Nuevos datos sobre las pinturas rupestres de Los Toldos (Santa Cruz, Argentina): Bases para un enfoque comparativo en Patagonia Meridional

Abstract

The Las Cuevas Canyon at Los Toldos locality (Santa Cruz, Argentina) has played a prominent and controversial role in the debate about the peopling of America. In spite of the high concentration of paintings in Los Toldos, its rock art has not been included as a significant variable in the discussion. This work introduces original information from the systematic study of six archaeological sites at the Las Cuevas Canyon with the aim of laying the foundations for a comparative study at local and regional scales. For this purpose, aspects such as the distribution of motifs, the superimpositions and the size of the hand stencils are evaluated. The results shed light on the practices of different social actors in the canyon, and allow us to propose a sequence of rock art production. The discussion is contextualized within the regional archaeological scholarship of Southern Patagonia.