When a painting is a history on the rock. A methodological approach to rock art studies through the case of El Alto-Ancasti\'s Mountain

Abstract

It is a common assumption into rock art studies that a motif express a single painting event, made by an artist in a particular time period.Notwithstanding, a deepen insight on the history of production of rock art panels may shed light to more complex procesess, comprising different stages and many people.Our research carried out at several archaeological sites in El Alto-Ancasti's Mountain (Catamarca, Argentina), explores the processes of production, uses and transformations of several caves with rock art.Adopting a material approach, we employed noninvasive and micro-invasive techniques to study the inorganic composition of rock paintings and distinguish between different painting mixtures.As a result of this approach, we detected chemical differences throughout particular motifs that allow us to think in several episodes of painting manufacture.In this paper, we describe a case study from the La Candelaria site in order to delve into the merits and limitations of an archaeometric insight to inquiry into the history of painting production.

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