Apr 3

Apr 3 Old School Graffiti

The stencilled left hands are found in shades of red, white and black. The size of the prints are similar to those of a 13 year-old boy; perhaps the culprits were commemorating a rite of manhood? In any case, the persons responsible for marking this wall are still unknown and will probably remain so, as these stencils are between 9,500 and 13,000 years old.

Cueva de las Manos, located in Río Pinturas, Argentina is home to several prehistoric paintings of humans, animals, geometric patterns and most famously, the hands shown above. The cave extends 24 meters (79 ft) deep and is 15 meters (50 ft) wide at the entrance. As the cavern progresses inward, the ceiling tapers down and the walls come alive with images from the past.

Archeologists believe the ancestors of Patagonian hunter-gatherer communities created the astoundingly preserved art found on the rock face. The ancient artists held bone pipes in their right hands to blow the stencils, and dots on the ceiling hint at hunting weapons being dipped in the mineral pigments and thrown upwards.