What is new and what never changes? 20th century rock art in marginal cattle breeding areas

RE, A.

Congreso; 20th International Rock Art Congress IFRAO 2018; 2018

Over 90 sites with more than 10,000 pre-Hispanic rock art motifs have been documented on the Strobel Lake Plateau, located in central-western Santa Cruz Province (Argentinean Patagonia) (Figure 1). As a consequence, a population convergence of diverse hunter-gatherer groups has been proposed for this area during the last 2,500 years. Investigations in the region have also revealed a profound change in human strategies since the first contact with populations of European origin around 400 years ago. Later on, at the beginning of the 20th century this plateau began to be re-occupied by populations of European origin. During this period the plateau had a marginal role in processes that occurred at larger spatial scale.This paper seeks to study the rock art of the Strobel Lake Plateau that was produced in the first half of the 20th century in the context of the new occupations dedicated to sheep farming. The same techniques and, in some cases, the same locations were chosen as for the motifs of previous times However, important changes concerning the type of motifs depicted and a more restricted distribution are evident. Thus, both the continuities and discontinuities in relation to the rock art of older periods are explored in order to better understand the changing logics of communication through rock art in Southern Patagonia.