Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:31:10.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rock Art and the Perception of Landscape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Richard Bradley
Richard Bradley
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 218, Reading RG6 2AA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies of the prehistoric landscape are best suited to the analysis of sedentary communities with enclosed resources. Studies of prehistoric art show different limitations, especially an excessive subjectivity. This paper attempts to bring these areas of research together by considering the changing content of rock art in relation to topography, the movement of people in the cultural landscape, and the operation of specialized kinds of monument. The characteristic designs found in the open air are analyzed in terms of their organization and visual impact, and the results of this pilot study are employed in a more detailed assessment of the positioning of prehistoric petroglyphs in two areas of Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Britain: Northumberland and Mid Argyll.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , April 1991 , pp. 77 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beckensall, S., 1983. Northumberland's Prehistoric Rock Carvings. Rothbury: Pendulum PublicationsGoogle Scholar
Bintliff, J., 1988. Site patterning: separating environmental, cultural and preservation factors, in Conceptual Issues in Environmental Archaeology, eds. Bintliff, J., Davidson, D., & Grant, E.. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 129–44Google Scholar
Bradley, R., 1989. Deaths and entrances: a contextual analysis of megalithic art. Current Anthropology 30, 68–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R., 1991. Monuments and places, in Sacred and Profane, eds. Garwood, P., Jennings, D., Skeates, R., and Thoms, J.. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for ArchaeologyGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R., forthcoming. Symbols and signposts: understanding the prehistoric petroglyphs of the British Isles, in The Ancient Mind, eds. Renfrew, C. & Zubrow, E.Google Scholar
Bradley, R., & Chapman, R., 1986. The nature and development of long-distance relations in Later Neolithic Britain and Ireland, in Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-political Change, eds. Renfrew, C. & Cherry, J.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 127–36Google Scholar
Braithwaite, M., 1982. Decoration as a ritual symbol: a theoretical proposal and an ethnoarchaeological study in southern Sudan, in Symbolic and Structural Archaeology, ed. Hodder, I.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 80–8Google Scholar
Brown, A., 1991. Structured deposition and technological change in the flaked stone from Cranborne Chase, in Papers on the Prehistoric Archaeology of Cranborne Chase, eds. Barrett, J., Bradley, R. & Hall, M.. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 101–33Google Scholar
Butzer, K., 1982. Archaeology as Human Ecology. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, B., & Coles, J., 1986. Sweet Track to Glastonbury. London: Thames and HudsonGoogle Scholar
Conkey, M. 1990. Experimenting with style in archaeology: some historical and theoretical issues, in The Uses of Style in Archaeology, eds. Conkey, M. & Hastorf, C.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 5–17Google Scholar
Earle, T., & Christensen, A., (eds.) 1980. Modelling Change in Prehistoric Subsistence Economies. New York: Academic PressGoogle Scholar
Eogan, G. 1986. Knowth and the Passage-tombs of Ireland. London: Thames and HudsonGoogle Scholar
Fischer, J., 1961. Art styles as cognitive cultural maps. American Anthropologist 63, 79–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, A., 1988. The Dartmoor Reaves. London: BatsfordGoogle Scholar
Fraser, D., 1983. Land and Society in Neolithic Orkney (BAR 117). Oxford: British Archaeological ReportsGoogle Scholar
Geertz, C., 1983. Art as a cultural system, in Local Knowledge, ed. Geertz, C.. New York: Basic Books, 94–120Google Scholar
Hardin, M., 1984. Models of decoration, in The Many Dimensions of Pottery, eds. Van der Leeuw, S. & Pritchard, A.. Amsterdam: Cingula, 573–607Google Scholar
Harding, A., 1981. Excavations in the prehistoric ritual complex near Milfield, Northumberland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47, 87–135CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodder, I. 1982a. Sequences of structural change in the Dutch Neolithic, in Symbolic and Structural Archaeology, ed. Hodder, I.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 162–77Google Scholar
Hodder, I., 1982b. Symbols in Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Ilkley Archaeology Group, 1986. The Carved Rocks of Rombalds Moor. Wakefield: West Yorkshire Archaeology ServiceGoogle Scholar
Ingold, T., 1986. The Appropriation of Nature. Manchester: Manchester University PressGoogle Scholar
Johnson, G., 1982. Organizational structure and scalar stress, in Theory and Explanation in Archaeology: the Southampton Conference, eds. C., Renfrew, Rowlands, M. & Segraves, B.A.. London: Academic Press, 389–421Google Scholar
Johnston, S., 1989. Prehistoric Irish Petroglyphs: their Analysis and Interpretation in Anthropological Context. Ann Arbor: University MicrofilmsGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, D., & Dowson, T., 1988. The signs of all times: entoptic phenomena in Upper Palaeolithic art. Current Anthropology 29, 201–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malmer, M., 1981. A Chordogical Study of North European Rock Art. Stockholm: Almqvist & WiksellGoogle Scholar
Marshall, D., 1977. Carved stone balls. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 108, 40–72Google Scholar
Mithen, S., 1990. Thoughtful Foragers. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, R., 1977. The Prehistoric Rock Art of Argyll. Poole: Dolphin PressGoogle Scholar
Morris, R., 1979. The Prehistoric Rock Art of Galloway and the Isle of Man. Poole: Blandford PressGoogle Scholar
Morris, R., 1989. The prehistoric rock art of Great Britain: a survey of all sites bearing motifs more complex than simple cup-marks. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 55, 45–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Sullivan, M., 1986. Approaches to passage tomb art. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 116, 68–83Google Scholar
O'Sullivan, M., 1989. A stylistic revolution in the megalithic art of the Boyne Valley. Archaeology Ireland 3, 138–42Google Scholar
Piggott, S., 1954. The Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Richards, C., & Thomas, J., 1984. Ritual activity and structured deposition in Later Neolithic Wessex, in Neolithic Studies (BAR 133), eds. Bradley, R. & Gardiner, J.. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 189–218Google Scholar
Richards, C., 1990. Home is where the hearth is: The late Neolithic settlement of Barnhouse and an analysis of social space. Past 9, 12Google Scholar
Roese, H., 1980. Some aspects of topographical location of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in Wales, 1: menhirs. Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 28, 645–55Google Scholar
RCAHMS (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland), 1971. Argyll, volume 1. Edinburgh: H.M.S.OGoogle Scholar
RCAHMS (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland), 1988. Argyll, volume 6. Edinburgh: H.M.S.OGoogle Scholar
Shee Twohig, E., 1982. The Megalithic Art of Western Europe. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Simpson, D., & Thawley, J., 1972. Single Grave art in Britain. Scottish Archaeological Forum 4, 81–104Google Scholar
Spratt, D. 1981. Prehistoric boundaries on the North Yorkshire Moors, in Prehistoric Communities in Northern England, ed. Barker, G.. Sheffield: Sheffield University Department of Prehistory, 87–103Google Scholar
Stewart, M., 1961. Strath Tay in the second millennium BC: a field survey. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 92, 71–84Google Scholar
Tilley, C., 1984. Ideology and the legitimation of power in the Middle Neolithic of Southern Sweden, in Ideology, Power and Prehistory, eds. Miller, D. & Tilley, C.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 111–52Google Scholar
Wainwright, G., 1990. The Henge Monuments. London: Thames and HudsonGoogle Scholar
Walker, G., 1989. The Cup-and-ring Markings of North Northumberland. B.A. dissertation, Reading UniversityGoogle Scholar
Walker, M., 1977. ‘Schematised’ rock markings as archaeological evidence, in Form in Indigenous Art, ed. Ucko, P.. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 452–69Google Scholar
Wiesner, P., 1983. Style and social information in Kalahari San projectile points. American Antiquity 48, 253–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiesner, P., 1984. Reconsidering the behavioral basis for style: a case study among the Kalahari San. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 3, 190–234Google Scholar
Wiesner, P., 1989. Style and changing relations between the individual and society, in The Meanings of Things, ed. Hodder, I.. London: Unwin Hyman, 56–63Google Scholar
Wiesner, P., 1990. Is there a unity to style?, in The Uses of Style in Archaeology, eds. Conkey, M. & Hastorf, C.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 105–12Google Scholar
Wobst, H.M., 1977. Stylistic behavior and information exchange, in For the Director Research Essays in Honor of J.B. Griffin, ed. Cleland, C.. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, 317–42Google Scholar