Pinturas rupestres y ritualidad en la Sierra Pie de Palo (San Juan)

A group of rock paintings discovered in three sites of the Sierra Pie de Palo is presented. These paintings are the first ones located in the central zone of San Juan and their discovery constitutes a quantitatively significant contribution to the provincial record of sites with this type of materiality. The production of these images is interpreted in terms of a possible performance of rituals related to the protection of camelids herds, their abundance or some other aspect linked to this key element in the diet of the local inhabitants. The process of finding two of these works is described, based on a hypothetical-deductive approach elaborated to explain the discovery of the first one. In addition, the relative chronology of this record is discussed for the numerous petroglyphs present in two of the sites analyzed, as well as their possible production by hunter-gatherer groups prior to their authors.