Unraveling rock art palimpsests through superimpositions: the definition of painting episodes in Los Toldos (southern Patagonia) as a baseline for chronology

CARDEN, NATALIA; MIOTTI LAURA

JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2020 vol. 2012 p. 1 - 16

0305-4403

This paper aims to link the production of rock paintings in LosToldos (Argentina) to the human use of the locality throughout the longterm process of the peopling of Patagonia. The study is centered in theconstruction of a rock art painting sequence from the analysis ofsuperimpositions in Cueva 2 and Cueva 3 sites. Rock art panels wereconsidered as cumulative palimpsests and were disentangled through theHarris matrix. Eight painting episodes could be distinguished in Cueva 2,which were related to the five painting episodes detected in Cueva 3. Thetemporal relationships of the different painting episodes respect to aseries of natural imprints in the rock supports provided elements for thehypothetical estimation of a coarse grained temporal framework. The firstpainting episode is underrepresented due to its state of preservation andposition in the base of the sequence. It is associated to the earliesthuman occupations of the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. The secondpainting episode can be more clearly visualized and corresponds to theearly Holocene. The third, fourth and fifth painting episodes are themost intensive and correlate to the most intensive human occupationsdated to the middle Holocene in Cueva 3. The late Holocene episodes arerepresented by fewer and more diverse motifs from Cueva 2. The results ofour analysis constitute a solid baseline from which future compositionalanalyses need to be performed in order to evaluate the possibility ofdating rock art by chronometric methods.Suggested