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Where is Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands) located? When was it painted?

It is located in Santa Cruz, Argentina. It was painted 13,000 years ago. Profiles of human hands, perhaps created in some sort of coming-of-age ritual, join images of birds and beasts on the walls of this cave system in Patagonian wilderness at the tip of South America. Most of the hands are lefties, leading archaeologists to believe the ancient artists created their stencils by blowing paint through hollow bones held in their right hands.

It takes its name (Cave of the Hands) from the stencilled outlines of human hands in the cave, but there are also many depictions of animals, such as guanacos (Lama guanicoe ), still commonly found in the region, as well as hunting scenes that depict animals and human figures interacting in a dynamic and naturalistic manner. The entrance to the Cueva is screened by a rock wall covered by many hand stencils. Within the rock shelter itself there are five concentrations of rock art, later figures and motifs often superimposed upon those from earlier periods. The paintings were executed with natural mineral pigments – iron oxides (red and purple), kaolin (white), and natrojarosite (yellow), manganese oxide (black) – ground and mixed with some form of binder.

 

Picture Credit : Google

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