MIGRAINE, LIGHT AND HALLUCINOGENS: THE NEUROCOGNITIVE BASIS OF IRISH MEGALITHIC ART

Irish passage-tomb art has been interpreted as a representation of endogenous visual phenomena associated with consciousness-altering practices. This paper describes an analysis of passage-tomb art in which a detailed breakdown of shape distributions is used to identify the specific means of inducing these visual phenomena at each tomb. This suggests three major sources for the art: migraine, light flicker and hallucinogenic substances, which are evident in different combinations at different tombs.     

CAVE ART AND THE THEORY OF ART: THE ORIGINS OF THE RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATION OF PALAEOLITHIC GRAPHIC EXPRESSION

This paper explores the origins of the symbolic–religious interpretation of Palaeolithic art. We analyse the relationship between the explanations that were given of the 'primitive' mentality in the second half of the nineteenth century and the birth of the religious interpretations of Palaeolithic art and we try to show how this union does not express a direct cause–effect relationship. In order for the union to take place, an intellectual change that would generate a new way of understanding the origins and the nature of art was necessary.     

THE PALEOLITHIC CAVE ART OF VASCO-CANTABRIAN SPAIN

Summary. This article explores the relationship between cave art and Upper Paleolithic archeology in northern Spain (and extreme southwestern France). Among the 83 known art sanctuaries, only three can probably be terminus ante quem dated to the early Upper Paleolithic (c. 35,000-20,000 BP). Other types of evidence (virtual absence of ornaments and mobile art objects before the Solutrean, stylistic similarities between works of late Upper Paleolithic mobile art and parietal art, overwhelming association of Solutrean and/or Magdalenian cultural deposits with art sanctuaries) clearly suggest that most of the cave art was done in the period between c. 20,000-10,000 BP. Cave art sanctuaries are distributed in non-random fashion. The clusters of sanctuaries usually correspond with dense clusters of habitation sites. The clusters are separated by substantial geographical gaps. These chronological and geographical facts coincide with contemporaneous subsistence intensification, all of which tends to support the hypothesis of increased territorialism in the late Last Glacial.     

Between Regionalization and Centralization: The Creation of the Musée Léopold II in Elisabethville (Musée national de Lubumbashi), Belgian Congo (1931–1961)

Since “museumland” was revisited in the 1980s, different authors have studied the history of colonial museums in Europe within a broader discussion on colonial bias, the creation of traditions and the theory of representation. It has become clear, for example, how African utensils were exported to Europe, where they were exhibited as curiosa, ethnographical objects or art. But what happened when the very notion of the museum was exported back to Africa? Who created these institutes and in what context? Was the relationship between colonizers and colonized altered? Did the “social life” of the objects on show change? And what was the relationship between the “old” museums in Europe and the “new” ones created in the colony? These questions have rarely been studied. In this article, the creation of the Musée Léopold II will be used as a basis to offer insight into the links between colonial “science” and “policy”, which proved not to be as monolithic as often portrayed, but rather were complex amalgamations of different opinions and even conflicting interests.     

浅谈美术地理的地域空间性

本文从地理学的角度,用地域空间和历史的观点对美术的地域性进行了论述,提出了美术地理学的研究范畴。全文从横向地域性、纵向地域性、地域空间的扩散性三个方面对美术的地理特性进行了研究。通过大量的分析,作者认为地理环境对美术风格具有决定性的影响。文章所提出的观点可以看作是对文化地理理论的一种补充与印证。     

The Significance of Social Gestures and Technologies of Embellishment in Paleolithic Portable Art

This paper analyzes the gestures and technologies used to make Paleolithic portable art. Contextualized within the theoretical schools of the anthropology of technology and using the chaîne opératoire methodology, the approach advanced here quantifies the relationships between technology, society, and aesthetics in the production of Paleolithic art. Focusing on Pavlovian art, dating to between 28,000 and 24,000 radiocarbon years BP, this paper assesses the suite of art production technologies, particularly those used when modifying and decorating ivory, and traces the relationship between decorative techniques and other characteristics of art. These analyses offer insight into Pavlovian art traditions and the emergence of innovative techniques in Paleolithic societies.     

Rock-art and the transition to farming. The Neolithic landscape of the central Mediterranean coast of Spain

Summary. This paper deals with the analysis of stylistic variation between the different rock‐art traditions that coexisted in the central Mediterranean coastal area of Spain in the Neolithic period – the Macro Schematic tradition, the Schematic tradition and the Levantine tradition. The stylistic variation is analyzed in different scales from the panel with its compositions and superimpositions, to the shelter – shared or exclusive – and the landscape, focussing on patterns of distribution and relationships with settlement sites. This stylistic analysis enables us to study the chronological aspects of the process of Neolithization; while the symbolic character of these marks on the landscape offers an insight into the perception and use of space by the communities who made them.     

The provenance and distribution of Early Bronze ceramics in the Kolyaei Plain,central Zagros,Iran

Within Iran, there is little archaeological evidence for relationships between newly arrived Early Trans-Caucasian (ETC) or Kura-Araxes settlers and earlier inhabitants and contact with neighbouring cultures, or for their apparently abrupt end. Based on the evidence, the Iranian Kura-Araxes was not a simple ‘copy' of the Caucasian Kura-Araxes package. Ceramic traditions show local peculiarities, and all are elements suggesting that the Kura-Araxes traditions went through processes of adaptation, change and re-elaboration according to local tastes and technologies. In this study, an archaeometric approach to ceramics in the Kolyaei Plain of central Zagros contributes to the discussion of contact and exchange between indigenous communities and several cultural spheres of influence on the Early Bronze Age (beginning in the fourth millennium bce ). Morphological data, as well as the mineralogical and chemical composition of ceramics, were applied to determine the major and trace elements of the pottery shards. Based on the trace element profiles, it can be suggested that all the pottery shards are in the same group and they strongly are local products. The ceramic provenance indicates the same patterns of material interactions during the ETC or Kura-Araxes in all the sites within the Kolyaei Plain.     

Memory,narration and spectrality in Brian Friel's Faith Healer and Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme

This article proposes an examination of how Brian Friel's Faith Healer functions as an intertext in Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme. This shall be the first extensive consideration of Frank McGuinness's debt to Faith Healer, the play that convinced him that drama was the form most suited to his vision. How both plays consider the relationship between history, memory and art will be a key concern. Attention shall also be paid to the shared cultural and historic traditions that unite both Friel and McGuinness. The essays that McGuinness has written on Friel will be shown to be as valuable in interpreting McGuinness's work as they are to illuminating Friel's. It shall be argued that McGuinness, far from merely parroting Friel's aesthetic, uses the earlier writer's legacy to create new and original works.     

原始艺术与地理环境的关系

本文从地理学的角度对原始艺术进行了系统的研究。力图从原始艺术的侧面来揭示原始人类与地理环境的关系。     

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)     

Animal engravings in the central Sahara: A proxy of a proxy

The rock art of the central Sahara was created out of the beliefs, traditions and experiences of the engravers and painters. The animal engravings of the Wadi al-Ajal in south-western Libya are used to isolate some of the environmental and cultural/symbolic components that make up the pictorial record. A comparison between the depicted animals and the faunal remains recovered in the area identifies a number of characteristics. The engraving repertoire is dominated by a small number of frequently depicted animals that were of symbolic or economic importance to the engravers. Rare and singular depicted species extend this record to a diverse species spectrum. Although a preferential depiction of herbivores is evident in the data, there is a close match between faunal record and engravings which shows that all larger animals (over ca. 10 kg) that were present in the area were also depicted. The selection of animals in the rock art appears to reflect their visibility in the landscape while also providing a record of changing climatic conditions from savanna to desert habitats. The rock art therefore provides an indirect record of the local environment while also capturing the engravers' perception of animals and landscape.     

A HISTORY OF RESEARCH INTO CANARIAN ROCK ART: OPENING UP NEW THOUGHTS

Research into the history of Canarian rock art presents major problems, both theoretical and methodological. This paper analyses the evolution of research into Canarian rock art from a historical and diachronic perspective. It also addresses the connection established between the Canary Islands, North Africa and the Atlantic area, focusing on the theoretical models developed to explain these relationships. The analysis therefore covers a period of seven centuries (fourteenth–twentieth centuries).     

POSITION and POSSESSION: ASSEMBLAGE VARIATION IN the BRITISH NEOLITHI

Summary: This paper considers the variations among artefact assemblages which developed between about 3000 and 2000 be and argues that they result from the existence of different spheres of exchange separated along hierarchical lines. the main discussion concerns the role of the Grooved Ware assemblage and its relationship with other late Neolithic traditions.     

现代艺术运动发展演变的地理学研究

现代艺术是目前唯一在国际上占统治地位的艺术现象。本文从地理学角度出发研究现代艺术的发展演变。首先回顾了现代艺术的发展过程,重点分析了现代艺术的地域性特征,指出国际现代艺术体系有"中心-边缘"性的分布格局,从流派数量和艺术主题的变化方面总结了其发展演变特点,并且总结了历史上三次重要的艺术扩散过程。其次分析了我国现代艺术发展的时空分布和地理格局,指出我国现代艺术的中心位于东部沿海大城市,具有分布不均、在国际体系中地位不高的特征。最后指出我国城市积极参与国际现代艺术体系、提升文化艺术地位的重要性和途径。     

Add shamans and stir? A critical review of the shamanism model of forager rock art production

The “shamanism” or “neurpsychological” model proposed by Lewis-Williams and colleagues has had a powerful impact on rock art research, and has significantly added to our knowledge of past foragers lifeways in southern Africa and elsewhere in the world. However, this model is primarily based on the view of shamanism as a universal and unvarying characteristic of foragers over space and time. This paper raises both theoretical and empirical problems with this view. The paper examines the relationship between the specific social roles and practices of shamanism and the overarching cosmological structures on which they are based in both southern Africa and Northern Eurasia. In both cases, the paper argues that many cosmological beliefs are highly persistent and durable, extending into prehistory, while the specific practices and roles of shamans are variable, changing to meet the immediate and local needs of their communities. This suggests that rock art is easier to relate to the overarching cosmological dispositions of the people that produced it and the paper closes by suggesting some theoretical and methodological alternatives recognizing this fact.     

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。     

ART IN HOSPITAL SPACES

There is a keen interest in hospital design in the UK fuelled by the largest hospital building programme ever undertaken within the NHS. Architects and NHS planners are gaining advice and inspiration from the growing evidence‐based design movement. Part of this movement is interested in the role of artworks in creating soothing, therapeutic environments. This paper draws on the experience of a research project on the role of art in a new hospital in the North East of England to suggest that there might be an additional cultural role for art in hospitals, and for hospital buildings. The paper examines the wider evidence for this and the history behind it, and places the idea within an aesthetic framework with reference to research results from the study.     

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。     

人文地理学野外考察的指南,方法论与方法结合研究的探索——评周尚意主编的《人文地理学野外方法》

野外考察是地理学的优良传统。人文地理学关注方法论与野外方法的关系。周尚意教授主编的《人文地理学野外方法》一书,系统、详细地介绍了野外方法及其案例,而且在方法论与野外方法结合研究上进行了积极探索。由此延伸思考可得:方法与方法论研究是辩证互动的关系,由于方法论涉及学科实践,所以野外考察需要方法论的指导。作为艺术和技术的结合,人文地理学(野外)著作应该达到"四有":有趣、有用、有力、有美。