Binding in the Pacific: Between Loops and Knots

The paper argues that the prevailing use of the term ‘template’ in the investigation of the reproductive and generative capacity of artworks in Oceania is profoundly misleading and in need of replacing. Tracing a similar dilemma in New Genetics and Biology, the paper argues that the contemporary fascination with the knot as a model of non-linear, topological systems enables us to look at the importance of binding in the creation of the figural in Oceanic art from a new perspective. This paper intends to open up the investigation of binding as technique and as patterned design in its distinct articulation in artifactual form across the Pacific by raising questions about the relation between the figural and the social. The material provoking the rethinking of the difference created by material articulation of the mundane, personal, and yet also profoundly mathematical technique of binding in society and culture is that of malanggan figurative art.     

A discussion of rock carvings in Ra’s al Khaimah Emirate,UAE, and Musandam province,Sultanate of Oman,using local considerations

Conversations about various examples of rock carvings with interested local tribespeople across the study region revealed information about the different loci of carvings; subject matter and techniques; and the identities of possible carvers. It was possible to place sorts of rock carvings in specific cultural contexts and in long‐standing traditions across the peninsula. Rock carvers, in most cases, were either immature tribal members or male adults from outside Arab tribal society.     

宁波东钱湖石刻群微生物病害研究

宁波东钱湖石刻群为第五批全国重点文物保护单位,代表了南宋石刻和石雕的艺术成就。由于所处环境和气候条件的影响,石刻群微生物病害情况较严重。为了尝试筛选适宜的微生物去除方法和防止石刻表面生长微生物的材料,通过微生物种属鉴定、清除方法试验以及防止石刻表面生长微生物的材料筛选,确定了石刻上所生长的微生物种类,初步得出了东钱湖石刻群生物病害治理措施,为南方地区潮湿环境下石刻微生物防治提供了借鉴。     

COMPOSITIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FRENCH LIMESTONE: A NEW TOOL FOR ART HISTORIANS*

Limestone from quarries known to medieval craftsmen and from the monuments they built and embellished, as well as from carvings now in museum collections, has been characterized by neutron activation analysis. Specimens from 38 quarries in the Lutetian and Jurassic limestone formations of France and from sculptures in American and French museums have been tested, and the results have been compiled in a data base to which art historians may refer when attempting to determine provenance for sculptures. Multivariate statistical analysis of concentration data shows stone from a particular quarry in the Paris basin to be compositionally homogeneous and distinguishable from other quarries in the same formation. The same approach to data related to quarries near the Burgundian abbey of Cluny finds general agreement between classifications based on compositional and on petrographic data, but the number of samples available for analysis at the time of writing was insufficient to achieve the finer distinctions reported for the Paris basin.     

Engagement and Management: Developing a Monitoring System for Open-air Rock Art in the UK and Ireland

ABSTRACT

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age rock carvings in the United Kingdom and Ireland represent an internationally unique rock art tradition as it is, to the best of our knowledge, the only wholly abstract global rock art tradition. This heritage resource is, however, under threat from an array of factors, such as increasing population densities and agricultural intensity. In this paper, we report on the Condition Assessment Risk Evaluation (CARE) project that had as one of its primary objectives the co-production of a user-friendly, non-invasive condition assessment risk evaluation Toolkit for gathering and organising information essential for the long-term conservation of open-air rock art. We describe the public involvement CARE process through co-experience participatory focus groups, which evaluated the Toolkit, concluding that we can have confidence in the results obtained from the public. Furthermore, the variables that form part of the Toolkit and related management recommendations are presented.     

A Holiday Journal of 1774

Abstract

Early illustrations of Ledsham church do not show carvings around the Anglo-Saxon doorway into the tower, and examination of the physical condition of the stonework suggests that it is unlikely that the carvings could have survived from the Anglo-Saxon period. The peculiar features of the doorway and its carvings are best explained by the work being a nineteenth-century replacement by the Victorian architect, Henry Curzon.     

Investigation and analysis of ancient brick carvings of the Liuhe Pagoda in Hangzhou

The Liuhe Pagoda in Hangzhou, China, has a large number of brick carvings from the Southern Song Dynasty (1152 ce ), covering an area of 464 m². However, the exquisite brick carvings in the Liuhe Pagoda have deteriorated due to natural weathering and a high-humidity environment. Through laboratory analysis and on-site nondestructive testing, the physical and chemical properties of the brick carvings of Liuhe Pagoda were investigated, and the weathering mechanism of the brick carvings was further analyzed. The brick carving of Liuhe Pagoda is composed of brick, white plastering and black coating. CaCO₃ is the main component in white plastering, and the black coating on the top surface contains Chinese lacquer. The weathering products of the brick were analyzed and a trace of CaSO₄.2H₂O was found. In addition, the brick carvings with high water content have low Leeb hardness and severe weathering. Therefore, water and soluble salt are the main factors in weathering of the brick carvings of the Liuhe Pagoda.     

Review

Anders Hagen, Bergkunst. Jegerfolkets helleristninger og malninger i norsk steinalder. (Rock Art. The rock carvings and paintings of hunters in the Norwegian Stone Age.) J. W. Cappelens Forlag A.s. Oslo 1976.     

THESE ROCKS WERE MADE FOR WALKING: ROCK ART AT LEIRFALL,TRØNDELAG,NORWAY

One of the largest sites with Bronze Age type rock art in Norway is found at Leirfall in Stjørdal, Nord‐Trøndelag. The site, which consists of five panels, is dominated by footprints but at the same time a great variety of motifs is present. The footprints seem to lure visitors to walk from panel to panel, even across the panels, which are located at three different levels. The main focus is on the middle level, where the main panel (Leirfall III) contains more than 700 rock carvings. The walks between and around the panels are described; at the same time the Leirfall rock carvings are seen in a wider context. Most footprints are likely to represent children and it is argued that the site was used for the performance of public rites during initiations. However, symbols normally found only on decorated grave cists are present, too, particularly on the upper panel, which cannot be seen from below. Death rituals may also have been performed.     

Tom Stoppard’s Big Picture: The Chaos that is Our World

Abstract

Issues arising from discussions regarding the ‘two cultures’ of science and art are many and varied. Tom Stoppard’s very active utilization of science in many of his plays has resulted in his work — especially the quantum mechanics-informed Hapgood and the chaotics-informed Arcadia — being held up as paradigmatic of one science/art position or another. Often, critical approaches to these plays involve a checklist of scientific facts, implying that the goal of such art is to serve as a delivery device for scientific breakthroughs. While plays, novels, and movies of various sorts may have such goals in mind, Stoppard’s plays do not comfortably fill that agenda, critical arguments to the contrary notwithstanding. Neither do Stoppard’s plays show particular interest in engaging any debate about the superiority of one ‘culture’ over the other. In his two ‘science plays’ in particular, what Stoppard offers is an enrichment of both science and art through metaphorical intertwinings that suggest experience is best served when both camps collaborate. The bigger picture that results argues an overlap in epistemology, namely revealing the uncanny similarity in which artist and scientist approach the material that is our universe.     

Artificial Intelligence, 3D Documentation,and Rock Art—Approaching and Reflecting on the Automation of Identification and Classification of Rock Art Images

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Rock art carvings, which are best described as petroglyphs, were produced by removing parts of the rock surface to create a negative relief. This...     

Geologists and Folklorists: Cultural Evolution and “The Science of Folklore”

As has been made clear by recent inquiries in FLS News (Spittal 1996; Wylie 1966) and the republication of Kathleen Basford's 1978 book The Green Man (1996), there is a great deal of interest in the enigmatic “Green Man,” that foliate head which appears so frequently among medieval church carvings. The term itself came into general usage following Lady Raglan's 1939 article in Folklore, “The ‘Green Man’ in Church Architecture,” but examination of her original work reveals that her choice of the term “Green Man” was, on her own evidence, based more upon inspiration than fact. As a means of beginning an inquiry into the nature and meaning of the phenomenon, the present article is an investigation into the true name of the Green Man.     

The Dancers Who Became Transformed into Wood: the mai masks of the Iatmul,Papua New Guinea

Borrowing, exchanging, and violent appropriation of ritual artefacts have been actions that have contributed to the development of cultural diversity within a particular frame of variations in the Middle Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. The mai masks of the Iatmul, already mentioned by Bateson, are the well‐documented result of a violent appropriation, as indigenous evidence shows. However, the ‘model’ which served for the mai were ritual dancers captured in the Alexander Mountains. These dancers displayed heavily painted faces (but no masks) and rich body decoration. In the process of making the powerful ‘model’ into one of their own, the Iatmul artists transformed the painted faces into carvings according to their preferred material of artistic expressions, wood, and their predilection for the interplay of elevated and deepened surfaces. As this article shows, the creation of mai as (enlivened) persons needs the establishment of socio‐cosmological relationships in which ancestral spirits and ‘natural’ substances are crucially involved. Thus, apart from sculpting as making, actions of growing are essential for turning the masks into beings endowed with ancestral power.     

Impact of Pollution at a Stone Age Rock Art Site in Oslo, Norway, Studied using Lead and Strontium Isotopes

Naturally occurring strontium and lead isotopes were used to study the impact of anthropogenic pollution on a c. 4500-year-old rock carving in Oslo, Norway. Strontium analyses have shown that road-salt from de-icing of a nearby road has accumulated in the soil surrounding the carving. Upon rainfall this salt is redissolved and drains over the rock carving. Analyses of the lead isotopic system have confirmed the impact of traffic from the nearby road on the rock carving site, but also indicate other sources of lead in the Oslo area and pollution in general. The rock carvings at Ekeberg are at high risk as, apart from natural weathering, they are exposed to the deposition of road salt, emissions from nearby traffic, local and long distance atmospheric pollution and meteorological inversion effects during the winter.     

Strofilas (Andros Island,Greece): new evidence for the cycladic final neolithic period through novel dating methods using luminescence and obsidian hydration

The recently excavated coastal prehistoric settlement of Strofilas on Andros Island (Cyclades, Greece) in the Aegean sheds new light on the transitional phase from the Final Neolithic to Early Cycladic period regarding masonry, fortification, and richly engraved rock art. The fortification possesses early evidence of preserved defensive architecture, as evidenced from the plethora of scattered finds from within and around the settlement. Important features are carvings on rock walls which mainly depict ships, animals, and fish. Initial archaeometric dating via the application of luminescence dating of two samples from the fortified wall bearing engraved ships, and by obsidian hydration of two blades employing the new SIMS-SS method (secondary ion mass spectrometry via surface saturation), has been undertaken to determine the site's chronology. The former yields an average date of 3520 (±540) BC and the latter an average date of 3400 (±200) years BC, both of which, within overlapping errors, suggest the main settlement occurred during the Final Neolithic.     

Rock carvings in ⊘stfold. skjeberg

A major Norwegian archaeological work will be presented in each number of NAR. The author's abstract will be followed by comments from invited specialists who have studied similar problems as treated in the publication in question. Professor Sverre Marstrander's study of Bronze Age rock carvings (Østfolds Jordbruksristninger, Skjeberg) was chosen as the subject for discussion in this issue of NAR. Comments are written by Anders Hagen, Gutorm Gjessing, Carl‐Axel Moberg and Henrik Thrane. A reply by Sverre Marstrander will be printed in the next volume.     

Places of Power: Control,Public Access and Authenticity at Rock Carvings in Tanum,Sweden and Val Camonica,Italy

Abstract

This article presents a critical and ethnographically directed discussion and comparison of how the World Heritage listed rock carvings at Tanum, Sweden and Val Camonica, Italy are managed and made accessible to the public. The article focuses on how the Swedish and Italian heritage management cultures view the rock carvings as an authentic (i.e. genuine) phenomenon firmly, and solely, belonging to the past and how this contemporary embedded and constructed narrative leads to specific ways of managing, constructing, organizing, presenting, and staging these places for the public. The article stresses that even if the rock carvings were produced in the past, their authenticity is also a product of their role in contemporary negotiations of interpretive supremacy, control, and power between the culture of heritage management and the public. An ethnographical approach, and ethnographical methods, are used. This approach has implications for archaeology and its public relations; in the light of it, activities and phenomena that seem to be completely normal are revealed as examples of the specific culture of contemporary archaeology and heritage management. It is stressed that this culture and its rituals need to be further examined from an ethnographic point of departure.     

龙门路洞几个问题的讨论

本文是《龙门路洞调查报告》的第二部分,着重对路洞的雕刻题材、洞窟开凿的时间、窟主及其建筑的艺术风格、特点进行了研讨.