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The petroglyphs of Santinho Beach S.ta Catarina Island (Brasil)
Santinho beach, situated in S.ta Catarina Island, 40 Km
far from Florianópolis town, shows three rock art sites, engraved
on its rock walls. The coast is a good place for fishing and shell collecting.
In the southern side, distant about 100 m from the
coast rock walls, runs a stream of pure water, which probably satisfied
the water needs of the prehistoric peoples.
Until now, we have no proof of settlement in Santinho beach. The nearest
site is in the north, crossing the dunes, in Ingleses beach. Those sites
have not been deeply investigated, but I can argue, through a surface collection
and ceramic analysis, the existence of the Itararé and of the Guarani
cultures.
| <- Tracing photographed in escale of 15 cm. (left down) | Series of pecked points -> (right up) |
The
site is not well preserved, and remains of sambaqui show the possibility
of a hunters-gatherers preceramic occupation. It's very strange that we
have no vestige of rock art in Ingleses beach, even with favorable conditions
such as the abundance of the diabase rock. However, we have a great number
of lithic stations (sharp and polished implements), perhaps the biggest
site of lithic stations in S.ta Catarina Island.
Making a typologic analysis of the petroglyphs in Santinho Beach, the predominant type is represented by the circles, showing a variation of 8 subtypes and totalizing 20 elements; the most frequent subtypes are the series of filled triangles (silhueta), and between them the double parallel series (repeated 6 times, totalizing 12 elements), which is a theme commonly repeated regionally in the painted decorations of the Guarani ceramic, in the interior of the S.ta Catarina State. Locally we have a corrugate style.
The survey resulted in the cataloguing of 105 engraved figures. Among them we can find not only very well preserved signs but also more faced figures, which we can see only from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. (from December to March).
Of those 105 figures:
- 44 are not repeated;
- 8 are repeated 2 times;
- 3 are repeated 3 times;
- 6 are repeated 4 times;
- 2 are repeated 6 times.
About the engraved lines, the largest is 3.3 cm and the smallest is 1.1 cm. Breadth average is between 1.5 and 2 cm. The deepest engraving line reaches 5 mm in rectilinear figures and 7 mm for ensembles of points in series, but the majority is of plain engravings measuring less than 1 mm in depth.
The biggest petroglyph measures 76 x 140 cm and the smallest 9 x 9 cm (engraved area).
| <- (right down) filled triangles superimposed on an anthropomorphic figure | pecked circle -> (right up) |
Besides photos and slides, plastic sheets in natural size were traced. The traced sheets were reduced by photography and related to a scale of 15 cm. All the information I acquired was placed in a computer, in order to organize a database.
Santinho beach sites present 3 superimpositions.
- The first, in the south coast rock wall, is a curvilinear figure with breadth engraving lines superimposed on a rectilinear figure made by a thin engraved line, which is visibly more faced than the first one.
- The second superimposition, as well as the third, is situated in the second site of the north coast rock wall: we can see three horizontal parallel series of filled triangles superimposed on an anthropomorphic figure made by a thin engraved line.
- The third is a rectilinear figure superimposed on a curvilinear one. They present the same technique of confection, and there is no variation in consumption. So in this case we can hypothesize that the figures are contemporary.
The first rock art period could be represented by the thin engraved lines, which are more faced. The second period could be characterized by the broad engraved lines, which show more preserved figures.
It's really difficult to define clearly the rock art periods, having
only 3 superimpositions to analyze. I hope that collecting all the data
and analyzing S.ta Catarina Island and adjacent islands under a complete
survey, I will be able to reach more reliability about periods and styles
of the rupestrian iconography of this region.
Many Thanks to Mr. Andrea Arcà for the excellent orientation
he gives me.