Anchoring the landscape: human utilization of the Cerro Gavilán 2 rockshelter, Middle Orinoco, from the Early Holocene to the present

Abstract

Abstract:Initial archaeological investigations at Cerro Gavilán 2, a rockshelter located in the Bolívar State of Venezuela, reveal evidence for human activity that spans the Early Holocene to the present. This report summarizes the information obtained through surface collection, limited excavation, and documentation of the surface features and rock art in the cave. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14 C analysis established dates from excavated strata that range between 9250 ± 60 BP to 3440 ± 40 BP, and are associated with a unifacial flake technology and charred faunal and floral remains, whereas surface remains span the known ceramic sequence for the area. Rock art corresponds to distinctive superimposed styles that indicate continual repainting of the cave through time, serving to anchor the site to the landscape for multiple societies inhabiting the region. It is suggested that the shelter may have fulfilled different functions over time and a sequence of seasonal residential, ritual, and funerary activities is proposed. The rich cultural context found in Cerro Gavilán 2 contributes to advances in Amazonian archaeology that are redefining our knowledge of early developments and the complexity of human/environmental interactions in tropical America. Keywords:Venezuela. Rock art. Early Holocene occupation. Orinoco Rockshelter. Landscape Archaeology.Resumo: Pesquisas arqueológicas preliminares realizadas no Cerro Gavilán 2, um abrigo rochoso localizado no estado de Bolívar, na Venezuela, revelaram indícios da atividade humana que vão desde o Holoceno inicial até o presente. Este artigo resume as informações obtidas através de coletas de superfície, escavação limitada e documentação da arte rupestre existente no abrigo. As datas obtidas através de análise utilizando 14 C AMS a partir das camadas escavadas revelaram um período de ocupação entre 9250 ± 60 AP a 3440 ± 40 AP e estão associadas a uma tecnologia de lascas unifaciais, restos carbonizados de fauna e restos botânicos, enquanto os materiais de superfície abarcam toda a sequência de cerâmica conhecida para a região. Diferentes estilos de pinturas rupestres se sobrepõem no abrigo, indicando que essa atividade foi contínua ao longo do tempo. Este aspecto serviu para fixar o sítio à paisagem, utilizado que foi por vários grupos que habitaram a região. A utilização variada sugere que houve uso como moradia temporária e para visitas esporádicas com fins de realização de rituais e de atividades funerárias. O rico contexto cultural identificado em Cerro Gavilán 2 representa avanços para a arqueologia amazônica ao redefinir o entendimento acerca da ocupação inicial na região e da complexidade das interações humanas e ambientais na América tropical.

Patterns of Style, Diversity, and Similarity in Middle Orinoco Rock Art Assemblages

“…Notably, the artefacts found at the Cerro Gavilán rockshelter in stratigraphic association with the earliest dates include ochre similar in coloration to the pictographs in the rockshelter. There are also enough occurrences of superimposed motifs that Greer (1995b) used this site as one of the keys for deriving his relative chronology of pictographs for the Middle Orinoco, with which Scaramelli and Scaramelli (2017) are in broad agreement. The rock art of this site includes post-European Conquest motifs that, together with the early Holocene dates, indicate that Cerro Gavilán had a long use-life.…”

“…Finally, we collated the extant literature on the rock art of the Orinoco from published reports, theses, books, and journal articles. We preferred cases where descriptions are of high enough quality to allow counts of the site content (e.g., Greer 1995aGreer , 1995bScaramelli and Scaramelli 2017;P. Novoa Alvarez pers.…”

“…A number of issues with Middle Orinoco rock art pose challenges to the traditional goal of documenting change through time. Red ochre pigment associated with stylistically-early pictographs (Scaramelli and Scaramelli 2017) is without doubt the most common colour in use at most painted rock art sites and is unlikely to be temporally diagnostic on its own. While Cerro Gavilán is one of the only sites in the entire Orinoco basin where dated remains are directly associated to rock art (cf.…”

“…Rock art, both painted and engraved, figures prominently in anthropological, archaeological, and naturalist writings on the indigenous societies of the Orinoco River (von Humboldt 1810; Chaffanjon 1889; Koch-Grünberg 1921; Koch-Grünberg [1907] 2010; Cruxent 1950Cruxent , 1953Cruxent , 1955Tavera-Acosta 1956;Sujo Volsky 1975;Scaramelli 1992;Greer 1995b;Costas Goberna et al 1996;Tarble de Scaramelli and Scaramelli 2010;Riris et al 2017;Scaramelli and Scaramelli 2017). The span of the river located roughly between the Maipures Rapids and the mouth of the Meta has been highlighted as an area with an especially broad range and high diversity of rock art sites and motifs.…”

“…Archaeologists have noted this separately for pictographs (painted rock art; Greer 1995a, p. 55) and petroglyphs (Dubelaar 1986, p. 126), while underlining the clear inter-relatedness of the known sites in this region (Dubelaar 1986;de Valencia and Sujo 1987;Greer 1995aGreer , 1995bScaramelli 1992; Tarble de Scaramelli and Scaramelli 2010; Riris 2017). Recent work has introduced the possibility that the Middle Orinoco rock art corpus may have been created over a period of up to nine millennia, suggested by the recovery of ochre in situ with securely dated cultural deposits at the Cerro Gavilán rockshelter (Scaramelli and Scaramelli 2017). Evidence of long-term habitation adjacent to significant clusters of rock art stands alongside depictions of possible parallels to indigenous myth and ritual practices in the art (Scaramelli 1992;Lozada Mendieta et al 2016;Riris 2017).…”