ARCHAEOLOGY

[please note, this paper is open access. Follow the link for the full published version]. Different cultural and research traditions have led to distinctively different approaches to lithics analysis. An integration of different approaches can often give new 'ways of seeing' artefact assemblages and distribution patterns and provide valuable insights into past activities. Here we present the preliminary results of a project integrating detailed analytical techniques, focused on processes of production and consumption and social dynamics in ethnarchaeological contexts in Tierra del Fuego with existing detailed lithic analysis at Mesolithic sites in the Central Pennines. Such methods, taken from Argentina (Álvarez) and Spain (Briz), that were developed in ethnoarchaeological contexts employed detailed edge morphological analysis and use wear. When applied to site A at March Hill, these techniques yielded interesting new insights about activities at the site, and provided a test case for such techniques.

Available online xxx a b s t r a c t From Worsaae's pioneering research onwards, shell middens have been a focus of interest in archaeological enquiry, and a great deal of innovative research has been carried out. The aim of this paper is to make a general review of the state of art in shell midden research, taking into account three main areas: a) the study of aquatic resource exploitation; b) the antiquity of shell middens in relation to human dispersal and group diversification; and c) the methodological improvement enhanced by shell midden enquiry. The record preserved in shell middens is particularly valuable for the development of interdisciplinary approaches in investigating humaneenvironment interaction, social relations and the role of aquatic resource exploitation in the evolutive trajectory of human groups. Quaternary International xxx (2010) 1e7 Please cite this article in press as: Álvarez, M., et al., Shell middens as archives of past environments, human dispersal and specialized resource management, Quaternary International (2010),

This paper presents the theoretical basis and first results of an agent-based model (ABM) computer simulation that is being developed to explore cooperation in hunter-gatherer societies. Specifically, we focus here on Yamana, a hunter-fishergatherer society that inhabited the islands of the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina-Chile). Ethnographical and archaeological evidence suggests the existence of sporadic aggregation events, triggered by a public call through smoke signals of an extraordinary confluence of resources under unforeseeable circumstances in time and space (a beached whale or an exceptional accumulation of fish after a low tide, for example). During these aggregation events, the different social units involved used to develop and improve production, distribution and consumption processes in a collective way. This paper attempts to analyse the social dynamics that explain cooperative behaviour and resource-sharing during aggregation events using an agent-based model of indirect reciprocity. In brief, agents make their decisions based on the success of the public strategies of other agents. Fitness depends on the resource captured and the social capital exchanged in aggregation events, modified by the agent's reputation. Our computational results identify the relative importance of J Archaeol Method Theory