Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz in the context of "Cave painting"

⭐ In the context of cave paintings, current archaeological research suggests that the earliest examples of this art form may *not* have been exclusively created by which hominid species?

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⭐ Core Definition: Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz

Perito Moreno is a town in the northwest of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, 25 km east of Lake Buenos Aires. It should not be confused with the Perito Moreno National Park over 300 km south by road, or the Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate. The town is the capital of the Lago Buenos Aires Department. It lies on the RN43, a paved road which links Caleta Olivia on the Atlantic coast to Los Antiguos and the Chilean frontier 60 km west, and Ruta 40, running north and south.

The town is a centre of cattle ranches and smallholdings producing fruit and vegetables. Tourism is also an important industry. Perito Moreno is the closest town to Cueva de las Manos, 170 km south by road, and Parque Laguna.

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👉 Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz in the context of Cave painting

In archaeology, cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin. Several groups of scientists suggest that the oldest of such paintings were created not by Homo sapiens, but by Denisovans and Neanderthals.

Discussion around prehistoric art is important in understanding the history of Homo sapiens and how human beings have come to have unique abstract thoughts. Some point to these prehistoric paintings as possible examples of creativity, spirituality, and sentimental thinking in prehistoric humans.

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Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz in the context of Cueva de las Manos

Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of the Hands or Cave of Hands) is a cave and complex of rock art sites in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, 163 km (101 mi) south of the town of Perito Moreno. It is named for the hundreds of paintings of hands stenciled, in multiple collages, on the rock walls. The art was created in several waves between 7,300 BC and 700 AD, during the Archaic period of pre-Columbian South America. The age of the paintings was calculated from the remains of bone pipes used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave to create the artwork, radiocarbon dating of the artwork, and stratigraphic dating.

The site is considered by some scholars to be the best material evidence of early South American hunter-gatherer groups. Argentine surveyor and archaeologist Carlos J. Gradin and his team conducted the most important research on the site in 1964, when they began excavating sites during a 30-year study of cave art in and around Cueva de las Manos. The site is a National Historic Monument in Argentina and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz in the context of Lago Buenos Aires Department

Lago Buenos Aires Department is one of the seven departments in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It covers an area of 28,609 km and had a population of 12,606 at the 2022 Census. The seat of the department is in Perito Moreno.

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Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz in the context of Los Antiguos

Los Antiguos is a town in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, located on the south shore of Lago Buenos Aires. It lies 2 km from the border with Chile, and 8 km from the Chilean town of Chile Chico. It is connected to Perito Moreno and Caleta Olivia on the Atlantic coast by a paved road.

The town is an agricultural oasis, where small farms produce fruit crops. It was founded as the Leandro Alem Agricultural Colony in 1921, and was formally designated as a municipality in 1970. The area was covered by dust from the 1991 eruption of Mount Hudson, but it has since recovered.

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