Rock art landscapes. A systematic study of images, topographies and visibility in south-central Patagonia (Argentina)

•Spatial distribution of sites and motifs characterize different rock art landscapes.•Bedrock features influence rock art visibility and site inter-visibility.•Viuda Quenzana and La Gruta (Patagonia) have different rock art landscapes.•Sites in Viuda Quenzana have higher visibility & inter-visibility than in La Gruta.•Logistical and residential strategies generate rock art with different visibilities. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of the relationship between rock art production and landscape construction based on an analysis of sites and motifs visibility in two neighboring archaeological localities of south-central Patagonia. We propose that rock art materializes specific forms of social construction of space, through the visual marking of fixed bedrocks distributed on a land portion. These generate rock art landscapes and may have different archaeological visibilities which responded to differences in the social practices underlying image production and display. These visibilities are analyzed by the study of 33 rock art sites, 1273 motifs distributions and the bedrock features selected for image display. Results support the existence of two different patterns of spatial visual marking. These are related to different hunter-gatherer strategies of space use and to structural differences in resources availabilities, which were expressed by rock art landscapes with different visibilities.