- Address: Santa Cruz, Argentina
- Total length: 160 m
One of the oldest and most mysterious places in Argentina is rightly considered Cueva de las Manos - a cave in the south of the country, in the province of Santa Cruz. Cueva de las Manos in Spanish means "cave of hands", which very accurately characterizes this place. Among tourists, the cave has become widely popular due to the rock art in the form of a lot of hands left by the tribes of the Indians. These drawings resemble children's fun - tracing a palm on a piece of paper. Since 1991, the landmark is on the UNESCO World Heritage List and is considered a historically significant place.
Uniqueness of the cave
Cueva de las Manos is located on the territory of Patagonia near the town of Bajo Caracoles in the valley of the river Rio Pinturas. In fact, the Cave of the hands consists of several different caves, the total length of which is 160 m. It is easy to get lost in this territory, so tourists are not allowed into all the gorges, but only to the most interesting and safe. You can visit the most important cave, the height of which reaches 10 m, and the depth is 24 m. Moreover, it is quite wide, the largest width of this cave is 15 m. It is known that up to the 8th c. here lived the indigenous Indian tribes.
| | | |
Color range of rock art
The largest number of images, more than 800 human palms, is in the main cave Cueva de las Manos. Most of the drawings are done in a negative. They also note positive images, which appeared much later. The color of the palms is different: there are red, yellow, black and white prints. By what principle the color for images was chosen, the scientists did not establish. The oldest of them belong to the IX century, and later prints are dated to the X century.
Rock paintings were preserved in the cave due to the use of mineral paints. These paints were applied with the help of bone tubes, which were discovered by archaeologists in the cave. Just with the help of tubules, scientists have managed to determine the age of the images. Purple color Indians received, adding to the tube iron oxide, for obtaining black color used manganese oxide. White obtained due to the appropriate shade of clay, and yellow - natrouarosite.
On the walls of the cave Cueva de las Manos, tourists can see not only the palm prints, but also other drawings depicting aspects of life and life of Indian tribes. This mainly applies to hunting scenes. They can be used to determine who the Indians were hunting. In the cave there are drawings of ostriches-nandu, guanaco, various representatives of felines and other animals. Also there are footprints of these animals, and geometric figures, and various hieroglyphs left by the inhabitants of the cave.
| | | |
Who owns the palm of your hand?
After studying the cave Cueva de las Manos in Argentina, scientists determined that the palm prints mostly belong to adolescent boys. And to create a drawing, we used the left hand. According to scientists, this is due to the fact that the right hand is easier to draw and hold a tube. Lefties left the prints of the right hand. Archaeologists have come to the conclusion that the rock art is the result of the initiation ceremony. When a teenager became a man, he passed several sacraments, one of which was the imprint of a palm print on the walls of the cave where his tribe lived. The fact that in the cave there lived Indian tribes, they say found objects of everyday life.
How to get to the Cave of the Hands?
The Cueva de las Manos Cave is best reached from Bajo Caracoles. From here by car along the route RP97, the journey time is about 1 hour, along the RN40 - about 1.5 hours. On the spot, you can book an excursion with an experienced guide, who will tell you about the meaning of each picture.
| | | |
