Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas

Some historic places give us the inspiration to learn about the past, including the kindness that prevailed. For example, Cueva de las Manos in Argentine Patagonia is a great site that allows us to engage in purposeful travel. So, let’s go deep down into it. Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands) is part of a worldwide collection of intriguing prehistoric rock art. Other noteworthy locations can be found in Europe, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. However, because of their entire surface area, those rock faces in Argentina are the world’s most extensive and, probably, most spectacular rock art gallery. Historians are unsure when Argentine forefathers chose to print their handprints and capture other motifs, like the native guanaco camelid. However, they do know it happened approximately 13,000 and 9,500 years ago.

History

It was called for the dozens of hand stencil artworks adorning many universities’ stone walls. The art evolved in various waves between 7,300 Before Christ and 700 Anno Domini throughout the Archaic period of prior-Columbian Southern America. The age of the paintings was determined using fragments of bone tubes used to pour paint over the cave’s wall to create the artwork, as well as radiocarbon dating & stratigraphy analysis.

Location

Cueva de las Manos refers to the major site of the cave and the neighbouring network and rock paintings. The cave is situated at the foot of a stepping rock in Pinturas River Valley, in the higher region of the Deseado River area, in an isolated section of Patagonia. It is located around 165 kilometres (103 miles) southward of Perito Moreno, the city in Argentina’s northwestern Santa Cruz Region. It is found in both Perito Moreno Nature Reserve and Cueva de las Manos Regional Park.

Climate

A microclimate evolved in the canyon during the later Pleistocene and earlier Holocene geologic eras, 400 to 500 metres above ocean levels, supporting a grassland ecosystem suited to various animals. It also had nutritional and medical plants, tubers such as rushed roots, plus mixed fruits such as Berberis plants.

Places to Visit in Cueva De Las Manos

• Cave of the hands: While there are different types of handprints discovered all around the globe, the Cave of Hands has the world’s largest and most striking display of rock art. The prehistoric art is stunning, and it represents three separate societies. The differentiation is thought to represent three different eras
• Adventure and heritage of Southern Patagonia: Patagonia is a geographical region in Argentina and Chile that spans the southernmost part of South America. The southern Andes Mountains, with lakes, temperate rainforests, glaciers in tablelands, and steppes in the east, make up the region. Patagonia is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, east by the Atlantic Ocean, and south by the Drake Passage, the Strait of Magellan, and numerous more water bodies connecting them
• Know its culture: There are many little monuments to visit which show incredible beauty and even humanity years back through paintings and other works of art 

Radiocarbon Dating

The most extensively utilised technique of dating Holocene and recent Pleistocene earthquakes is radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating can only be used on biological matter created from carbon fixed within the previous 50 000–60 000 years due to the half-life of radioactive 14C (5730 years) (Trumbore, 2000). Because of artificial emissions, the amount of 14C in co2 in the atmosphere has fluctuated, especially in the last several decades. Radiocarbon dates are adjusted to correlate to calendar ages to correct this difference (absolute ages). Tree ring and glacial varve calibrations cover practically the entire spectrum of 14C dating. Calibration curves aren’t always straight. The reliability of radiocarbon dating is limited by plateaus in calibration curves (Trumbore, 2000). For the previous few centuries, this has been a severe issue.

Conclusion 

Cueva De Las Manos (Cave of Hands) is one of those beauties that we ignore most of the time, and we are not aware of it. Las Manos has incredible beauty in its cave paintings and works of art glaciers and is even known for its radiocarbon dating. One should take a step forward to know these great pictures with little existence. Las Manos culture shows how humanity prevailed earlier. All should know its culture.