Spinning among the rocks ... analysis of the designs of foreign spindle whorls in Cerro Colorado rock art (north of Córdoba, Argentina)

Abstract

This paper analysis some rock art motifs that breaking with a Cerro Colorado (Sierras del Norte, Córdoba) shared repertoire. The local and macro regional iconographic comparison provide us guidelines for  understanding their incorporation into the local repertoire. In the same way, this comparative strategy allow to proposed lines to inquiry about the social processes that took place in the region during the Late Pre-hispanic period (400-1550 AD). Thus, some motifs of Cerro Colorado are similar to the designs of the spindle whorls found in the middle region of Salado river (Santiago del Estero) but also on site of La Paya (Calchaqui Valley). Its inclusion in a local historical context marked by social tensions involving different spheres of  interaction indicates that these designs were symbolic resources to strengthen and demarcation within and also out of the group from the reference to the ties established with communities, for example, of the of the
lowlands of Santiago del Estero.