Left to right: Herd of guanacos in Santa Cruz, Argentina; hunting scene at Paredón de las Escenas, Cueva de las Manos, depicting guanacos in an animal drive.[1]

When the site was occupied, the Pinturas and Deseado Rivers drained into the Atlantic Ocean and provided water for herds of guanacos, making the area attractive to Paleoindians. As the glacial ice fields melted, the Baker River captured the drainage of the eastward flowing rivers. The resulting reduction in water levels of the Pinturas and Deseado rivers led to a progressive abandonment of the Cueva de las Manos site.[2]

Projectile points, a bola stone fragment, side-scrapers, and fire pits[3] have been found alongside the remains of guanaco, puma, fox, birds, and other small animals.[4][5] Guanacos were the natives' primary food source; hunting methods included bolas, ambushes,[a][6][7] and game drives, in which they would drive guanacos into ravines and other confined areas to better collectively hunt them.[8] This technique is recorded in the art of the cave, and shows how the topography of the area influenced the art and how it was created.[9] Dart and spear throwers are also depicted, although there is little archaeological evidence of these types of weapons being used in Patagonia.[10]

The Pre-Columbian economy of Patagonia depended on hunting-gathering. Archaeologist Francisco Mena states: "[in the] Middle to Late Holocene Adaptations in Patagonia ... neither agriculture nor fully fledged pastoralism ever emerged."[11] Argentine surveyor and archaeologist Carlos J. Gradin remarks in his writings that all the rock art in the area shows the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of the artists who made it.[12] The presence of obsidian near the cave—which is not natural to the region—implies a broad-ranging network of trade between peoples of the cave area and distant tribal groups.[13][14][15]

Beginning around 7,500 BC, the site, along with the Cerro Casa de Piedra-7 site near Lake Burmeister, became important landmarks in a nomadic circuit[16] between Pinturas Canyon and its surrounding areas, the western part of the Central High Plateau, and the steppes and forests of the ecotone bordering the steppes and forests of the mountainous-lake environment of the Andes.[16] These regions existed at various elevations.[b][16] The migratory patterns of this circuit were seasonal, following the abundance of vegetables in each region and the births of guanacos, which varied based on the altitude.[8] The furs of newborn guanacos were highly sought after by the native peoples, increasing the importance of guanaco birth patterns to the timing of the seasonal migrations.[8] The prime time for newborn guanacos near Cueva de las Manos was around November.[8] The groups who inhabited the area included the Toldense people, who lived in the caves until the third or second millennium BC.[17] When occupying the area, temporary camp sites would be made around the cave, where extended families or even large bands of people would gather.[8] The groups that gathered at these camp sites would have enabled the inhabitants to organize group hunting of guanacos.[8]

The earliest rock art at the site was created around 7,300 BC.[18] Cueva de las Manos is the only site in the region with rock art of this age, categorized as the A1 and A2 styles of the cave, but after 6,800 BC similar art, particularly hunting scenes of styles A3, A4, and A5, was created at other sites in the region.[8] The site was last inhabited around 700 AD, with the final cave dwellers possibly being ancestors of the Tehuelche tribes.[19][20][21]

Father Alberto Maria de Agostini, an Italian missionary and explorer, first wrote about the site in 1941.[22][23] It was then investigated by an expedition of the La Plata Museum in 1949.[24] Argentine surveyor and archaeologist Carlos Gradin and his team began the most substantial research on the site in 1964, initiating a 30-year-long study of the caves and their art.[25][6] Gradin's work has helped to identify the different stylistic sequences of the cave.[18]

Cueva de las Manos is a National Historic Monument in Argentina,[26] and has been since 1993.[27] In 1995, the site became a major subject in a study of Argentina's rock art initiated by the National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Thought (INAPL).[28] This study led to Cueva de las Manos being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.[28] In 2015, the land was bought from a private ranch by Rewilding Argentina, an environmental organization.[29] In 2018, the site received its own provincial park,[30] and as of 2020 the land is controlled directly by the state, after being donated by Rewilding Argentina.[29]

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