Agricultural stone implements from the Paria Basin (Oruro Department, Bolivia)

Abstract

During the field research initiated by the Paria Archaeological Project (PAP) in 2004 in the area of the Paria Basin (Oruro Dept., Bolivia), and then during the excavation in the municipality of Paria, several agricultural stone tools were discovered. Their raw material is partly volcanic rock and partly sandstone. The stone tools have not yet been described in more detail. In the present article, from the whole set of artefacts 22 stone tools classified into different archaeological periods will be presented. As the area of the Paria Basin itself is less researched and there are relatively few publications on the topic, the amount of information gathered during the processing of the finds will also be outlined. The review also includes a brief discussion of the potential geological sources of raw materials for stone tools.

Solving Stone Age puzzles: From artefacts and sites towards archaeological interpretations

“…along the "obsidian route". More recent finds made of rock crystal have been summarized by A. Péntek (Péntek 2019).…”