Papua New Guinea Rock Art. From [1]
Patagonian Rock Art. ca. 10,000 BC. Copyright © 2012 by Austin Whittall
I took my vacations during the last two weeks of January 2012, and while I was browsing through books and magazines at an airport bookstore I came across the February 2012 issue of National Geographic Magazine, leafing through it I was startled by the image shown above (top), which very clearly reminded me of some hands painted on a basaltic cliff in Patagonia, the "Cueva de las Manos" (Cave of Hands), which I had visited in 2007; shown in the photograph above (bottom).
More on the "Cueva de las Manos" World Heritage Site of the UNESCO at my website www.TurismoRuta40.com.ar/cuevadelasmanos.html [in Spanish]
The Papuan hands are brighter but bearing in mind that the Patagonian ones date to about 10,000 years BC (12,000 years ago) it is not too surprising.
Austronesians in America
I have already posted (Homo erectus in America - more) about the theory that suggests that native Patagonians differ from the usual "Mongolid" people considered by orthodox science to be the ancestors of all native Americans. This theory says they resemble "Austronesians" in their DNA. (as well as other things; see my previous post on a possible migration route from Australia to Patagonia.
In my book I mention several myths shared by the Australian Aboriginal people and the Tehuelche natives of Southern Patagonia (I exclude the Mapuche natives of Northern Patagonia, who in my opinion are of an Amazonian origin and closely related to the Guaraní people of Paraguay and Brazil).
The striking similarity of the hands painted with the same method (stenciled by blowing paint through a hollow tube) is amazing.
Of course, a hand painted on a wall is a clear human gesture: "this is me", "I am", "I am a person", "I exist", and I am sure that there must be some rock art in European caves with stenciled hands. Yet, it is a very weird coincidence!
I googled "Hands Rock Art Australia" for images and came across the following:
Notice the similarity with Patagonian rock art. All of these are Australian Aboriginal hand paintings. A similar search for "Hands Rock Art Europe" did not return any images of European rock paintings with hands in them.
Furthermore they have a myth (mentioned in the article [1]) which says that the cave, known as Kopao, which has these paintings, was the place that the Meakambut people came from, out of a crack in the rocks made by their god Api.
A similar legend exists among the Tehuelche, where their god brought forth all beings from a cave!
Well, that is all for now. More in my next post.
Photo credits
[1] National Geographic Magazine, Feb. 2012. Last of the Cave People pp 127. Photograph by Amy Toensing.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia
Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall ©
Dear Austin,
ReplyDeleteyou might want to try
"Altamira cave handprints"
"Chauvet cave handprints"
"Gargas cave handprints"
when using Google picture search.
Handprints are quite commmon in European Rock Art.
Kind regards, Anya
Anya,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. Yes indeed, it seems so. It corroborates my assumption that hand marks mean "I am a person, I exist" a "human imprint".
Very interesting. Will take a look at the techniques used.
Best regards,
Austin
any ADN researchbof the fuegian aborigins?
ReplyDeleteF.Hartwig
Fernando, yes, among PNG natives there are quite a few Y and mtDNA haplogroups not found in America. The Southern Americans mtDNA can be seen in this paper: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0043486, regarding Y chromosome haplos, they are mostly Q which is only found in America and some Siberian groups. C haplogroup found in PNG (C2 haplotype) is also found in some parts of America (C3*) and maybe not detected yet among the Southern South Americans due to sampling bias.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.