Abstract This paper describes the significance and relevance of concepts presented by Lewis Binford in “The Archaeology of Place” (1982) in studying the process of human colonization in Patagonia. Models and observational techniques inspired by and presented in that seminal paper have been instrumental in the discussion of the mobility of the first inhabitants of southern Patagonia. The result is a flexible ecological model of a slow process of human expansion into the southern end of the continent, and the recognition of at least three early occupational nodes.