PREHISTORIC ROCK ART FROM PAINTED BLUFF AND THE LANDSCAPE OF NORTH ALABAMA ROCK ART

Abstract

Painted Bluff in northern Alabama is one of the richest and most elaborate open-air rock art localities in the Eastern Woodlands, rivaling some of the Southeast’s dark zone cave art sites discovered over the past several decades. Known for more than a century, the site has never seen detailed documentation until now. Painted Bluff contains motifs similar to iconography associated with Mississippian ceremonial objects, and a radiocarbon age determination (cal A.D. 1300–1440) would indicate contemporary use of the site. More than 80 images were painted on the cliffs, most using red mineral pigments but some reflecting polychromatic use of differently colored minerals. We present examples of the Painted Bluff artwork and discuss the site in the broader context of prehistoric rock art on the southern Cumberland Plateau and in northern Alabama.     

THE ROCK PAINTINGS IN YUSHU

正Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is situated in the southwestern area of Qinghai Province, the central region of the QinghaiTibet Plateau. It connects with Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture to the north and Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture to the east. It also neighbors Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province to the southeast as well as the TAR's Chamdo and Nagqu to the south     

ROCK GLACIERS, SOUTHWEST YUKON

Two distinct types of rock glaciers occur in southwest Yukon. One results directly from glaciation, with the production of abundant debris over glacier ice. The other forms during and after deglaciation, when instabilities develop in deposits and when ice included in these deposits responds to climatic change.     

ROCK ART AND RITUAL LANDSCAPE IN CENTRAL SPAIN: THE ROCK CARVINGS OF LA HINOJOSA (CUENCA)

Summary. In this article the rock art carvings of La Hinojosa in central Spain are examined. Their connection to a major transit route recorded at least from the medieval period is explored, as well as their location in a valley located at the confluence of two primary river basins in the Iberian Peninsula separated by less than five kilometres. It is argued that this singularity of the landscape seems to have been perceived by the people who marked the stones. From the 17 decorated rocks recorded in La Hinojosa valley, three were exceptionally elaborately decorated. They were situated at regular intervals in the valley. The site with the greatest number of motifs, the large rock of San Bernardino, occupies a central location. This site is also exceptional because of the transformations which the rock shows throughout the day, pointing to a narrative in which cups and anthropomorphs seem to have a primary role. It is suggested that gender may have constituted one of the main guidelines of the narrative, given the apparent replacement of feminine by masculine human representations throughout the day.     

岩画的环境学阐释

在早期史前社会,人类的社会实践活动很大程度上受制于自然。作为实践与思维相结合而形成的审美意识的外在表现--岩画亦受制于自然的程度较高。从某种程度上说,全球环境的演变,文化周期性的发展,导致了岩画这种石文化的衰与荣,也从岩画的小环境选择上,反映出早期人类环境意识萌芽和觉醒。     

ROCK ART SITES IN JAMAICA AND THEIR ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION

26 sites with Pre‐Columbian (Taíno) rock art are known in Jamaica, most with petroglyphs only, but there are four with painted images, and three of these are discussed: Mountain River Cave, Potoo Hole, and Spot Valley Cave. In addition, an account is given of the Warminster rock shelter, which has petroglyphs described as among the best remaining in Jamaica. Spot Valley Cave was newly surveyed in 2005, with the help of the Jamaican Caves Organization, and in the same year a rescue operation to restore the Warminster petroglyphs was carried out, in cooperation with Dr Johannes Loubser. Comparisons are made, where appropriate, to Taíno artefacts in different materials, and also to Pre‐Columbian images on other islands in the Caribbean, notably Puerto Rico. The interpretation of the Taíno images, in Jamaica and elsewhere, relies to a considerable extent on the “Account of the Antiquities of the Indians”, compiled by Fray Ramón Pané in 1494–1498, on the express instructions of Columbus. Whatever the shortcomings of a narrative compiled by an outsider, we would be much worse off without it.     

A FIELD METHOD FOR INVESTIGATING the DISTRIBUTION of ROCK ART

Summary: Recent studies of prehistoric rock art have analysed its position in the landscape and have suggested that it played an important role in a mobile pattern of settlement. But the distribution of petroglyphs is usually taken as given, with the result that it is difficult to assess the significance of this kind of patterning. We argue that such evidence should be compared with the distribution of uncarved rocks across the surrounding area, and illustrate this procedure by two case studies from northern England. In these examples rock carvings were carefully sited at viewpoints and may have overlooked important routes across the landscape.     

贺兰山岩画博物馆选址分析

以文物遗址为依托的博物馆建设,一直是考古、历史、建筑、规划等专业人事关心和研究的课题之一。本文以贺兰山岩画博物馆选址为研究对象,在分析贺兰口岩画和聚落遗址空间分布特点的基础上,论述岩画、聚落遗址、生态环境与博物馆选址的关系,并着重从地段环境、生态环境、空间格局和视觉景观4个方面对拟选的3个方案进行综合比较分析,确定贺兰山岩画博物馆选址的最终方案,最后还为其他文物遗址博物馆选址提出了5条建设性原则。     

ROCK PHYSICS AND THE NEOLITHIC AXE TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN*

This paper is concerned with the products of a number of Neolithic quarries in highland Britain. It investigates the claim that the scale of axe distribution was partly the result of social factors which resulted in these artefacts gaining an added value in areas remote from their sources. One case study considers the sequence of production in Cumbria, in relation to the tensile strength of the rock quarried in different parts of the region. It shows that these considerations had only a limited influence over the choice of stone source and the scale on which it was worked. A second study compares the tensile strength of the main raw materials used for making non-flint axes with the extent to which these sources were actually exploited. Again there is only a limited relationship between the two, suggesting that social factors may indeed have been important.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PREHISTORIC IRISH ROCK ART and IRISH PASSAGE TOMB ART

Two major traditions of decoration from the later Neolithic and/or earlier Bronze Age, rock art and passage tomb art, are compared. Both traditions are briefly described, and are compared on the basis of both site and motif characteristics. Their chronological relationship is also discussed, indicating at least a large overlap in time between them. These two show a general affiliation on a number of levels, suggesting a similar degree of relationship between their respective makers. However, they also show important differences, suggesting that they are products of different sets of ritual or symbolic behaviour, or of similarly different groups of people.     

RADIOCARBON DATES FOR BEESWAX FIGURES IN THE PREHISTORIC ROCK ART OF NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages have been taken for a test suite of small samples of material removed from some of the ‘beeswax’art figures found in rock shelters in northern Australia. The results indicate that we can reliably date this unique form of rock art with no noticeable damage. We had not expected to find figures of any great antiquity, and so we were surprised to find that the ages obtained spanned the time period from the recent past to about 4000 BP.