The ASSA Program
The ASSA program is a joint work consisting of various projects carried out by groups of researchers based in different universities and research centers in South America and Europe who work to understand the past of southeastern South America, the evolution of pre-Columbian societies, paleoclimate reconstruction, and the protection of the cultural heritage.
Objectives
Archaeology
The archaeological studies are focused on analyzing the initial process of colonization, cultural evolution, genetics, and lifestyles of local pre-Columbian populations. The project also focuses on the relationship between extractive and productive economies, while studying the process of emergence of social and technological complexity, the analysis of material culture and the exploitation, manipulation and modification of the environment.
Paleoenvironment
The study of the climate evolution is a fundamental research field of the ASSA program. Its objectives include the analysis of the physical, chemical, and biological changes in the environment from the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary to historical times. This field of research, in addition, provides a baseline in relation to the evolution of human societies in the region.
Heritage
The protection of cultural heritage is one of the main concerns of the program, since the region is one of the areas with the greatest agro-industrial development in South America, where the rate of anthropic modification of the landscapes is highly dynamic. The program seeks to preserve archaeological sites through concrete actions by implementing projects consisting of responsible management of areas with archaeological remains, for which archaeologists work with local authorities and communities in different counties of the region.
Human resources
The training of human resources for the investigation of the regional past is a key component of the ASSA program. Research training includes senior students, fellows, and Ph.Ds. candidates in archeology and environmental sciences from different countries of South America and Europe.
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The rock shelter "Gruta Tres de Mayo" is located in the center-east of the province of Misiones (Argentina). It was excavated in 1968 by Antonia Rizzo and in two seasons by Daniel Loponte and Mirian Carbonera. The site was occupied about 4,000 years ago, when the tropical forest was already developed. Later it was occupied by horticulturists around 800 years before the present. The excavations allowed to obtain a large archaeological collection that is being studied, composed of faunal remains, lithic and bone instruments at both levels of occupation, and pottery and human remains from the last occupation.
