of the creatures. Several waves of people occupied the cave over time. The age of the paintings can be calculated from the remains of bone pipes used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave to create the stenciled artwork of the hand collages, radiocarbon dating of the artwork itself, and stratigraphic dating, including from a piece of the rock wall that had fallen with art on it. Chemical analysis of the pigments used to create the painting, and analysis of the stylistic aspects and superimpositioning (overlap) of the different parts of the art has verified that it is authentic. According to scholar Irene Fanning and colleagues, it is "the best material evidence of early hunter gatherer groups in South America." Forms Earlier works in the cave were more naturalistic—they looked close to how the subjects of the art would have looked in real life. Over time, depictions became more abstract and different in form from how the subject would normally look. There are over 2,000 handprints in and around the cave. Most of the images are painted as negatives or stenciled, alongside some positive handprints. There are 829 left hands to 31 right hands, suggesting that most painters held the bone spray pipe with their right hand. Some handprints are missing fingers, which could be due to necrosis, amputation, or deformity, but might also indicate the use of sign language or bending fingers to convey meaning. The varying depth of the rock face alters the "canvas" of the artwork, and the different depths from the viewer alter the way the images are seen, based on where the viewer is standing. There is a large amount of superimpositioning of the handprints in different areas, with some areas containing so many handprints that they form a palimpsest background of layered color. Along with the superimposed masses of images, there are many purposefully placed single hands. There are also depictions of human beings, guanacos, rheas, felines, south Andean deer, and other animals, as well as geometric shapes, zigzag patterns, representations of the sun, and hunting scenes. The hunting scenes are naturalistic portrayals of a variety of hunting techniques, including the use of game drives and bolas. Similar paintings, though in smaller numbers, can be found in nearby caves. There are also red dots on the ceilings, probably made by submerging hunting bolas in ink and throwing them upwards. The wildlife