Rock Art at La Gruta Locality (Patagonia, Argentina)

AGUSTÍN ACEVEDO

Austin

Encuentro; Society for American Archaeology 79th Annual Meeting; 2014

Society for American Archaeology

The rock art of La Gruta locality (Santa Cruz province, Patagonia, Argentina) has been described and interpreted, in brief and partial form, by different researchers since the 50s. Since 2006, the research team led by Dr. Nora Franco has begun to carry out systematic archaeological work in the area, focusing on two lagoons spaced approximately 1.2 km from each other, with volcanic and sandstone outcrops, where rock art has been identified. Excavations carried out within the locality show evidences of human presence since the Pleistocene-Holocene transition until the Late Holocene. In this poster we present the analysis of the rock art recorded in seven sites, including the images that were described by other researchers and those arising from our own surveys. Results from the comparative study show differences not only in the number of rock art sites and in the frequency of motifs, but also clear differences in the most frequent motif types (three digits versus negative hands) in the techniques (positive painting vs. negative painting) and in the superimpositions recorded on each lagoon. These differences have implications for the discussion about the existence of variable ways of marking the space with rock art motifs in a small area.