Geological Approach to Lithic Landscape During the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene in the Southern Puna of the Atacama Desert (25°–27° S, 3200–5000 m a.s.l.)

ABSTRACT The petrographic study of raw materials is essential to understanding their provenance, availability, and role in human mobility. Linking the lithic landscape to its geological context reveals technological patterns. In the Atacama highlands (25°–27° S), part of the southern Andean Puna, lithic resources are abundant due to formations such as the Cordillera de Domeyko and the Andes. This study shows that tools from Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites were made with locally sourced materials from areas rich in biotic and abiotic resources. These findings help interpret mobility strategies and early settlement processes in highland archaeology.