Rock Art and Ritual: An Archaeological Analysis of Rock Art in Arid Central Australia

Rock art researchers throughout the world have explicitly or implicitly invoked ritual as an activity associated with the production of rock art but the articulation between the structure and composition of rock art assemblages and ritual behaviour remains poorly understood. Anthropologist, Roy Rappaport (1999) argued that all ritual, whatever the content or focus, has a universal structure. We review this proposition in the context of ritual studies and propose a method aimed at assessing the potential for identifying ritual structure in rock art assemblages. We discuss an archaeological analysis undertaken on the rock art assemblages in arid Central Australia, which aimed at distinguishing such a ritual structure among engraved assemblages, likely to have a Pleistocene origin, as well as more recent painted, stencilled and drawn assemblages. This analysis, despite its limitations, provides the foundation for developing a model, which will enhance the understanding of the relationship between the production of rock art and ritual.     

Social Values and Rock Art Tourism: An Ethnographic Study of the Huashan Rock Art Area (China)

The rapid expansion of cultural tourism has led to increased numbers of visitors to rock art sites throughout the world. The rise of rock art tourism has affected not only the preservation of rock art sites, but also the social values attributed to the sites by communities in the immediate vicinity. Social values refer to the social and cultural meanings that a place of heritage holds for a particular community. This article aims to discuss the influence of tourism on the social values that uphold local communities’ emotional attachment to rock art heritage, using the Huashan rock art area in China as a case study. Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape is the first rock art heritage in China proposed to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and officially obtained World Heritage Status in July 2016. This article argues that many of the changes generated by the endeavour towards tourism promotion by the authorities in their pursuit of World Heritage designation have contributed to the reinforcement of the social values under discussion. However, negative feelings among the communities in response to the undesired consequences of the designation campaign might have resulted in the attenuation of such values. The ultimate goal of the research is to prompt further reflection on existing rock art heritage management mechanisms both in China and worldwide.     

A Survey of Shipwreck Sites Off the Southwestern Coast of Turkey

Abstract

Using a combination of remote sensing techniques (side-scan sonar and underwater television), and visual inspection by SCUBA-diving, 18 wrecks ranging in age from preclassical to 19th century A.C. were located between Bodrum and Cape Gelidonya. The majority of wreck sites were known to local sponge divers. All except one site have been looted; nevertheless, eight sites are judged worthy of further investigation.     

Time, Space, and Image Making: Rock Art from the Dhar Tichitt (Mauritania)

Prehistoric images are particularly versatile and difficult to grasp. In a few cases of historical continuity, local cultural glosses provide researchers with a rich corpus of data and help in the interpretation of the imagery. Such approaches contribute to the interpretation of the material in a frozen time perspective. Their impact on the development of archaeological methodologies enabling researchers to deal with strictly prehistoric image making traditions without any known descendant communities remains to be felt. This paper is an attempt to develop a subtle and robust archaeological methodology for the study of prehistoric images. The suggested approaches are replicable, and conclusions are falsifiable.Les images préhistoriques sont particulièrement versatiles, et leur sens difficile à cerner en raison de leur polysémie. Dans une poignée de cas, là ou il y a continuité historique, les chercheurs ont reussi à constituer une riche documentation sur les pratiques culturelles liées à l'utilisation des images. Ils/elles parviennent ainsi à des niveaux d'interpretation très detaillée, dans une conception paradoxalement réifiée des sociétés en question, conservant des pratiques culturelles inchangées pendant des millénaires. L'impact de telles approches sur l'élaboration de bonnes méthodes archéologique est négligeable. Dans la plupart des cas, les images et les vestiges matériels sont le uniques témoins des sociétés préhistoriques étudiées. Cet article s'efforce de developper des méthodes, à la fois subtiles et robustes, permettant une analyse systématique des images préhistoriques. Les méthodes proposées sont réplicables, et les conclusions refutables.     

论岩画阐释中的多元视界

岩画意义的解释经常会出现望图生义或者恣意猜度的现象,导致学术界对岩画的解释产生了偏见。为了避免这种情况,在解读岩画的时候应当充分考虑各种可能的因素,如岩画所处的环境,岩画自身之间的关联,岩画产生地所呈现出来的地方性知识,其他学科的支持等。     

Landscape Construction and Long-Term Economic Practices: an Example from the Spanish Mediterranean Uplands Through Rock Art Archaeology

We argue in this paper that Levantine rock art in the Spanish Mediterranean basin allows us to ‘map’ the economic landscape of its makers. Rock art would be the ‘monumental’ side of a dual process of landscape construction: on the one hand, rock art is the first ‘cultural’ action on the landscape beginning in the Early Neolithic; on the other hand, the first evidence of active modification of the Mediterranean vegetation comes from this period. But this evidence as well as other kinds of archaeological remains are still relatively scarce in the uplands; rock art is therefore the most complete type of evidence we can use to support an early use of the Mediterranean upland environment. We use statistical and geographical analysis, together with archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic sources and pollen data, in order to support the idea of early use and exploitation of the Mediterranean uplands since the Neolithic, and into contemporary times.     

Death by Water: Boats and Footprints in the Rock Art of Western Sweden

This paper considers two of the key images in the Bronze Age rock carvings of Bohuslän in relation to the wider landscape. It compares the distribution of cairns on islands off the west coast of Sweden with that of similar monuments on low hills surrounded by drawings of boats. These are often in areas which had previously been occupied by the sea. Perhaps the drawings of boats evoked an expanse of water separating the world of the living from the burial places of the dead. If so, the lines of footprints leading between these two areas may also refer to the passage between life and death.     

Ancient Rock Art at the Mouth of Trango Go

Trangu Go is located in the County of Kongkar,around the midstream area of the Yarlung Tsangpo River.It is a triangular ravine extending from South to North for 13 kilometers.One side faces the river;the other has mountains on three sides.In Trangu Go,archaeologists have discovered a Neolithic Tibetan site containing some barley seeds which are by far the earliest relics in Tibet.Since then, this ravine has acquired a reputation.On a sunny,golden autumn day,my old partner     

Statistical Analysis of Spatial Distribution of Ceramics from Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Sites in Southwestern Siberia

Results of the statistical analysis of spatial distribution of ceramics at Chicha-1, Zavialovo-5, and Linevo-1 indicate ethnic heterogeneity and the presence of native and immigrant ceramic traditions within separate sites and even within single dwellings. The arrangement of pottery inside residence structures follows certain regularities. All residents, however, were apparently involved in the same manufacture.     

Holocene Deposits of Saharan Rock Shelters: The Case of Takarkori and Other Sites from the Tadrart Acacus Mountains (Southwest Libya)

The excavation at Takarkori rock shelter is part of a long-term study of Holocene cultural dynamics in southwest Libya begun in the early 1990s. With a rich Holocene occupation, the area is one of the key spots for reconstruction of human occupation of the last 10,000 years. In this region, similar to the case in the rest of the Sahara, most of the data come from surface investigations at open-air sites, while excavated caves and rock shelters provide just a few. Although less exposed than open-air sites, Holocene archaeological deposits in Saharan caves and rock shelters are characterized by a fairly dynamic nature. Loose sediments, coupled with variability of human occupations and magnitude of natural agents, determine multiple alterations to the archaeological deposits in sheltered sites. In this paper, we present the nature and meaning of the archaeological deposits at Takarkori rock shelter, where a relatively large area has been recently excavated, showing a stratigraphic sequence extending from c. 9,000 to 4,200 BP, unevenly represented by several occupation pulses. In order to sharpen understanding of the development of human occupation at this site, specific procedures for the study and recording of the archaeological deposit have been developed, along with a program of extensive radiocarbon dating. Data from the Takarkori sequence ultimately will be integrated with available published stratigraphies from the Acacus Mountains, with the aim of reviewing the results from past excavations.     

Cave Art in Context: Methods for the Analysis of the Spatial Organization of Cave Sites

Investigations of prehistoric cave art have long neglected the surrounding context: space, archaeological objects, and imprints. As a result, an integrative structural approach that analyzes cave art as part of an anthropomorphized landscape has not been available. This article draws on urban planning and the physiology of the human eye to provide an innovative archaeospatial analysis of cave sites. A set of relevant features from the caves of Bédeilhac, Fontanet, and Le Portel was selected and defined (light zone, chamber type, path network, mode of movement, and available space). An analysis of the prehistoric remains in the caves allows the reconstruction of different concentrations of human activities (cave art, archaeological objects, and imprints). The projection of these concentrations onto the structured map of the caves results in four types of locations: drawing location, supply location, drawing location with substantial activities, and drawing location with consumption activities. This approach opens new avenues for the archaeological perception of caves and their inhabitants: Upper Paleolithic humans were very familiar with caves and probably followed a master plan during their stay in the dark.     

Classifications of Sacred Space: A New Understanding of Mass Rock Sites in Ireland

As locations of a distinctively Catholic faith, Mass Rocks are important historical, ritual and counter-cultural sites that present a tangible connection to Ireland’s rich heritage for contemporary society. Recent authors have begun to fill a gap in published literature yet few go beyond traditional assumptions. This paper offers a more contemporary approach to the study of Mass Rocks based on extensive field research in county Cork. It argues for the introduction of new and innovative classifications that expand the accepted archaeological definition and proposes a set of criteria for the more robust verification of potential sites.     

Schematic Rock Art,Rain-Making and Islam in the Ethio-Sudanese Borderlands

Two sites with schematic rock paintings in Western Ethiopia, where Islamic ceremonies connected with rain-making are performed and miraculous events are said to occur regularly, are interpreted in the light of such factors as the beliefs of local informants, the Islamic appropriation of prehistoric rituals in Northern Africa, the characteristics of similar sites linked to rain-making rituals throughout Eastern Africa and the apotropaic meaning of schematic marks in many traditional cultures. Probably painted by the ancestors of the current Koman language speakers during the Later Stone Age or shortly afterwards, the rock art contextual analysis reveals the complexity of interregional relationships and processes affecting the multi-ethnic frontier regions in pre-colonial times and shows how the local groups have recombined prehistoric and historic religions and ideologies into an original mix that bears witness to the region’s multifaceted history.     

宁夏贺兰山和北山虎岩画图腾崇拜初探--兼论虎岩画的族属

虎是贺兰山和北山岩画的重要题材。其构图有单体、双体和群体、虎扑食和猎虎四类 ,形态有直立和曲足两类 ,时代在商周至春秋战国时期。这四类虎岩画 ,与图腾崇拜相关。在图腾文化中 ,图腾之名也是相对应的氏族、部落之名号 ,而以虎为图腾的民族 ,其族名是春秋战国时期活动于我国北方的林胡。     

Digital Management of Rock Art: the African Archaeology Archive Cologne (AAArC)

Archaeology is a costly and object-affine practice requiring sophisticated technical equipment, and therefore is largely initiated and run from industrialised countries. Accordingly, also data and objects are largely lodged in these countries. In rock art, this leads to the paradoxical situation that many motifs and sites with outstanding prehistoric art are better known and more often shown in northern hemisphere urban centres than in the global south rural areas where the art in fact is found. This paper will focus on the possibilities and benefits of a digital archive in making pictures, data and other archaeological source material accessible anytime from everywhere. An open online archive will in the long run flatten the hierarchical order of access to the results of archaeological research and heritage archiving. Today, this is still concentrated in the western metropoles and rarest in African hinterlands. The open access to thousands of pictures will facilitate dissemination of motifs in particular since the distribution of smartphones and network coverage are ever growing particularly in Africa’s rural areas. The African Archaeology Archive Cologne (AAArC), being licenced under Creative Commons, provides open access to tens of thousands of rock art photos and to the enormous Brandberg-Daureb Data Base that contains 39,000+ rock art figures. Additionally AAArC stores all kinds of digital archaeological products from across Africa (mainly Sudan, Algeria, Chad and Namibia), including audio and film documentary.     

西周王朝周边文化年代的再认识--以鲁西南地区诸遗址为中心

公元前二千纪的后半叶,以黄河中游为中心存在着被后世称为“殷”的古国,即商王朝。依公元前2世纪编著的《史记》之“殷本纪”的记载,这一国家兴盛了50 0年以上,随后被来自西部的新兴国家———周所灭。那么,殷商灭亡后,曾经组成王朝的各种组织与文化传统是经历了怎样的过程而解体的,抑或被继承下来的呢?这一问题是探索商、周国家性质时十分耐人寻味的课题。尽管数量很少,但还是有若干文献述及这一时段的情况。关于周王朝在“克殷”后对黄河下游原商人领地采取对策的记载,就见于《左传·定公四年》、《史记·殷本纪》、《史记·周本纪》及《…     

The Archaeology of Myth: Rock Art,Ritual Objects,and Mythical Landscapes of the Klamath Basin

Recent research in the Klamath Basin has shown that rock art and landscape are intimately connected, mutually informed by indigenous notions of sacred places. Modeling this landscape has been possible through an understanding of Klamath–Modoc myth. This has led some researchers to derive general interpretations of the rock art that are largely in agreement with Klamath–Modoc spiritual beliefs. I take this approach a step further and propose interpretations for specific rock art images and ritual objects, arguing that oral traditions harbor the fundamental logic that underpinned shamanic rituals that led to the creation of these paraphernalia.