Abstract

LOPEZ, Gabriel E. J.; SEGUI, Silvina T.  and  SOLA, Patricia. PREHISPANIC ROCK ART IN A MINING, RITUAL AND CARAVAN SITE OF THE PUNA DE SALTA: THE CASE OF CUEVA INCA VIEJO IN THE MACRO-REGIONAL CONTEXT OF THE SOUTH-CENTRAL ANDES. Comechingonia [online]. 2021, vol.25, n.3, pp.41-50. ISSN 1851-0027.

The pre-Hispanic rock art of Cueva Inca Viejo, Puna de Salta, is analyzed and discussed within the framework of mining, ritual and caravanning activities developed in this site from pre-Inca times to the Inca expansion. The rock art constitutes an appropriate material record to understand economic and ideological / symbolic aspects such as those expressed in the cave evidence. In turn, broad-scale shared cultural transmission processes linked to caravan traffic are examined, as reflected by the recurrence of aligned and tied camelid motifs. From the methodological point of view, a descriptive and quantitative characterization of the registered representations is carried out, and the first EDX results of two red pigments and one black paint of the site are reported. Likewise, the design patterns and themes distinguished in Cueva Inca Viejo are discussed from a macro-regional comparison with respect to similar iconographies in different contexts of the South-Central Andes. Finally, the evidence that allows establishing a relative chronology of the cave paintings is evaluated. Such analyzes show certain continuity in the representation of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures in pre-Hispanic contexts. However, it is highlighted that the rock art of Cueva Inca Viejo presents an intense Inca impact, in the same way as has been observed from other archaeological indicators. This particularity would have been related to the effective and symbolic appropriation of this sector of the Puna de Salta by the Inca Empire for the mining of the area.

Keywords : Rock art; South-Central Andes; mining; rituality; caravanning.

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