hrdliCka] stone industries OF THE ARGENTINE COAST 121 



ent at the Campo Peralta, at the Arroyo Corrientes, near the Laguna 

 Malacara (north of Necochea), and near the mouth of the Rio Que- 

 quen, on the north side of the river, not far from Necochea. Farther 

 south, especially in the neighborhood of the Rio Negro, settlements 

 were located among the sand dunes, as at San Bias, but here the 

 strip of sand dunes was narrow and inclosed several small fresh-water 

 lakes. 



Possessing their workshops among the sand dunes, with at least 

 some of their settlements in the neighborhood, it is quite probable 

 that the natives buried some of their dead in or among the dunes. 

 This probability will be shown later to have a significant bearing on 

 the question of the antiquity of some of the human remains obtained 

 along the coast and claimed to be geologically ancient. Burials of 

 precisely the same character have been made in numbers, both in the 

 sand dunes and on the firmer ground among them, farther south, 

 between the port of San Bias and Rio Negro. 



Conclusions 



Taking into consideration the extent of territory over wliich the 

 various worked stones here dealt with ^ are found ; the relatively 

 large numbers in wliich they occur, particularly in some localities; 

 the relatively recent nature of the present sand-dune area, which is 

 almost exclusively their home; and the additional facts, that they are 

 as a rule on the surfaces of the playas, that they occur occasionally 

 on or in the vegetal soil, that worked stones of corresponding types 

 are found in some instances farther inland on recent alluvial deposits, 

 and that many of the specimens are of fresh appearance — it appears 

 that only one conclusion can be reached in regard to the age of these 

 artifacts, namely, that they are not of great antiquity and certainly 

 not of geologic antiquity. 



The general and intimate association of the " white " and the " black" 

 worked stones, with other considerations, leads to the further conclu- 

 sions that these two classes of relics are the products of one culture 

 and one period; that the "black" stone or pebble industry was the 

 result of an ample local supply of such material coupled with scarcit}^ 

 of other material; and that the peculiarities of tliis industry were due 

 to the nature of the material, connected possibly with some special 

 local requirements. 



Fmally, as the " wliite" stone industry of the coast is identical with 

 that of the Indians of the more inland parts of the same province, and 

 as it is impossible to separate it from the "black" stone or pebble 

 industry, the conclusion seems justifiable that they are both the work 

 of the Indian. 



It seems very probable that the natives, the remains of whose 

 workshops exist among the medanos, were well acquainted with the 



