The Upper Paleolithic Rock Art of Iberia

Nearly 200 rock art sites of Upper Paleolithic age are currently known on the Iberian Peninsula, in both caves and the open air. Over half are still concentrated in Cantabrian Spain and they span the period between c. 30–11 kya, but–tracking the course of human demography in this geographically circumscribed region–many of the images were probably painted or engraved during the Solutrean and, especially, Magdalenian. Dramatic discoveries and dating projects have significantly expanded the Iberian rock art record both geographically and temporally in recent years, in close coincidence with the growth of contemporaneous archeological evidence: cave art loci in Aragón and Levante attributable to the Solutrean and Magdalenian, many cave art sites and a few open-air ones in Andalucía and Extremadura that are mostly Solutrean (in line with evidence of a major Last Glacial Maximum human refugium in southern Spain), the spectacular Côa Valley open-air complex in northern Portugal (together with a growing number of other such loci and one cave) that was probably created during the Gravettian-Magdalenian periods, and a modest, but important increase in proven cave and open-air sites in the high, north-central interior of Spain that are probably Solutrean and/or Magdalenian. Despite regional variations in decorated surfaces, themes, techniques and styles, there are broad (and sometimes very specific) pan-Iberian similarities (as well as ones with the Upper Paleolithic art of southern France) that are indicative of widespread human contacts and shared systems of symbols and beliefs during the late Last Glacial. As this Ice Age world and the forms of social relationships and ideologies that helped human groups survive in it came to an end, so too did the decoration of caves, rockshelters and outcrops, although in some regions other styles of rock art would return under very different conditions of human existence.     

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.     

The Rock Art of the Matobo Hills World Heritage Area,Zimbabwe: Management and Use,c 1800 to 2016

The Matobo Hills World Heritage Area in southern Zimbabwe is an acknowledged treasure trove of rock art sites. Despite a century of research and management, there remains much to be done to conserve these sites for future generations. Following a chronological approach, this paper reviews a century of research and conservation efforts, detailing various strategies and achievements by individuals, government agencies, and affiliated organisations. Zimbabwe’s recent economic collapse and ‘land reform’ programme had fundamental impacts on the appreciation and protection of the rock art sites by tourists, local communities, international organisations and government agencies, all of which are explored. The article ends with brief suggestions on how to potentially improve and expand the management of rock art in the Matobo Hills area.     

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.     

Rock Art Conservation and Tourism

Rock art conservation has developed hand-in-hand with the increased pace of tourism, yet the two activities tend to remain in opposing camps. Policies and guidelines have been developed for cultural heritage and cultural tourism and there is a widely accepted range of principles in place, but a theory of sustainable rock art tourism is only in its infancy. To mature, the discipline needs research into the interaction of key elements that affect the long-term conservation of frequently visited rock paintings and engravings in their original setting, as well as consideration of social and economic factors that drive tourism and the public interest in rock art.     

Rock engravings in the Wadi el-Barramiya,Eastern Desert of Egypt

This paper describes new rock art sites in the region east of Idfu, where at least 50 sites with several thousands of petroglyphs offer huge potential for future research. Site ET-A/WB 4 provides the largest representation of a boat yet discovered in the Eastern Desert; it is part of a scene extending over about 10 m of rock with boats, animals and human figures in procession. This scene and another one from site ET-A/WB 5 can be dated to the transition from the prehistoric to the dynastic periods. All sites in the Wadi el-Barramiya are endangered due to their location near a main road used by construction works and visitors.

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Résumé Dans cet article quelques sites à gravures rupestres récemment découverts dans la région à l'est d'Idfu sont décrits. Une cinquantaine de ces sites avec des milliers de pétroglyphes présentent un potentiel énorme pour les recherches futures. Le site ET-A/WB 4 nous donne la représentation d'un bâteau la plus grande connue jusqu' à présent dans le désert oriental d'Egypte. Cette représentation cependant ne constitue qu'un morceau d'un tableau qui se prolonge sur environ 10 m de la surface rocheuse avec des bâteaux, des animaux et des formes humaines en cortège. Ce tableau ainsi qu'un autre du site ET-A/WB 5 peut être situé chronologiquement à la transition de l'époque préhistorique et l'époque dynastique. Tous les sites du Wadi el-Barramiya sont menacés en raison de leur proximité d'une grande route fréquentée par les touristes et aussi par les travaux publics.

     

Contributions of a Heritage Values-based Approach to Rock Art Management. Lessons from the Maloti-Drakensberg World Heritage Site,South Africa

This paper is based on rock art sites of the Maloti-Drakensberg massif (South African part), where more than 600 decorated shelters have thus far been identified. Being both institutionalised heritage sites open to the public and living heritage sites associated with various social practices and utilizations, their preservation requires us to consider the complexity of the values attributed to them. Combining a multidisciplinary and empirical approach, our paper highlights the processes of hybridization between attributed values, which therefore do not adhere to a strict category approach. Being strongly linked to the contexts in which they are articulated, their identification is coupled with a consideration of the macrodynamics in which rock art sites are integrated, as well as an analysis of the links between these different contexts and the value systems identified. In conclusion, the operational dimensions of such a methodology is questioned and some initial possibilities for action are proposed.     

Burning Images: A Critical Review of Rock Art Conservation in Zimbabwe

Rock art is the most easily accessible of archaeological material. In Zimbabwe, there are thousands of sites, mostly in open-air environments which can be accessed and enjoyed by many people without any restrictions. Yet, rock art is also easily damaged and therefore requires conservation. Social, political and economic challenges in the last two decades have had profound effects on the conservation status of this particular cultural heritage. This paper examines the state of conservation of rock art, conservation approaches and challenges in Zimbabwe. It also discusses possible solutions especially as the country is making frantic efforts at international re-engagement. The story of rock art conservation in Zimbabwe is similar to what is happening in many neighbouring developing countries such as Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. Therefore, the discussion in this paper also informs on general issues in rock art management and conservation in Africa.     

Sailing Rock Art Boats

Amongst the thousands of Bronze Age rock art images that are found along the paleogeographic coast lines of southern Scandinavia the most ubiquitous is the boat. A few are furnished with what look like a mast or sail. These attributes have largely been ignored or explained away as features or objects other than rig because it is widely accepted that the sail was not used in Scandinavia until the 8th century AD. But what if after all they really are depictions of rig? Might this suggest that the sail was not only known but perhaps used here over a 1,000 years earlier than previously accepted? Starting from the bases of the images and the environment in which they are found, this paper asks whether vessels of the types we believe belonged to the Scandinavian Bronze Age could have been sailed? These evaluations led to a series of sail trials in a canoe undertaken in the archipelago of the Swedish west coast in the late summer and autumn of 2005. The successful results of these trials were later transferred to the Tilia, a full-scale reconstruction of the Hjortspring boat, a vessel dated to 350 BC but believed to belong to a long-established boatbuilding tradition stretching back into the Bronze Age. This is the report of the hypothesis behind these trials as well as their planning, execution and immediate results.     

Designing Digital Recording for Volunteers in Rock Art Surveys,Management Plans and Public Outreach in the Cederberg,South Africa

The rock art survey and recording project described in this paper was designed for volunteers and heritage professionals involved in locating and mapping the position of rock art and other archaeological sites in the field, recording basic details for conservation and management, and making these details accessible in digital format for researchers who might want to undertake further investigation. An OpenDataKit (ODK) App with a digital site recording form was designed for mobile phones to be used in the field and to send data directly to the digital inventory of the South African Heritage Resources Information System (SAHRIS). The inventory has accumulated over 3000 sites with Later Stone Age rock paintings in the mountainous terrain of the Cederberg, a region that includes properties in the serial Cape Floral Region World Heritage Site in the Western Cape Province. More than a third of these rock art sites have been added to the database since 2007 by the members of the South African Archaeological Society. The information forms the basis for rock art management plans that are given to property owners to guide them in maintaining the value of the rock art. Interpretation of the information has raised awareness of the significance of the rock art in its historical and landscape setting with a trail and information boards. Local residents and CapeNature staff, who have received training in rock art monitoring and tourist guiding, play a key role in implementing the management plans for CapeNature properties, and monitoring individual sites and trails. The broader international context of volunteer programmes for archaeological site recording suggests that this type of programme has the potential to raise awareness of rock art beyond books and visits to museums and public lectures.     

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。     

A Pigment Characterization Approach to Selection of Dating Methods and Interpretation of Rock Art: The Case of the Mikinak Site,Lake Wapizagonke,Quebec, Canada

Dating is perhaps the most frequently asked question in rock art studies, but still one of the most difficult to answer. However, chronology is vital in order to understand and interpret rock art sites. Unfortunately, attempts at dating the Mikinak site, at Lake Wapizagonke, Quebec, Canada were unsuccessful. But a multi‐instrumental protocol applied to characterize paintings shows that at least three different paint recipes were employed to create the site. These may reflect three different phases of paintings, and that at least three different artists contributed to the production of this site.     

Eland and Therianthropes in Southern African Rock Art: When Is a Person an Animal?

The interpretation of part human part animal figures is critical to the understanding of southern African rock paintings, as is the meaning ascribed to the many depictions of eland. The conventional view is that these image patterns derive from the essentially shamanistic character of the art. Here I argue that the conflation of human and animal is a far more pervasive component of southern African hunter-gatherer expressive culture and relates to the central significance of hunting in organizing man–animal and male–female relations. The eland too plays a key role in these relations. In the western Cape rock paintings the influence of this extended hunting metaphor in informing image choice appears to be paramount.L'interpretation des figures a la fois humaines et animales est fondamentale afin de comprendre les peintures rupestres sud-africaines. II en est de pour la signification des representations attribuees de l'elan. L'idee conventionnelle veut que les sujets de ces representations proviennent du caractere chamanique de l'art. Je defends ici l'idee que le melange de l'humain et de l'animal est un element nettement plus rependu de la culture expressive sud-africaine des chasseurs-cueilleurs et releve de l'organisation des relations animal/homme et homme/femme dans l'idee centrale de la chasse. L'elan joue egalemnet un role clef dans ces relations. Dans les peintures rupestres de l'Ouest du Cap, l'influence de cette metaphore elargie dans le choix d'images informatives (ayant du sens) parait etre essentielle.     

广西左江岩画的艺术特征及其价值

左江沿岸保存着许多古代壮族先民骆越人的珍贵化遗产——岩画,左江岩画有她自己的模式、风格、特征,当把这些共同的特征结合起来后,可以形成一个整体的概念。     

Assessing the Stability and Sustainability of Rock Art Sites: Insight from Southwestern Arizona

In light of global trends in human population growth and urbanization, burgeoning cultural heritage tourism industries, and climate change, cultural heritage places in nearly every corner of the world are significantly threatened, and will remain so into the foreseeable future. Rock art sites are some of the most imperiled, with their exposed contexts posing unique challenges to conservation. Consequently, effective management of publically accessible rock art sites necessitates a sustainable approach that weighs visitation in regard to cultural significance and site stability. This essay integrates rock art stability and sustainability assessment methodologies at the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site in southwestern Arizona. The study specifically applies the Rock Art Stability Index (RASI) to evaluate the natural and anthropogenic weathering forces impacting the site, and the Heritage Asset Sensitivity Gauge (HASG) to assess site sustainability under existing management practices in relation to current and forecasted rates of visitation. A spatial analysis of aggregated RASI data shows that visitor foot traffic has had some of the most profound impacts to the petroglyphs. Unrestricted access to the site area is also highly correlated with the presence and location of vandalism and graffiti, and visitor-related trampling has adversely affected the site’s surface artifact assemblage. Application of the HASG projects that, while existing management practices are fairly sustainable, they become less so under forecasted increases in visitation. Further, the HASG appraises the site’s cultural significance as outweighing its market appeal, indicating management efforts should prioritize conservation over tourism-related development.     

Representation and knowledge in the prehistoric rock art of Africa

This study proposes that prehistoric rock art in Africa represents aspects of the natural and social environment which are aesthetically charged, for practical and symbolic reasons, and which are also problematic, in specific ways, for ordinary, untutored perception. Rock art functions as a medium of communication in three principal contexts. It refers to an extended network of ritual acts and beliefs, to out-of-the-ordinary perception and knowledge, and to adaptively significant local information. Rock art is therefore a particular, specialized instrument of the production process. Investigating the study of prehistoric art from art historical, archaeological, and anthropological points of view, the paper examines the ways in which the original contexts of function or meaning might be reconstituted, given the special nature and constraints of graphic representation as a mode of knowledge. Three major traditions of prehistoric rock art in Africa, the Sahara, Nile valley, and southern, are the focus of discussion and source of examples. The paper takes as a general theme the feasibility or possibility of an adequate archaeology of prehistoric knowledge.

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Résumé La présente étude propose que l'art rupestre préhistorique en Afrique représente des aspects du milieu naturel et social, exprimés de façon esthétique pour des raisons pratiques et symboliques, et qui présentent aussi des problèmes particuliers face à une perception non instruite. L'art rupestre sert de moyen de communication dans trois contextes principaux: il fait allusion à un réseau compliqué de croyances et d'actes rituels, à une perception et à des connaissances hors de l'ordinaire et à des renseignements locaux affectant l'adaptation. L'art rupestre figure donc comme instrument particulier et spécialisé dans le processus de production. En vérifiant l'étude de l'art préhistorique des points de vue historique, archéologique et anthropologique de l'art, l'article examine les façons selon lesquelles les contextes originaux de la fonction ou la signification pourraient être reconstitués, selon la nature et les contraintes spéciales de la représentation graphique comme genre de connaissance. La discussion se centre sur trois traditions principales d'art rupestre préhistorique, celles du Sahara, de la vallée du Nil et de l'Afrique du Sud, d'où sont aussi tirés les exemples. L'article a pour thème général la possibilité d'une archéologie mieux adaptée à la reconstruction des modes de connaissance préhistorique.

     

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.     

The Evolution of Theory, Method and Technique in Southern African Rock Art Research

Southern African rock art research has progressed from an essentially denigrating social and political milieu, through an empiricist period, to contemporary social and historical approaches. Empiricism, once thought to be the salvation of southern African rock art research, was a theoretically and methodologically flawed enterprise. Attempts to see the art through an emic perspective facilitated by copious nineteenth- and twentieth-century San ethnography is a more useful approach. It began briefly, but was then abandoned, in the nineteenth century. Today, diverse theoretical and methodological approaches are being constructed on an ethnographic foundation. The centrality of the San in South African national identity has been recognized.