POBLACIÓN DE DISEÑO

The written sources show that body painting practices have existed in Tierra del Fuego since at least the XVI century. The analysis o f archaeological finds can help in broadening the time scope o f this visual production, although not unambiguously. Colouring substances have been found in sites o f the Pacific coasts and the Beagle channel - the A lacaluf and Yâmana areas respectively (Legoupil 1997; Orquera and Piana 1999). There is no published information about finds o f colouring substances in Northern Tierra del Fuego - the Selk’nam territory.

Pigment residues have been found in the northern shore o f the Beagle Channel in sites Tunel I (31 samples), Imiwaia I (15 samples), Shamakush I (3 samples) and Mischihuen I (samples not checked yet as fieldwork was still in progress by the time o f completion o f this thesis). A preliminary inventory o f the samples taken includes a) rocks, shells and one flake stained with pigments/sediments, b) pigment powder, and c) small chunks o f lumped pigment which seem to have been intentionally bound to form a clod. The pigments are mostly o f different hues o f red, although some yellow and brownish colours have also been found. The dates o f the layers from which the samples were extracted go from 6600 to 1920 BP in Tunel I site (Orquera and Piana 1999: 34), 940 BP in Shamakush I (idem: 35), and about 6000 BP in Imiwaia I (ibid).

Though impossible to assure for which purpose (body painting, artefact smearing/painting) what is clear from the archaeological materials is that the manipulation o f colouring substances goes a long way back in time. Further study o f these sample^' chemical composition will allow to determine if similar or different

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materials were used in different sites and periods, the potential sources o f raw materials, and the procedures involved in processing them (mainly hydrating, greasing, burning, grinding and moulding). The uses o f pigment lumps as crayons or as clods from which powder was obtained, could to an extent be determined by studying their macro and microwear traces (e.g. Christensen in Legoupil 1997: 227-233).

The use o f the three colours (red, white and black) can be related not only to the plastic intention o f the Fuegians in relation to these, but to the availability o f raw materials which could be used as colouring substances and o f techniques to process them. Black is readily available from the charcoal o f fire hearths. White could be produced by using lime, clay or gypsum, while other less usual procedures could also generate white colouring substances (see chapter 4). Red was mainly generated by using sediments o f such colour; other substances were seldom used. It is difficult to imagine the creation o f substances o f other colours, such as blue or green, using only inorganic materials (or exceptionally, bone/shell residues), and the preparation procedures mentioned above. Hence the availability o f raw materials and o f techniques to prepare them seem to have been limiting conditions under which the development o f painting colours occurred.

In relation to potential painting tools, Darwin, Hyades, L. Bridges, Gusinde, Lothrop and Stambuk described the rods and spatulas that were used (see chapter 4). An important number o f bone rods, and some bone sub-rectangular objects which can be described as tablets or spatulas have been found in the Beagle channel sites, especially in Tunel I (Orquera and Piana 1999). The purpose o f these objects is in fact unknown, but some tablets/spatulas, found in this site (6,000-4,000 BP) look like the one shown by Lothrop in photo Y86 (object d), identified by him as a painting instrument (see plates 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4). According to a preliminary microscopic observation, these archaeological artefacts do not show pigment residues, but this obviously could be the effect o f post depositional processes which could have erased the pigm ents\

' Three o f these tablets/spatulas have been decorated with geometric rectilinear engravings, and have been formatted in very particular shapes, mostly sub-rectangular, including the narrowing o f one o f the ends with notches with a potential hanging function. These objects show the same shape than the chiéjaus

ornamental tablets, with the only difference that these were painted, not engraved (see further comments in chapter 5). So these artefacts can be linked to the painting tools due to their general ‘spatula’ shape, but they can also be related to the decorated chiéjaus tablets because o f their format details. 131

Finally, two instruments recently found in site Mischihuen I, show potential traces o f pigment. One is an small elongated bone rod o f sub-rectangular section, decorated with engravings similar to those in many other instruments found in this and other sites o f the Beagle Channel region (e.g. in Tunel I, Tunel VII, Lancha Packewaia, etc., mostly found in ancient layers -(6,000-4,000 BP)-, and adding up to 207 artefacts). But inside o f one o f the grooves o f this rod a red pigment residue has been observed with the aid o f a microscope. This observation is only preliminary, and various other observations and tests to the pigment residue itself need to be carried out before claiming that this could be an artefact decorated with engravings plus painting. If this were the case, then the practice o f decorating artefacts with paint might not have only been occurring in recent times, but would also have been practised in ancient times too. Conversely, with the exception o f very few bone beads with engraved dashes found in sites o f recent date (Tunel VII and Lanashuaia) the ethnographic artefacts o f the Beagle Channel never show traces o f engraved decoration, which was common in ancient times. The loss o f this tradition is still to be explained, and is actually one o f the future aims o f research which stem from this project.

The second artefact is a bigger rod, o f circular section, which shows near one o f its ends a dark patch o f a substance that impregnates it perimetrally. Again, specific chemical and microscopic analyses are required to determine the nature o f this ‘stain’. Observation with the naked eye suggests that this is more likely to be a residue from decoration than a residue from dipping the rod on paint and using it as a painting tool, both because o f the position o f the stain -w hich is not at the end o f the object- and because o f the size and weight o f the rod, which makes it difficult to manipulate it as an instrument to apply paint with certain precision. (For less precise application it is expected that the paint would be applied directly with the hands, rather than using a tool).