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Singa Transitional: Rock-art Saywas Marking Boundaries of Identity and Socializing Landscape in Huánuco, Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2021

Jonathan J. Dubois Open the ORCID record for Jonathan J. Dubois [Opens in a new window]
Jonathan J. Dubois*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University San Bernardino, 5500 University Parkway, Rm SB-327, San Bernardino, CA 92407-2397, USA Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper introduces a new art style, Singa Transitional, found painted onto a mountainside near the modern town of Singa in the north of Huánuco, Peru. This style was discovered during a recent regional survey of rock art in the Huánuco region that resulted in the documentation of paintings at more than 20 sites, the identification of their chronological contexts and an analysis of the resulting data for trends in changing social practices over nine millennia. I explore how the style emerged from both regional artistic trends in the medium and broader patterns evident in Andean material culture from multiple media at the time of its creation. I argue that the presence of Singa Transitional demonstrates that local peoples were engaged in broader social trends unfolding during the transition between the Early Horizon (800–200 bc) and the Early Intermediate Period (ad 0–800) in Peru. I propose that rock art placed in prominent places was considered saywa, a type of landscape feature that marked boundaries in and movement through landscapes. Singa Transitional saywas served to advertise the connection between local Andean people and their land and was a medium through which social changes were contested in the Andes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , May 2021 , pp. 247 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

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