Ancient rock art in Argentinian cave may have transmitted information across 100 generations

[Judi Lynn]

By Jennifer Nalewicki
published 1 day ago

A cave in Patagonia houses the oldest known pigment-based rock art in South America.



A cave wall with rock art
Examples of some of the rock art found inside a cave in Patagonia. (Image credit: GRV)

A gallery's worth of rock art decorating the inside of a cave in Argentina is several millennia older than once thought and contains hundreds of drawings that span 100 generations.

At one time, archaeologists dated the art — located in Patagonia, a region in South America's southern tip — as being only several thousand years old. But a new analysis has revealed that some of the works actually date to as early as 8,200 years ago and were created during the late Holocene epoch (11,700 years ago to present), according to a study published Wednesday (Feb. 14) in the journal Science Advances.

"It turned out to be several millennia older than we expected," study lead author Guadalupe Romero Villanueva, an archaeologist with the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET) and the National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Thought (INAPL), told Live Science. "We got surprised."

To determine the date of the massive artwork, which depicts humans, animals and other designs, archaeologists chipped away several small pieces of black pigment from the drawings. Since the pigment was made from plant material, researchers used radiocarbon dating to determine the age of the cave art.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-rock-art-in-argentinian-cave-may-have-transmitted-information-across-100-generations





(Interesting how ancient people painted the same hand prints on rock walls all over the world, isn't it?



The canyon walk at Cueva de Las Manos.

(Cave of the hands)