La Aproximación histórica al arte rupestre prehispánico de la sierra de El Alto-Ancasti (provincia de Catamarca, noroeste argentino)

Abstract

How can we approach the process through which rock art panels have been built and modified? How to connect these histories of painting/engraving with the others social practices performed in the caves though the time? The goal of this article is to remark the importance of these questions and describe a methodology intended to solve them through the combination of multiple levels of analysis, with five different lines of evidence (spatial analysis, overlapping studies, morphologic-stylistic studies, analysis of pigment mixtures and the stratigraphic excavation of the floor’s sediments). As an example, we present the results obtained by the application of this methodology to the study of the rock art from El Alto-Ancasti’s Sierra; however the methods and techniques could be useful for the research of other sites.