A Companion to Rock Art

Rock art, both as art and as a record of human endeavor and artistry, evokes a personal response as well as a scientific one. Its geographic range is vast – with innumerable discoveries from the deserts of Australia to the limestone caves of the Pyrenees; from the heights of the Andes to the fjords of Scandinavia. The number and diversity of sites, and how we approach them using archaeological and art historical perspectives, provides a rich landscape of ideas and narrative frameworks. A Companion to Rock Art offers an unparalleled overview of a field that has evolved significantly within the last two decades. A range of interpretive frameworks within which petroglyph and pictograph art forms can be understood is examined in detail. This exciting field of enquiry continues to engage both researchers and the general public, with the search for elusive meanings in the images. Whether they were produced for the exchange of information; for secular or sacred purposes; for signaling alliance networks and identity; or as legacies of origin narratives are just some of the challenging questions that confront the modern archaeologist in understanding prehistoric and early humans. Leading international scholars provide the most up–to–date and comprehensive coverage of theoretical and methodological developments in the field, and illustrations and photographs ably support the text. This new companion is an authoritative guide for researchers, instructors, and students in anthropology, archaeology, religious studies, and prehistoric art.

List of Plates ix List of Figures xi List of Tables xvi Notes on Contributors xviii Foreword: Redefining the Mainstream with Rock Art xxix Margaret W. Conkey 1 Research Issues and New Directions: One Decade into the New Millennium 1 Jo McDonald and Peter Veth Part I Explanatory Frameworks: New Insights 15 2 Rock Art and Shamanism 17 J. David Lewis–Williams 3 Pictographs, Patterns, and Peyote in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas 34 Carolyn E. Boyd 4 Variation in Early Paintings and Engravings 51 Iain Davidson Part II Inscribed Landscapes 69 5 Rock Art and Seascapes 71 Ian J. McNiven and Liam M. Brady 6 The Social Dynamics of Aggregation and Dispersal in the Western Desert 90 Jo McDonald and Peter Veth 7 Rock Art and Transformed Landscapes in Puerto Rico 103 Michele H. Hayward and Michael A. Cinquino Part III Rock Art at the Regional Level 125 8 Megalithic Rock Art of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Seaboard Europe 127 George Nash 9 North American–Siberian Connections: Regional Rock Art Patterning Using Multivariate Statistics 143 Alice Tratebas 10 Southern Melanesian Rock Art: The New Caledonian Case 160 Christophe Sand 11 Rock Art Research in India: Historical Approaches and Recent Theoretical Directions 179 James Blinkhorn, Nicole Boivin, Paul S. C. Taçon, and Michael D. Petraglia Part IV Engendered Approaches 197 12 Engendering Rock Art 199 Kelley Hays–Gilpin 13 Pictures of Women: The Social Context of Australian Rock Art Production 214 Jo McDonald 14 Engendering North European Rock Art: Bodies and Cosmologies in Stone and Bronze Age Imagery 237 Joakim Goldhahn and Ingrid Fuglestvedt Part V Form, Style, and Aesthetics in Rock Art 261 15 Understanding Pleistocene Rock Art: An Hermeneutics of Meaning 263 Oscar Moro Abadía and Manuel R. González Morales 16 Rock “Art” and Art: Why Aesthetics Should Matter 276 Thomas Heyd 17 Recursive and Iterative Processes in Australian Rock Art: An Anthropological Perspective 294 Howard Morphy 18 A Theoretical Approach to Style in Levantine Rock Art 306 Inés Domingo Sanz Part VI Contextualizing Rock Art 323 19 Rock Art in Situ: Context and Content as Keys to Meaning 325 Linea Sundstrom 20 Symbolic Discontinuities: Rock Art and Social Changes across Time and Space 341 Maria Isabel Hernández Llosas 21 Parietal Art and Archaeological Context: Activities of the Magdalenians in the Cave of Tuc d’Audoubert, France 364 Robert Bégouën, Carole Fritz, and Gilles Tosello 22 Rock Art, Inherited Landscapes, and Human Populations in Southern Patagonia 381 Judith Charlin and Luis A. Borrero Part VII The Mediating Role of Rock Art 399 23 When Worlds Collide Quietly: Rock Art and the Mediation of Distance 401 Ursula K. Frederick 24 Picturing Change and Changing Pictures: Contact Period Rock Art of Australia 420 Paul S.C. Taçon, June Ross, Alistair Paterson, and Sally May Part VIII Rock Art, Identity, and Indigeneity 437 25 Rock Art, Identity, and Indigeneity 439 Robert Layton 26 Shamanism in Indigenous Context: Understanding Siberian Rock Art 455 Andrzej Rozwadowski 27 Rock Art, Aboriginal Culture, and Identity: The Wanjina Paintings of Northwest Australia 472 Valda Blundell and Donny Woolagoodja Part IX Rock Art Management and Interpretation 489 28 Rock Art and the UNESCO World Heritage List 491 Nuria Sanz 29 Safeguarding a Fragile Legacy: Managing uKhahlamba–Drakensberg Rock Art 515 Aron Mazel 30 Managing Rock Art Sites 532 Valerie Magar 31 From Discovery to Commoditization: Rock Art Management in Remote Australia 546 Peter Veth Part X Dating Rock Art: Technological Advances and Applications 563 32 Radiocarbon Dating of Rock Paintings: Incorporating Pictographs into the Archaeological Record 565 Karen L. Steelman and Marvin W. Rowe 33 Twelve Years of Research in Chauvet Cave: Methodology and Main Results 583 Jean Clottes and Jean–Michel Geneste 34 In Suspect Terrain: Dating Rock Engravings 605 David S. Whitley Part XI Rock Art in the Digital Age 625 35 Digital Enhancement of Deteriorated and Superimposed Pigment Art: Methods and Case Studies 627 Liam M. Brady and Robert G. Gunn 36 Robust and Scientifically Reliable Rock Art Documentation from Digital Photographs 644 Mark Mudge, Carla Schroer, Tommy Noble, Neffra Matthews, Szymon Rusinkiewicz, and Corey Toler–Franklin 37 Engaging a New Digital Citizenry 660 Michael Ashley and Cinzia Perlingieri Index 670

Jo McDonald ’s career has combined cultural heritage management and rock art research. She is currently Chair and Director of the Centre for Rock Art Research and Management at the University of Western Australia. Her major research focus, funded by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, is comparing rock art of the Australian and North American arid zones. She is past–President of the Australian Archaeological Association and of the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc. Peter Veth ’s career has focused on the archaeology of Australia and Island Southeast Asia; and on global desert peoples and art in archaeological context. Peter is currently Chair in Archaeology at the University of Western Australia, an Adjunct Chair at the Australian National University, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Beginning with Islands in the Interior , he has published twelve volumes on the archaeology, art, early contact history, and native title of Australia and Island Southeast Asia. Peter has coauthored Plans of Management, National Heritage Listing reports and Outstanding Universal Values reports for art provinces in Australia.

“To summarise, as stated by Conkey in the foreword, this volume is a clear example of how in the twenty–first century rock art is considered a topic of archaeological inquiry, leaving behind the times when it was excluded from the archaeological discussions because of its problematic dating and interpretation (see Whitley 2001 for details about the North American case; or Morwood 2002: 64–88 for the Australian case).”  ( Archaeology In Oceania , 2 October 2013) “Overall, this is a fine compendium, and all rock art researchers will need to read it. Aimed at a sophisticated audience. Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Upper–level undergraduates and above.”  ( Choice , 1 June 2013)