Small red circle:
Location of the Cueva de las Manos (an UNESCO World Heritage
Site)
Large oval:
Location of many other major archaeological sites
(see map of Argentinian sites in Archaeology)
54. Possible Relatives in the Americas
Cueva de las Manos (Santa Cruz, Argentina)
by George Weber
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Small red circle: Large oval:
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The Cueva de las Manos (acutually, the site is more a rockshelter than a cave). The site was discovered in 1941. In 1949 it was first investigated archaeologically by R. Gonzalez and in 1967 by Escalada in additional detail. The Cueva de las Manos site was formerly known as one of the many Los Toldos sites scattered over the area marked on the map and throughout the Valle del Rio Desdeado.
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The view of the valley of the Rio Pintura valley from the cave entrance. |
The Cueva de las Manos is - as the name says - famous above all for the "stencilled" outlines of many hands. These were not painted but blow-sprayed on the cave walls, almost certainly from a human mouth filled with the moist colour material.
Using the human hand and mouth (with or ithout a mechanical aid such as a spraying pipe) as stencil in this way is a very old human activity indeed - and a world-wide one. Stencilled hands (some dated older than 30,000 years) have been found in every continent. The purpose of this activity is not clear and may have been different at different times and places. It could have been a magic act of some sort such as a prayer or supplication to the spirits. Occasionally tools are also stencilled in this way. In many stencilled hands fingers, or parts of them, are missing. This has been interpreted as a sign of sickness or injury, but it could just as well be evidence of a silent "finger language" code like that used by the Khoisan (Bushmen) people of South Africa.
We simply do not know why so many of our remote ancestors, world-wide, have sprayed their hands on cave walls so often and for so many thousands of years.
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Ancient stencilled hands elswhere in the world:
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Dating stencilled pictures directly is possible with the C14 method only if organic materials have been used. This has not been the case at Cueva de las Manos where mineral colours were used. Luckily, the ancient painters used hollow bird bones to blow the wet colour over the hands - and these bones could be dated: most of the negative stencils of human hands at Cueva de las Manos were made between 9,300 and 3,000 years before the present. The hunting drawings seem to be somewhat older. Ages given in archaeological literature, however, differ so widely that no great reliance can be put on them.
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Most stencils are of a reddish colour, i.e. the most popular colour used by the painters was ochre. This may or may not have had a religious significance in this case. It is notable that in many prehistoric societies ochre of all mineral colours was closest to the colour of life, i.e. of blood. Virtually all early human cultures have used ochre in connection with burial and other important rituals. It is therefore virtually certain that the use of ochre for the hand prints (and with it the hand prints themselves) in Patagonia had religious significance. The rockshelter is rather small and unlikely to have been home for a larger group. It is more likely that people came to the site briefly during hunting trips and for their ceremonies. |
The painting and and handprints date to between 9,300 bis 3,000 before the present and have been grouped according to style in Groups A, B and C as follows:
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Group A: Hunting scenes in which human
figures and guanacos appear. Human figures show dynamic
movement. |
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Group B: Rather static human figures with
small heads and geometrical pattern of unknown meaning. |
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Group C: Stencilled hands and a few relatively large human figures. Red colours dominate. Most hands are left hands, which suggests that painters held the spraying pipe with their dexterous right hand. The size of the hands resembles that of modern 13-year-olds. Considering that the people making these markings were hunter-gatherers and thus smaller in stature than the average young person is today, it is reasonable to assume that the people spraying their left hands were a few years older than that. The hand spraying may well have marked a rite of passage to adulthood Whether both sexes went through the hand stencelling ceremony or only one of the sexes we do not know. Nor do we know if the site was a shrine where people came from far away to undergo the ceremony. It shoould be noted here that similar wall paintings and stencilled hands are also known from a number of other caves in Patagonia - but none of the other sites has anything like the number of hands that the Cueva de las Manos has. |
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Group C continued: There are a few black negative prints here, made with charcoal rather than ochre. The significance of these occasional exceptions is unknown. |
Although of all the Los Toldos sites, the Cueva de las Manos has not produced as large an amount and variety as the related Los Toldos site 3 and others, it has nevertheless produced some. In its lowest levels the Cueva de las Manos had the same stone tools as Los Toldos 3, namely triangular projectile points and marginally retouched artefacts.
The oldest C14 dates found at the Cueva de las Manos from charcoal show that the cave was used by humans at the latest around 9,300 years before the present.
Among web-sites with further information are:
- http://rupestreweb.tripod.com/manos.html
- http://webs.uolsinectis.com.ar/rhasan/index.html
- http://www.patagonia.com.ar/santacruz/cuevamanos.php
- http://www.argentrip.com/cmanos/abajocmanos.htm
- http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=936
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Last change 23 April 2007
