Pages

Monday, January 17, 2011

Patagonian Cave Man, a Homo erectus?

 
Patagonia Cave Man
Patagonian Cave Man. Adapted From [1] by Austin Whittall

Continuing with my posts on Homo erectus I have been looking at Patagonian rock art to see if it has any odd looking hominid depictions. Well, it does, there are many human-like (or antropomorphic) representations in Patagonian caves and rock outcrops. One of them is shown above, which is painted at the Gingin cave, Mount Chapelco, close to San Martín de los Andes, in Neuquén province, Argentina.

It was traced by Milcíades Vignati in the 1930s. I enlarged the part showing a thick contoured hominid which seems to represent a stocky apish and not too tall hominid chasing other more gracile and taller ones. Could it be the representation of a H. erectus chasing some modern humans?.

I have not found the dating of these drawings, which could be as old as the Cueva de las Manos paintings (9,000 BC) or as recent as the late 1800s.

Of course, it could represent someone dressed up as a "spirit" and have no connection with H. erectus.

Sources.

[1] Vignati, Milcíades Alejo, (1935). Una pictografía de los alrededores de San Martín de Los Andes. Revista Geográfica Americana, IV, pp. 407- 410. Buenos Aires, 1935.



Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia
2011 International Year of Forests
2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

No comments:

Post a Comment