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 AD 700, 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.
Location
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.
Climate 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. It was also home to edible vegetables and plants that could be used for medicine; tubers, such as the rush root; and numerous fruits, such as that of the Berberis plant.
The current climate of the cave area can be described as precordilleran steppe (or "grassy foothills")... The climate is cold and dry, with very low humidity. Ian N. M. Wainwright and colleagues state that the area receives a total annual precipitation of less than per year, while Gladys I. Galende and Rocío Vega state that it averages per year. The topography of the canyon blocks the strong westward winds that are common in the region, making winters less severe. The average temperature is , with extreme highs of around and extreme lows of around . The coldest month is July, and the warmest month is February, which average and , respectively.
Access In ancient times, people accessed the Pinturas Canyon, and by extension the cave area, through ravines in the east and west, typically from higher elevations around above sea level.. 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) and a route that ends with a foot trail.
History
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. In
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. Dart and spear throwers are also depicted, although there is little archaeological evidence of these types of weapons being used in Patagonia..
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. The presence of obsidian near the cave—which is not natural to the region—implies a broad-ranging network of trade between peoples of the cave area and distant tribal groups.
Beginning around 7,500 BC, the site, along with the Cerro Casa de Piedra-7 site near Lake Burmeister, became important landmarks in a nomadic circuit. 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. These regions existed at various elevations. The migratory patterns of this circuit were seasonal, following the abundance of vegetables in each region and the births of guanacos, which varied based on the altitude. The furs of newborn guanacos were highly sought after by the native peoples, increasing the importance of guanaco birth patterns to the timing of the seasonal migrations. The prime time for newborn guanacos near Cueva de las Manos was around November. The groups who inhabited the area included the Toldense people, who lived in the caves until the third or second millennium BC.. When occupying the area, temporary camp sites would be made around the cave, where extended families or even large bands of people would gather. The groups that gathered at these camp sites would have enabled the inhabitants to organize group hunting of guanacos.
The earliest rock art at the site was created around 7,300 BC. Cueva de las Manos is the only site in the region with rock art of this age, categorized as the A1 and A2 styles of the cave, but after 6,800 BC similar art, particularly hunting scenes of styles A3, A4, and A5, was created at other sites in the region. The site was last inhabited around 700 AD, with the final cave dwellers possibly being ancestors of the Tehuelche tribes."Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas." UNESCO World Heritage List. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
Modern study and protection Father Alberto Maria de Agostini, an Italian missionary and explorer, first wrote about the site in 1941. It was then investigated by an expedition of the La Plata Museum in 1949. Argentine surveyor and archaeologist Carlos Gradin and his team began the most substantial research on the site in 1964, initiating a 30-year-long study of the caves and their art. Gradin's work has helped to identify the different stylistic sequences of the cave.
Cueva de las Manos is a National Historic Monument in Argentina, 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). This study led to Cueva de las Manos being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. In 2015, the land was bought from a private ranch by Rewilding Argentina, an environmental organization. In 2018, the site received its own provincial park, and as of 2020 the land is controlled directly by the state, after being donated by Rewilding Argentina.
Geology
The cave is in the walls of the canyon, which are composed of ignimbrite. 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. This erosion was caused by the Pinturas River, fed by glacial runoff, which cut into the Chon Aike Formation to form the Pinturas Canyon. The cave itself is located at a fissure in the rock face that the river eroded more than the surrounding canyon wall.
The site is composed of the cave itself, which is about deep, two outcroppings, and the walls at either side of the entrance.. The entrance faces northeast and is about in height by wide. The paintings on the cave's wall span about . The initial height of the cave is . The ground inside has an upward slope; as a result, the height is eventually reduced to no more than .
Artwork
Cueva de las Manos is named for the hundreds of hand paintings stenciled into multiple collages on the rock walls. 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. Inhabitants of the site hunted guanacos for survival, a dependency reflected in their artwork by totemic-like depictions of the creatures.
Several waves of people occupied the cave over time. The age of the paintings can be calculated from the remains of bone pipes used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave to create the stenciled artwork of the hand collages, radiocarbon dating of the artwork itself, and stratigraphic dating, including from a piece of the rock wall that had fallen with art on it.. 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. According to scholar Irene Fanning and colleagues, it is "the best material evidence of early hunter gatherer groups in South America."
Forms 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 over 2,000 handprints in and around the cave. Most of the images are painted as negatives or stenciled, alongside some positive handprints.. There are 829 left hands to 31 right hands, suggesting that most painters held the bone spray pipe with their right hand. Some handprints are missing fingers, which could be due to necrosis, amputation, or deformity, but might also indicate the use of sign language or bending fingers to convey meaning.
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, with some areas containing so many handprints that they form a palimpsest background of layered color. Along with the superimposed masses of images, there are many purposefully placed single hands.
There are also depictions of human beings, guanacos, rheas, felines, south Andean deer, and other animals, as well as geometric shapes, zigzag patterns, representations of the sun, and hunting scenes.. The hunting scenes are naturalistic portrayals of a variety of hunting techniques, including the use of game drives and bolas. Similar paintings, though in smaller numbers, can be found in nearby caves. There are also red dots on the ceilings, probably made by submerging hunting bolas in ink and throwing them upwards.