Cueva de las Manos

Cave with paintings in Santa Cruz, Argentina

Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of the Hands or Cave of Hands) is a cave and complex of rock art sites in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, south of the town of Perito Moreno. It is named for the hundreds of paintings of hands stenciled, in multiple collages, on the rock walls. The art was created in several waves between 7,300 BC and 700 AD, during the Archaic period of pre Columbian South America. The age of the paintings was calculated from the remains of bone pipes used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave to create the artwork, radiocarbon dating of the artwork, and stratigraphic dating. The site is considered by some scholars to be the best material evidence of early South American hunter gatherer groups. Argentine surveyor and archaeologist Carlos J. Gradin and his team conducted the most important research on the site in 1964, when they began excavating sites during a 30 year study of cave art in and around Cueva de las Manos. The site is a National Historic Monument in Argentina and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Cueva de las Manos refers to both the main site of the cave and the surrounding complex of rock art sites that includes it. The cave lies at the base of a stepped cliff in the Pinturas River Canyon, in the upper part of the Deseado River basin, in an isolated part of Patagonia. It is about south of Perito Moreno, a town in northwest Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is part of both Perito Moreno National Park and Cueva de las Manos Provincial Park.

During the time of the Paleoindians, around the late Pleistocene to early Holocene geological periods, the areas between above sea level formed a microclimate in the canyon promoting a grassland ecosystem hospitable to many animals. This ecosystem included the Schinus molle plant, which was used to form resins and adhesives and as a source of firewood. The climate is cold and dry, with very low humidity. The average temperature is 8 °C (46 °F), The coldest month is July, and the warmest month is February, which average 3 °C (27 °F) and 21 °C (70 °F), respectively. Currently, there are three gravel roads that lead to the site: a route from the south, starting near Bajo Caracoles, and two more further north, a route from Ruta 40 (Route 40)

When the site was occupied, the Pinturas and Deseado Rivers drained into the Atlantic Ocean and provided water for herds of guanacos, making the area attractive to Paleoindians. As the glacial ice fields melted, the Baker River captured the drainage of the eastward flowing rivers. The resulting reduction in water levels of the Pinturas and Deseado rivers led to a progressive abandonment of the Cueva de las Manos site. Projectile points, a bola stone fragment, side scrapers, and fire pits have been found alongside the remains of guanaco, puma, fox, birds, and other small animals. Guanacos were the natives' primary food source; hunting methods included bolas, ambushes, and game drives, in which they would drive guanacos into ravines and other confined areas to better collectively hunt them. This technique is recorded in the art of the cave, and shows how the topography of the area influenced the art and how it was created. The Pre Columbian economy of Patagonia depended on hunting gathering. Archaeologist Francisco Mena states: "[in the] Middle to Late Holocene Adaptations in Patagonia neither agriculture nor fully fledged pastoralism ever emerged." Argentine surveyor and archaeologist Carlos J. Gradin remarks in his writings that all the rock art in the area shows the hunter gatherer lifestyle of the artists who made it. between Pinturas Canyon and its surrounding areas, the western part of the Central High Plateau, and the steppes and forests of the ecotone bordering the steppes and forests of the mountainous lake environment of the Andes. When occupying the area, temporary camp sites would be made around the cave, where extended families or even large bands of people would gather. and has been since 1993. In 1995, the site became a major subject in a study of Argentina's rock art initiated by the National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Thought (INAPL). In 2018, the site received its own provincial park, and other volcanic rocks in the Bahía Laura Group. The rocks were formed about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period as part of the larger Deseado Massif. The cave and surrounding overhangs were carved out of the rock face through differential erosion, a process by which weaker rocks are eroded away, leaving formations composed of the stronger rocks. The entrance faces northeast and is about 15.24 m in height by 15.24 m wide. The art in the Cueva de las Manos is some of the most important art in the New World, and by far the most famous rock art in the Patagonian region. The art dates to between around 7,300 BC to 700 AD, during the Archaic period of Pre Columbian South America. Scholars Ralph Crane and Lisa Fletcher assert that the rock art at Cueva de las Manos includes the oldest known cave paintings in South America. The artwork decorates the interior of the cave and the surrounding cliff faces. It can be divided by subject into three basic categories: people, the animals they ate, and the human hand. radiocarbon dating of the artwork itself, Chemical analysis of the pigments used to create the painting, and analysis of the stylistic aspects and superimposition (overlap) of the different parts of the art has verified that it is authentic.

Earlier works in the cave were more naturalistic—they looked close to how the subjects of the art would have looked in real life. Over time, depictions became more abstract and different in form from how the subject would normally look. There are 829 left hands to 31 right hands,

The varying depth of the rock face alters the "canvas" of the artwork, and the different depths from the viewer alter the way the images are seen, based on where the viewer is standing. There is a large amount of superimposition of the handprints in different areas,

Regardless of its purpose, the artwork played a key role in the collective social memories of the peoples who inhabited the area, with earlier groups influencing later ones through a narrative spanning millennia. Important aspects of the culture of the hunter gatherers are shown in the themes of the art, such as the reproductive cycles of guanacos and collective hunting. as well as a decorative one. However, Jean Clottes has challenged this perspective, stating that "the likelihood of such behavior is virtually zero." There are also hypotheses that the works were part of hunting magic, with Alan Thorne suggesting that they might have been created as part of efforts to influence the number of animals available to be hunted. Regardless, the fact that many people gathered in one place to contribute to the rock art for such a long period shows a large cultural significance, or at least usefulness, to those who participated. producing black; and copper oxide, producing green. Gypsum was used,

Specialists have categorized the art into four stylistic groups, as proposed by Carlos Gradin and adapted and modified by others: A, B, B1, and C, also known as Río Pinturas I, II, III, and IV, respectively. This is especially true in the use of these irregularities to represent the topography of the settings of the images, such as in the depiction of ravines. These series are classified as A1 (Ochre series), which is primarily made up of ochre and some red; A2 (Black series), which is predominantly black but also contains some dark purple; A3 (Red series) which primarily incorporates red; A4 (Purplish/Dark Red series), which uses purplish red and dark red; and A5 (White/Yellow series), which predominately uses the color white but also incorporates yellow ochre. The Black series in particular introduced several artistic innovations that were carried forward into subsequent artistic styles. Stylistic group A ended during the H1 eruption of the Hudson volcano, which took place around 4,770/4,675 BC It is very likely that this eruption is what caused the end of this stylistic group.