síntesis de la historia de la investigación sobre el Paleolítico cantábrico que la sitúa en su contexto político y social. Al margen de señalarse los principales hitos de dicha historia, se indican los dife-rentes enfoques teóricos (o ateóricos) que han guiado esa investigación durante más de un siglo, desde el últi-mo c...

For 20 years there has been research in Tierra del Fuego in order to contrast ethnographically the archaeological record of hunter-gatherer societies. The objective was to build a specific methodology for an archaeological approach to these societies, that could be applied to various contexts. In this paper we present the projects and the main conc...

The excavation of Tunel VII, a Yamana site dating to the indigenous/European contact period was part of a long term research project based on the north coast of the Beagle channel (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). The aim was to evaluate the theory and methodologies and devise an archaeological method that would enable a complete picture of subsistenc...

The results of the joint research of Spanish and Argentinean teams since 1986 on shell middens of Tierra del Fuego can be useful guidelines for excavating and explaining similar archaeological sites around the world. We assume that human activity is organized in space and time and, as a consequence the random, non-random or homogeneous structure th...

Nos tocó estudiar en la Universidad de Barcelona durante el ocaso biológico del franquismo. Para el estudio de la Prehistoria en España aquella era una época gris. Los profesores eran la consecuencia directa de aquel golpe de estado fascista o sus descendientes. La Prehistoria que nos enseñaron era una repetición sin sentido de la Historia cultural...

History of the Paleaolithic Reseach until the end of XX Century in Spain

RESUMEN. Nuestros planteamientos etnoarqueológicos requerían analizar y sistema-tizar toda la información etnográfica e histórica existente sobre la gente que habitó la costa norte del Canal Beagle en el momento de contacto (o momentos etnográficos) a fin de poder generar una «imagen etnográfica» apta para ser contrastada por vía arqueoló-gica. Pa...

In recent years coastal foragers have emerged as a recurrent topic in discussions of explanatory models for complexity. These discussions have generally emphasized the concept of “affluent foragers”, where complex coastal cultures arose because of abundant and attractive littoral resources. An alternative perspective sees the colonisation of coasta...

We need to integrate the analysis of sudden changes as well as gradual changes in Prehistory. Sudden changes in nature sometimes let to catastrophes. It depends just on the magnitude, speed of change and specially on the state of the society affected by the change. I have chosen 10+1 example of sudden changes in the oldest prehistory to illustrate...

This paper examines the relationship between the extinction of carnivores and the disappearance of the Neanderthals. The Iberian Peninsula, as the westernmost point of Eurasia, is the key for an understanding of either the replacement or the continuity of hominids. Cave bear evolutionary history shares some trends with that of the Neanderthals. Thi...

Las sociedades nativas americanas contribuyeron a la deconstrucción del mito de origen y de la imagen mística que la sociedad europea se había forjado de sí misma. El verse frente a una imagen diferente, como en un espejo deformante, tuvo el efecto de hacer reflexionar a la intelectualidad europea sobre la naturaleza del ser social en general. Las...

Resumen En el texto se analizan la evidencia de la extinción de Neandertales y de grandes carnívo-ros en Europa, las relaciones entre ambos fenómenos y sus implicaciones. Se discutirán las causas posibles y se llega a la conclusion que las causas ambientales, en el estado actual de nuestros conocimientos, no estan suficientemente sustentadas. Se pl...

La imposibilidad de avanzar teórica y metodológicamente en Arqueología prehistórica aquí, donde parecía haberse llegado a un estado de conformidad y autolimitación, nos (1) llevó en 1986 al extremo más austral del continente americano, a la zona argentina de la Tierra del Fuego. Un conjunto específico de condiciones idóneas nos indujo a plantear y...

MEMORIA DE LOS TRABAJOS de La campaña arqueológica de 2003. Intervenciones efectuadas

This paper presents a computer system designed to help archaeozoologists and archaeologists in the identification of bird bones. As an example we have chosen the southernmost American bird species of Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, where our main zooarchaeological work has been achieved.

En los últimos años, las sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras litorales han sido recurrentemente objeto de estudio y de modelos explicativos. Generalmente en estos modelos se ha enfatizado la concepción de cazador@js-recolector@s opulentos estimulados por los recursos abundantes y atractivos de los medios litorales. Una visión alternativa a ésta ha ar...

An archaeological programme beginning in 1993, in the Beagle Channel, aims to describe the long-term record of maritime faunal exploitation, and relate it to the environmental record. Results from quantitative analysis of remains from a series of shell midden excavations indicate a remarkably stable and resilient marine biota over the last 6500 yea...