[OANNES Foro] Dramatic slaughter of whales and sharks by hunters is depicted in hundreds of pieces of stunning 1, 500-year-old rock art on the Atacama desert coast

Mario Cabrejos casal en infotex.com.pe
Lun Feb 26 11:06:37 PST 2018


Dramatic slaughter of whales and sharks by hunters is depicted in hundreds
of pieces of stunning 1,500-year-old rock art on the Chilean coast


By
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Cecile+Borkhatar
ia+For+Mailonline> Cecile Borkhataria

PUBLISHED: 19 February 2018 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5408369/Ancient-Chilean-rock-
art-suggests-hunters-killed-whales.html

 

Stunning rock art on the Chilean coast has revealed how ancient hunter
gatherers in the area used harpoons and rafts to hunt marine animals.

The cave paintings date back to 1,500-years ago, and depict the slaughter of
a variety of creatures, including whales, sea lions, swordfish and sharks.

The pictographs, painted in iron-oxide, comprise of hundreds of hunting
scenes and portray a complex marine hunter-gatherer society. 

Archaeological evidence suggests that the society living in El Médano - a
valley in between the ocean and the desert - specialised in hunting marine
creatures.

Their sophisticated fishing and hunting technology included fish-hooks made
from shell, bone, cactus spines and copper, and rafts made of sea lion skin.

Izcuña hunting scenes. The most commonly painted motif are large fish
silhouettes, while other common motifs include hunting scenes with rafts and
weapons. The ancient cave paintings date back to 1,500-years ago, and depict
hunting scenes painted in iron-oxide

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Izcuña hunting scenes. The most commonly painted motif are large fish
silhouettes, while other common motifs include hunting scenes with rafts and
weapons. The ancient cave paintings date back to 1,500-years ago, and depict
hunting scenes painted in iron-oxide

The paintings were discovered at a new site in El Médano, on the Atacama
Desert coast in northern Chile, with the findings published in the journal
<https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/310
9A81F4CAD9D0E8F2AE1730FC710B8/S0003598X17001855a.pdf/el_medano_rock_art_styl
e_izcuna_paintings_and_the_marine_huntergatherers_of_the_atacama_desert.pdf>
Antiquity.   

 

'I think the most significant discovery is the relationship between these
human groups and these marine animals, understanding how they were captured
and technical developments,' Benjamín Ballester, a researcher with the
Prehistoric Ethnology Team at the University Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris and
the lead author of the study, told the MailOnline.

Rock art was first found in El Médano in 1918, and for thousands of years
only the local Paposo people knew of it.

Pictured is a cave-painting depicting a whale being hunted, dating back to
1,500 years ago

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·          

The cave paintings depicting hunting scenes are located at a newly
discovered sit called Izcuña, a few miles north of El Médano, Chile

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·          

'In hunting scenes, prey is always represented as oversized (averaging 3.9
times bigger) compared to rafts and their crew,' Benjamín Ballester, the
lead author of the study, wrote. 'This style intentionally places the prey
as the protagonist, as evidenced by the detailed, meticulous depictions of
the anatomy and physiology of the animals'

The cave paintings depicting hunting scenes are located at a newly
discovered site called Izcuña, a few miles north of El Médano, Chile

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·          

The cave paintings depicting hunting scenes are located at a newly
discovered site called Izcuña, a few miles north of El Médano, Chile

The latest study focuses on a newly discovered sit called Izcuña, a few
miles north of El Médano.

The pre-hispanic inhabitants of this coastline used strokes of intense red
colour to create images of whales, swordfish, marlin, squid, sea lion,
turtles and sharks. 

While some are hunting scenes, others depict rafts with seafarers and
harpoon lines. 

According to the researchers, the paintings are based on the everyday
experiences of those inhabitants.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the society living in El Médano at the
time specialised in marine resource exploitation, and its sophisticated
fishing and hunting technology.

This allowed the inhabitants of this area to be productive, creating
permanent residential camps located near water springs and on natural
jetties, from which small groups could explore large territories.

According to the researchers behind the study, the paintings are based on
the everyday experiences of those inhabitants. Archaeological evidence
suggests that the society living in El Médano at the time specialised in
marine resource exploitation

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·          

According to the researchers behind the study, the paintings are based on
the everyday experiences of those inhabitants. Archaeological evidence
suggests that the society living in El Médano at the time specialised in
marine resource exploitation

Around 45 miles (75 km) north of Taltal, the El Médano ravine is home to one
of the most remarkable rock art deposits in the South American Pacific
watershed

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Around 45 miles (75 km) north of Taltal, the El Médano ravine is home to one
of the most remarkable rock art deposits in the South American Pacific
watershed

According to the researchers, 328 paintings were found in the Izcuña ravine
on 24 blocks of rock.

Although dense fog (called camanchaca) has bought moisture which has faded
some of the paintings, enough of it has been preserved to date it in
comparison to other El Médino art.

The most commonly painted motif are large fish silhouettes, while other
common motifs include hunting scenes with rafts and weapons. 

Archaeological remains related to hunting activities: A–B) complete harpoon;
C–D) rolled harpoon lines ; E) composite oar fragment - arrows indicate
billet position; F) oar fragments; G) float outline from a raft made of sea
lion skin; H) detail of the cactus spine and cotton zig-zag seam; I) float
fragment with a spine seam from a raft made of sea lion skin

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·          

Archaeological remains related to hunting activities: A–B) complete harpoon;
C–D) rolled harpoon lines ; E) composite oar fragment - arrows indicate
billet position; F) oar fragments; G) float outline from a raft made of sea
lion skin; H) detail of the cactus spine and cotton zig-zag seam; I) float
fragment with a spine seam from a raft made of sea lion skin

While terrestrial animals such as turtles were represented in the paintings,
marine animals were rarely shown.

'In hunting scenes, prey is always represented as oversized (averaging 3.9
times bigger) compared to rafts and their crew,' Ballester wrote in his
study. 

'This style intentionally places the prey as the protagonist, as evidenced
by the detailed, meticulous depictions of the anatomy and physiology of the
animals.

'This is contrasted by the simple, undetailed human drawings created using
lineal strokes. 

Sea lion skin raft with two seafarers, illustrated by Alcides D'Orbigny in
Cobija, 1830. The rafts comprised two large cylindrical floating sections
made of sea lion skin, which when tied together measured almost 3 metres
(9.8 feet) in length

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Sea lion skin raft with two seafarers, illustrated by Alcides D'Orbigny in
Cobija, 1830. The rafts comprised two large cylindrical floating sections
made of sea lion skin, which when tied together measured almost 3 metres
(9.8 feet) in length

'Detail here is limited to the occasional seafarer’s headdress, represented
by two lateral protuberances.'

During previous excavations, archaeologists found makeshift harpoons dating
back to 7,000 years ago.

'The rock art offers clues concerning hunting strategies, such as labour
organisation, hunting roles, the number of harpoon lines involved in the
hunt, animal movement during the chase, the position of attack and the
perspectives of painters,' Ballester wrote. 

General view of the coastal mountain range (Left) and the Izcuña ravine
(Right) where the rock art was found, in El Médano on the Atacama Desert
coast of Chile

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·          

General view of the coastal mountain range (Left) and the Izcuña ravine
(Right) where the rock art was found, in El Médano on the Atacama Desert
coast of Chile

'They also contain a huge corpus of information concerning the cultural
knowledge of animal anatomy, physiology and behaviour—essentially, their
interspecies relationships. 

'For unknown reasons, the pictographs usually represent successfully
accomplished hunting scenes, once the animal is harpooned. 

'Thus, they most often represent success in the hunt, rather than the
process of hunting.' 


WHAT IS EL MEDANO'S ROCK ART HISTORY?


The discovery of Rock Art in El Médano was first recorded in April 1918.

Augusto Capdeville, a custome official and expert in Taltal archaeology,
recorded a set of painted rocks in El Médano ravine, located five miles
north from Paposo, a small fishing town on the Atacama Desert coast. 

Along with a detailed map of the site, he recounted the presence of fishing
nets, rafts, 'llamas or guanaco herd', as well as 'Indians pointing with
arrows to guanacos, some of them kneeling, and others throwing harpoons to
big fishes (swordfishes), maybe whales, and others from the boats, picking
with lines the fishes.'  

The Izcuña, El Médano (Chile) cave paintings depicting hunting scenes date
back to 1,500-years ago

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·          

The Izcuña, El Médano (Chile) cave paintings depicting hunting scenes date
back to 1,500-years ago

The site was rediscovered in 1973, a local mining prospector had known of
its existence and revealed it to a geologist , who notified archaeologist
Hans Niemeyer. 

It was his work that determines the place of El Médano-style paintings in
Atacama Desert prehistory and Chilean archaeology.

Apparently, Niemeyer was not aware that Capdeville had previously visited
the site and recorded the paintings at El Médano.

Research on the El Médano paintings has since taken place, including
interpretive, symbolic and archaeology of art approaches (comparing local
and coastal rock art to other styles in the Atacama Desert). 

Almost 100 years after Capdeville's recordings, researchers have discovered
at least four new ravines with similar paintings, located close to El
Médano.  








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