Rock art as an archaeological and social indicator: The neolithisation of the Iberian Peninsula

Rock art has been regarded as a second class archaeological data source. In this paper we use Levantine rock art as a case study, to show how this situation can be reversed. This rock art, found along the Mediterranean region of the Iberian Peninsula, has been considered to be typically Mesolithic due to its distinctive hunting scenes. A review of certain archaeological indicators provides new arguments about its chronology, its socio-cultural attribution, and its significance. We first deal with the chronological issue, presenting the evidence that led to the recent consideration of the Levantine style as Early Neolithic, in synchrony with two other rock art styles (Schematic and Macroschematic). We will further propose that rock art itself is a central and independent source of information to explore the historical context of the Neolithisation of Mediterranean Iberia. Its wide geographical distribution allows us to study different and complementary territories as a single entity. This contrasts with the limitations posed by the study of settlements, whose differences, at a regional scale, are usually interpreted in terms of cultural variability. If we consider rock art as a key aspect in the constitution of social landscapes, it must not be treated just as an ideological by-product of the Neolithisation, but as a key factor in understanding this historical process.     

Ethics,politics and practices in rock art conservation

Abstract

Weathering and deterioration of Norwegian rock art has become an increasing area of concern over the last decade, with subsequent increasing efforts towards conservation. This has brought questions onto the agenda regarding the ethics and politics involved in conservation theory and practice. It is argued that such issues have been difficult to debate due to the concept of conservation being regarded as a legal and moral ideal. Referring the situation in Norway to ongoing global debates and perspectives regarding rock art conservation enables us to reveal and discuss some of the fundamental and complex philosophical issues involved. Notions of authenticity which implicitly underlie attitudes to rock art conservation are questioned, and the relationship between ‘green’ politics and rock art conservation is also discussed. A tendency towards uniform solutions and avoidance of critical issues, seen as influenced by strong social-democratic political traditions in Scandinavia, is at odds with the growing realization that most approaches to rock art conservation inevitably have unforeseen and frequently undesired consequences. Rather than further segmenting ethics, politics or practices in rock art conservation, a self-critical and reflective approach is suggested whereby changing concepts of ethics and authenticity are continuously debated.

Aucune loi ne pourra jamais préserver la sacralité d'un lieu … si ce n'est une loi morale, non écrite,adoptée et respectée par chaque individu, un véritable code personnel d'éthique.

(Soleilhavoup, 1994: 14)     

Acoustics and Levantine rock art: auditory perceptions in La Valltorta Gorge (Spain)

This article explores the relevance of acoustics as a factor for in the production and active use of Levantine rock art in Spain. The renowned rock art area of La Valltorta Gorge serves as a case study. Two experiments are described; the first assessed whether the sites with the most painted motifs had better acoustics than those with fewer motifs. The second tested which areas in La Valltorta Gorge had better acoustics and whether there was a difference between the acoustics of the decorated area and the contiguous sectors of the Gorge where no paintings have been found. In both experiments different sounds and pitches were used. The results suggest a strong relationship between the painted areas and the sonority of the place, with the major sites generally having provided the best results, with the exception of the sonority when facing the rock art panels. It is suggested that La Valltorta Gorge was chosen to be decorated with a view to increasing the perceptual impact of the rituals that may have been held at rock art sites due to the amplification caused by the echoing and resonance.     

Minateda rock shelters (Albacete) and post-palaeolithic art of the Mediterranean Basin in Spain: pigments,surfaces and patinas

The inorganic and organic fractions of two microsamples of prehistoric paint from the same site, the Minateda rock shelters, are analysed here for the first time. The two samples correspond to two rock shelters of different styles (Levantine and schematic) – Abrigo Grande de Minateda (The Great Rock Shelter of Minateda) and Abrigo del Barranco de la Mortaja (Del Barranco de la Mortaja Rock Shelter). Since its discovery, historiographical tradition has emphasised the Abrigo Grande de Minateda, with its magnificence and complexity, as emblematic of the origin and evolution of rock art in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Four complementary techniques –Microphotography, Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), Raman Spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectroscopy (GC–MS)– were combined to identify and characterise the physicochemical properties of the paint and of the surface. We present an interpretation of the results that leads us to define complex taphonomic alterations beyond the usual distinction of layers that include the surface, pigments and patinas.     

Sickle blade life-history and the transition to agriculture: an early Neolithic case study from Southwest Asia

In Southwest Asia, sickle blades first appear early in the sequence of the transition to agriculture. In the past, detailed qualitative research on silica bearing blade stone tools focus on the characterization of use-wear traces such as polish types and accrual rates. In this paper we approach the study of sickle blades slightly different, choosing to examine tool life-history by developing a method to quantitatively estimate harvesting intensity. The method centers on an experiment of cutting cereal stalks and measuring stone blade edge thickness under a scanning electron microscope as a proxy for cutting time. We end with regressing the experimental results to provide an estimation of how intensively archaeological sickle blades recovered from the site of Dhra’, Jordan were used for harvesting. The results, while preliminary, enable an initial interpretation of sickle blades as important tools with long use-life histories during the early Neolithic in the Southern Levant.     

From abstract digital models to rich virtual environments: landscape contexts in Kilmartin Glen,Scotland

This study uses geographic information systems (GIS) based analyses and virtual reality (VR) reconstructions, to explore landscape context for two types of Neolithic monuments: cup and ring rock art and a stone circle. Specifically, the impacts of the contemporary vegetation at the study sites are analysed with regard to viewshed areas and views from the monument locations. Results show that while GIS-based viewshed analysis is useful for quantifying the absolute upper and lower limits for viewshed area, the virtual reality reconstructions allow the possibilities in between these extremes to be explored. In addition, VR provides the opportunity to explore visually rich representations of past environments for site interpretation and it is also a useful way for presenting uncertainty and testing different scenarios for landscape archaeology context.     

The Neolithic Macro-(R)evolution: Macroevolutionary Theory and the Study of Culture Change

The macroevolutionary approach in archaeology represents the most recent example in a long tradition of applying principles of biological evolution to the study of culture change. Archaeologists working within this paradigm see macroevolutionary theory as an effective response to the shortcomings of neo-Darwinian biological evolution for studying cultural evolution. Rather than operating at the level of individual traits, macroevolutionary archaeologists emphasize the role of hierarchical processes in culture change. While neo-Darwinian archaeologists disavow any element of human intent in culture change, to macroevolutionary archaeologists human agency is a key component of cultural evolution that allows cultures to respond to pressures more quickly and with greater degree of flexibility and directedness than found in biological evolution. Major culture change, when it happens, is likely to be rapid, even revolutionary, with periods of rapid change separated by periods of relative stasis of actively maintained stability. The emergence of Neolithic cultures has long been recognized as one of two periods of major revolutionary culture change in human prehistory. Here I examine the record for the Near East, tracing the empirical record for the origin of agriculture in this region, as well as other demographic, social, and ideological components of Neolithic emergence. While the empirical record from the Near East subscribes in a general way to basic principles of macroevolutionary theory, cultural evolution cannot be understood through appeal to principles of biological evolution alone, whether based in macroevolutionary theory or neo-Darwinianism. Instead, the key role of human agency in culture change distinguishes cultural evolution from biological evolution and requires a more pluralistic and less doctrinaire appeal to multiple models of change based in both the biological and social sciences.     

Local knowledge is required: a rhythmanalytical approach to the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic of the East Anglian Fenland, UK

This is a paper about blurring the boundaries between people, land and water in the past and of appreciating the importance of the wider environment in our accounts of prehistory. Maritime approaches to time/space are shown to offer new ways of looking at how people engage with the world around them. Informed by these approaches, and building on Lefebvre’s concepts of lived space and rhythm, current tensions within archaeology between cartesian and phenomenological approaches to the past will be shown to be unconstructive. These issues are all addressed in relation the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic of the East Anglian Fenland. Here a rhythmical, maritime approach will be shown to offer us a subtly different view of life during this period.     

Prehistoric population history: from the Late Glacial to the Late Neolithic in Central and Northern Europe

Summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates are used to make inferences about the history of population fluctuations from the Mesolithic to the late Neolithic for three countries in central and northern Europe: Germany, Poland and Denmark. Two different methods of summing the dates produce very similar overall patterns. The validity of the aggregate patterns is supported by a number of regional studies based on other lines of evidence. The dramatic rise in population associated with the arrival of farming in these areas that is visible in the date distributions is not surprising. Much more unexpected are the fluctuations during the course of the Neolithic, and especially the indications of a drop in population at the end of the LBK early Neolithic that lasted for nearly a millennium. Possible reasons for the pattern are discussed.     

Weathering of rock art at two sites in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg,southern Africa

Sediments of the Karoo Basin in southern Africa represent one of the world's finest laboratories for investigating sandstone weathering. The natural breakdown of these sandstones, most notably in the Clarens Formation, is destroying much of the indigenous rock art heritage that exists there. In an attempt to elucidate the operative weathering processes, a range of micro-climatic, rock temperature, rock moisture, rock chemistry, and rock property data have been monitored over a 15 year period at two sites in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg. Results suggest that rock moisture regimes and to a lesser extent, rock thermal regimes exert the most damaging influence on San paintings. It is argued that granular disintegration and the enlargement of existing sandstone pores and bedding planes close to the rock surface, facilitate an increasingly dynamic moisture regime, which leads to an accelerating rate of weathering. Recent technological advances in data collection suggest that a re-evaluation of environmental controls may be necessary before weathering, at a scale appropriate to the deterioration of rock art, can be fully understood. The continued existence of indigenous rock art in southern Africa depends on investigations aimed at the development of techniques for its preservation.     

The spiral that vanished: the application of non-contact recording techniques to an elusive rock art motif at Castlerigg stone circle in Cumbria

This article describes the recording of stone 11 of the Castlerigg stone circle in Cumbria through two different non-contact techniques: laser scanning and ground-based remote sensing. Despite the unproblematic recording of modern graffiti, neither technique was able to document the spiral photographed and rubbed in 1995. It is concluded that the spiral was most probably painted and has since faded away due to natural events. The discovery and loss of the spiral motif in Castlerigg is seen as a cautionary tale. In particular, it seems to suggest that it is time to take advantage of the novel technologies based on the digitisation of 3D surfaces with millimetre and submillimetre accuracy such as laser scanning and ground-based remote sensing. They offer many advantages to the recording of prehistoric carvings. In addition to avoiding direct contact with the rock surface eliminating the preservation concerns raised by other techniques, both produce high quality images (laser scanning offering a greater potential for this, but at higher cost) having a much higher level of objectivity, and precision and accuracy far beyond those of traditional recording methods such as wax rubbings and scale drawings.     

A review of rock art dating in the Kimberley, Western Australia

This paper critically reviews the various approaches used to estimate the age of the rock art in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They include: (i) the relative superimposition of styles; (ii) the use of diagnostic subject matter (depictions of extinct animals, stone tool technology, introduced European and Asian objects and animals); (iii) the recovery of a ‘painted’ slab from a dated archaeological unit; (iv) radiocarbon dating of beeswax figures, charcoal pigments, organic matter in overlying mineral deposits and ‘accreted paint layers’ (oxalate rich crusts and amorphous silica skin), pollen grains from an overlaying mud-wasp nest; and (v) optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of quartz grains from overlying mud-wasp nests. Future directions for rock art dating in the Kimberley include uranium-series dating of overlying and underlying mineral deposits.     

New tools for rock art modelling: automated sensor integration in Pindal Cave

This paper presents the integration of automated sensors based on a terrestrial laser scanner and an amateur digital camera with the aim of generating a photorealistic three-dimensional (3D) model of the Principal Panel in Pindal Cave (Spain). The approach developed for 3D modelling overcomes many of the problems related to the independent implementation of photogrammetry and laser scanning. Particularly, a sequential and hierarchical approach was developed based on the processing and matching of images from the camera (camera image) and the laser scanner (range image). The results obtained demonstrate that the workflow for this model is automatic, effective, and accurate. The presented approach was found to create hyper-realistic models, even improving upon human visual capabilities.     

Iktomi in the Land of the Maymaygwayshi: Understanding Lived Experience in the Practice of Archaeology Among American Indians/First Nations

In discussions concerning American Indians/First Nations and the practice of archaeology in North America, the issues are typically presented in a polarized fashion with American Indians/First Nations on one side and archaeologists on the other. Frequently the literature discusses how archaeologists should modify their practice in response to the needs of American Indian communities. Very little of the literature looks at the roles and challenges faced by American Indians who choose to pursue archaeology. This paper addresses this latter issue by examining my own work among First Nations communities in Ontario, Canada. Through the lens of ‘lived experience’, I will examine the interplay of identity, personal and communal histories, and the contemporary situation of my self and the First Nations communities I worked with, looking at how having ‘insider’ knowledge can be both useful and a handicap in fieldwork.     

Palaeolithic engravings and sedimentary environments in the Côa River Valley (Portugal): implications for the detection,interpretation and dating of open-air rock art

The pre-Magdalenian phase of the Côa River Valley open-air rock art is mostly distributed at the boundary between the rocky valley slopes and the floodplain that correspond to the most favourable geomorphological setting for the preservation of pecked and deeply superposed engravings of the most famous artistic phase of the area. The natural vertical panels of the engraved art located at this geomorphological interface have suffered weathering during two cold events of the Lateglacial. They were buried by several colluvial and alluvial deposits. The reconstruction of the sedimentary and archaeological context of the CôaRiver Valley engraving permits a better assessment of the preservation processes and interpretation of Palaeolithic open-air rock art.     

淮河的光芒:黄河与长江的联结──《舞阳贾湖·序》

俞伟超先生在大型考古发掘报告《舞阳贾湖》的序中,高度评价了舞阳贾湖遗址在新石器时代考古学研究中的重要价值,指出贾湖遗址在文化特征上的多重性格,为史前文化区系类型研究带来了新的启示,对以器物特征为主要标志的考古学文化属性的划分提出了新的思考。     

Early agriculture and palaeoenvironmental history in the North of the Iberian Peninsula: a multi-proxy analysis of the Monte Areo mire (Asturias,Spain)

A multi-proxy study (pollen and NPPs, geochemical composition and radiocarbon dating), combined with principal components analysis, was applied to a core sampled in the Monte Areo mire (Asturias, N Spain), which covers the last 11,600 years cal BP. Both signals of Holocene climate change and transformations by human activities were recorded.     

A multi-technique characterization and provenance study of the pigments used in San rock art, South Africa

During the course of a conservation project at the rock shelter known as RSA TYN2 (Eastern Cape, South Africa), a sample of 33 painted fragments that had become detached from the wall were collected. They have been studied using a multi-technique approach (optical microscopy, SEM-EDS, Raman spectroscopy and FTIR), with the aim of achieving a better understanding of their paint stratigraphy, composition, and provenance. The paintings are on a Clarens Formation sandstone and are embedded in calcium sulphates and oxalates. The red pigments show two different ‘hues’, corresponding to two different compositions. The light red is a red ochre, possibly pure, which is probably a degradation product of the Clarens Formation sandstone. The dark red contains more iron oxides and may be a mixture between the red ochre and pure haematite. Because of the presence of crystals which may be identified as augite we suggest this haematite came from the basaltic upper part of the Drakensberg, at least 4 km away from the rock shelter. The black pigments have been identified as carbon black, that is to say, incomplete combustion products of organic compounds, and are radiocarbon dated to between 2120 and 1890 cal BP, making these samples the oldest directly dated South African rock art.     

Prehistoric land use at an archaeological hot-spot (the rock art park of Campo Lameiro,NW Spain) inferred from charcoal,synanthropic pollen and non-pollen palynomorph proxies

Pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and charcoal from a colluvial soil surrounded by prehistoric petroglyphs (Campo Lameiro, NW Spain) were studied in order to assess the nature of human activities and their impact on Holocene vegetation patterns. Several phases of anthropogenic impact were observed. (i) Between 7.6 and 6.5 ka cal BP, synanthropic taxa (Urtica dioica type, Plantago lanceolata type) and coprophilous fungi (e.g. Sporormiella-type) are indicative of early (pre-agricultural) creation of small patches of pasture using fire, possibly for incipient animal husbandry or as part of a deliberate strategy to improve game availability. Such activities only had a minor effect on the deciduous Quercus-dominated forest established earlier during the Holocene Thermal Maximum. (ii) Between 5.9 and 4.8 ka cal BP a more intense signal indicative of pastoral activity was detected, corresponding to the Neolithic period. (iii) Between 4.8 and 3.4 ka cal BP, which fits within the hypothetical timeframe of petroglyph creation, the synanthropic and humidity (e.g. Cyperaceae, Mougeotia) indicators diminished while charcoal concentration increased, which can be explained by Mid-Holocene cooling/drying (Neoglaciation) in combination with reduced human impact, or by non-pastoral activities in the area possibly in association with the development of the rock art culture, converting pasture to protected open ground through anthropogenic fires. (iv) During the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age (3.4–2.5 ka cal BP), grazing pressure and fire regime intensity are high, coinciding with evidence of regional forest regression, despite an amelioration in climate. (v) Later phases, not corresponding to prehistoric rock art contexts, include a phase of heavy grazing and reduced fire frequency (from ca. 2.5 to 1.2 ka cal BP) as well as the near complete elimination of the deciduous woodland, the expansion of ericaceous shrubland and the evidence of local agriculture and afforestation. These results are consistent with earlier studies in the area and highlight the spatial heterogeneity in the vegetation especially during periods of prehistoric anthropogenic interference.