Primeras investigaciones sobre el arte rupestre de la patagonia chilena

Abstract

Rupestrian painting constitutes an insufficiently investigated feature of the Chilean past. This is especially true concerning Chilean Patagonia pictographies, the manifestation of which has proved to be common and interesting. Chilean Patagonia rupestrian partings have up to now been located in the provinces of Aisén and Magallanes. Four áreas, cióse to the Argentinian border, are known in Aisén. These are located at Punta del Monte, Río Ibáñez, Río Chacabuco, and Quebrada Honda. The richest área in sites is the Río Ibáñez valley and Lake General Carrera. The motifs are hand impressions, simple signs, zoomorphs, and grecas. The discovery of grecas is a contribution to the knowledge of aboriginal culture. It extends their área four geographic degrees southward from the most meridional pictographic known reference. The sites discovered up to now in Magallanes are located at the áreas of Morro Chico, Cueva de la Leona and vallev of Río Chico. In this last área the first human settlement of Southern Patagonia has been reported (Bird, 1938 - 1946). The pictographic motifs are different from those in Aisén. The abundance of anthropomorphs and complicated signs permits the postulation of the hypothesis of a definite and independent style for the área. The elements which could define this new style are short paired lines; series of parallel lines variable in number and lengenth; anthropomorphic and zoomorphic aschematic figures; concentric circles; ogival archs, etc.