Looking Back to Move Forward: Rock Art Research in Argentina (2015-2019)

FIORE, D.; BASILE, M.

Rock Art Studies: News of the World VI

Archaeopress

Año: 2021; p. 325 - 339

This chapter reviews all the major advances of rock art research inArgentina from 2015 to 2019. We have made every effort to gather all theavailable published literature and, as a result, a total of 241 publicationshave been reviewed. Out of these, a selection has been made in order to providean accurate overview of all the researched regions and topics.  We report new discoveries, regionalapproaches, and theoretical and methodological analyses on rock art from  NOA and NEA, West-Centre and Cuyo, Pampa, andPatagonia. We conclude that: a) in all regions rock art is conceived as a form ofvisual communication, though tackled from very different theoreticalstandpoints; b) the notion of networks has become a key concept (used in a widerange of meanings); c) the concept of style is being used frequently in NOA,while in Patagonia specific ?stylistic modalities? are discussed, but do notform part of central discussions; d) the same goes for the use of culturalperiods, which are very frequently used in NOA but not elsewhere; e) discussionsabout time and change emerge from a series of data based on relative dates,while absolute dating is still very infrequent in Argentina; f) landscapeapproaches are quite pervasibe, being more related to biogeographicalapproaches in Patagonia, and to symbolic approaches in other regions; g) theincipient introduction of concepts such as materiality, agency and memory isnoticeable in most regions, though again with different ontologies according toeach region (closer to materialism and agency in Patagonia and closer tosymbolism and perspectivism in NOA); h) the use of archaeometric techniques tocharacterise rock art materials and techniques is becoming more frequent (yetabsolute dates are still infrequent ?see point ?e??; i) interdisciplinaryproduction of knowledge has become highly frequent, while dialogues withIndigenous communities are slowly starting to emerge; j) disseminationactivities and management/conservation tasks focused on the protection of rockart site/localities are abundant and show the importance given by the archaeologicalcommunity to this unique type of archaeological record.