Rock art and information exchange in desert environments of northern Patagonia: data and perspectives from northeastern Neuquén province (Argentina)

ROMERO, GUADALUPE

Valle de Uco, Mendoza

Conferencia; 4th SOUTHERN DESERTS CONFERENCE; 2014

Laboratorio de Paleo-Ecología humana

This poster addresses the role that information played in hunter-gatherer adaptations in desert environments of northern Patagonia (Neuquén Province, Argentina) through the analysis of rock art. Specifically, the aim of this poster is to enrich the the characterization of rock paintings of the region by evaluating them in relation to areas with different ecologies and geographies. To that end, the information provided by rock art is discussed in the wider frame of a biogeography-based archaeological model proposed for northern Patagonia that stratifies this landscape into areas with contrasting properties for human circulation and use of space. By emphasizing this geographical framework, I seek to provide more information to evaluate whether the spatial scale in which these contrasts are expressed may have conditioned cultural and biological interactions in the region. Finally, a plan for future work is presented. It takes into account the need for a robust analysis of rock art on a macro-regional scale that can provide insights on the role that information played in the spatial organization dynamics of the human populations that inhabited Neuquén Province in the past.