This paper is based on a theoretical perspective focused on the materiality of rock art: breaking away from the primacy of communication and representation in the archaeology of art, it proposes a set of concepts to approach the engagement of people with rock art via its techno-visual and performative qualities. These concepts are applied to a regional case study in Southern Mendoza (Central-West Argentina), in order to characterise the visual codes underlying the materiality of images. Rock art landscapes are characterised by analysing a database of 89 sites in the three biogeographical units: Altoandina, Patagonia and Monte. Technical choices are related to taphonomic and economic factors such as differential conservation of engravings vs. paintings, support hardness, and labour investment in image production. A relational map shows two different sets of inter-site relations, each one characterised by recurring motif-class combinations within the region. The links between motifs’ morphologies and techniques are systematically analysed, leading to the identification of certain motif classes (e.g. geometric motifs) which were “technically-flexible” enough to be produced via different techniques –their meanings being probably more rooted in their morphology–, versus other “not technically-flexible” motif classes (e.g. head-mask figures) which were only produced with specific techniques, thus suggesting that their contents/messages, aesthetic effects and performative functions stemmed from a combination of techno-visual and morphological features embedded in their materialities. In sum, the paper shows how the engagement of people with rock art motifs and landscapes involves perception and production processes that shape their materialities.

中文翻译：

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几何学领域的掩码主题。对南门多萨地区（阿根廷中西部）岩石艺术景观的系统探索


本文基于专注于岩石艺术物质性的理论视角：打破艺术考古学中交流和表现的首要地位，它提出了一系列概念，通过其技术、视觉和表演品质来处理人们与岩石艺术的互动。这些概念被应用于南门多萨（阿根廷中西部）的区域案例研究中，以描述图像物质性背后的视觉代码。岩石艺术景观的特点是分析三个生物地理单位的 89 个地点的数据库：阿尔托安迪纳、巴塔哥尼亚和蒙特。技术选择与图像学和经济因素有关，例如雕刻与绘画的差异守恒性、支撑硬度以及图像制作中的劳动力投资。关系图显示了两组不同的位点间关系，每组关系都以区域内反复出现的基序-类组合为特征。系统地分析了图案的形态和技术之间的联系，从而确定了某些图案类别（例如几何图案），这些图案类别（例如几何图案）“技术上灵活”到足以通过不同的技术产生——它们的含义可能更植根于它们的形态——与其他“技术上不灵活”的图案类别（例如头面人物）相比，它们仅通过特定技术产生， 从而表明它们的内容/信息、审美效果和表演功能源于嵌入其物质性的技术视觉和形态特征的结合。总而言之，本文展示了人们与岩石艺术主题和风景的互动如何涉及塑造其物质性的感知和生产过程。