Since about 1960, the study of petroglyphs and pictographs has escaped the confines of anthropology, art history, and philology and established itself as a discrete field of transdisciplinary scholarship, supported by its own organizations, periodicals, and lexicon. “Rock art research” emerged as the field’s moniker, and “rock art” became the most popular term for describing anthropogenic marks in and on geological surfaces. However, this label has sparked controversy over whether “art” is an accurate, ethical, and inclusive gloss for non-Western and premodern imagery. Although some pragmatic scholars, preservationists, and descendant community representatives accept this nomenclature, others find it imprecise, distracting, and, at times, offensive. We advance this debate with results from two surveys. First, a review of article titles published since 1865 shows that “rock art” is just one of many terms used in the field, and it is one of the youngest. Second, a survey of federally recognized Tribes found strong though not universal dissatisfaction with “rock art” to characterize ancestral petroglyphs and pictographs. As a bridge between field practitioners and descendant communities, we recommend that researchers and organizations work with Tribes to develop and use terms that are respectful, useful, and of mutual benefit.

This article introduces an archaeological project in the Flinders Islands Group, Queensland, Australia. A collaboration between academics, the islands’ Traditional Owners and Cape Melville National Park, the project focuses on the islands’ important corpus of rock art.

En este trabajo estudio el arte rupestre creado por los zapotecos a su llegada a la parte sur del Istmo de Tehuantepec en el Postclásico tardío. Analizo varios aspectos de este arte desde una aproximación a la ontología zapoteca prehispánica para exponer la singularidad de este tipo de arte dentro de la cultura zapoteca, y para demostrar que constituía una acción y una experiencia diferente de lo que se considera arte en la tradición clásica de occidente, ya que se pintaba sobre un ente vivo. Propongo dos aspectos importantes de la estética de este arte: la vinculación íntima con la tierra como ente vivo y con los seres que habitan en su interior; y el poder de poner en acción esas imágenes que desataba su proceso de creación.

El objetivo del trabajo es analizar la relación entre humanos y animales a lo largo del tiempo. En este contexto, buscamos puntualmente comprender el papel de estos últimos en los procesos de construcción identitaria de los grupos humanos de Sierras Centrales (Córdoba, centro de Argentina). Para ello, proponemos una perspectiva que integre herramientas metodológicas de la etnozoología, la historia y la arqueología. Desde el presente, abordamos el conocimiento ecológico local de las comunidades rurales, donde muchas familias llevan como apelativo el nombre de algún animal. En tanto, indagamos en los vínculos identificados en los documentos y trabajos históricos, lo que habilita rastrear cambios y continuidades de algunas prácticas sociales donde fueron mencionados los animales. Consideramos que la conjunción de estas líneas posibilita repensar la presencia de estos seres en las dinámicas sociales de las comunidades humanas del período Tardío (ca. 700-1550 dC), con base en el análisis de la iconografía zoomorfa del arte rupestre. La evidencia recuperada nos habilita a reconocer la continuidad del diálogo entre personas y animales como central en las dinámicas sociales, y cómo sus diferentes expresiones identitarias tuvieron lugar en distintos momentos históricos en las regiones objeto de estudio.

This paper puts forward a new interpretation of Deleuzian philosophy for prehistoric archaeology through an examination of the ontology of prehistoric rock art. Whereas Deleuzian philosophy is commonly defined as a relational conception of the real, I argue that one must distinguish between three different ways in which Deleuze’s conception of the real can operate: (1) transcendental empiricism, (2) simulacrum and (3) prehistory. This distinction is dependent upon the different ways in which the realm of virtuality and the realm of actuality can relate to one another. In the case of prehistoric rock art, we are dealing with a non-hierarchical relation between virtual and actual in which there is a simultaneous movement from virtual to actual, and from actual to virtual. This is distinct from a relational conception of the real, which is based on the loss of distinction between virtual and actual. Through an analysis of the cup-and-ring rock art of Neolithic Britain and the cave art of Upper Palaeolithic Europe, I argue that it was in prehistoric rock art and not in modern art that the true ontological condition of art manifested itself.

In terms of the grand narrative of Upper Egypt’s expansion into, and unification with, Lower Egypt in the second half of the fourth millennium BC, substantial debate surrounds the processes of state formation. Referring to a recently discovered engraving near Aswan, the author argues that rock art has much to contribute to these discussions. Typological and comparative analyses of the engraving, which is interpreted as a processional boat bearing a seated human figure, are used to suggest that it was created at the dawn of the First Dynasty, thus adding to the limited corpus of political authority expressed in Protodynastic rock art.

The hypothesis of Paleolithic rock art in Siberia remains neither proven nor disproven. This research provides key evidence for a later age of the earliest known images in the Minusinsk Depression. A set of geological, geomorphological, and absolute-dating methods was utilized to reconstruct the geological history of the Maydashy rock art site (Minusinsk Depression, Southern Siberia). This research for the first time has allowed us to date the lower chronological boundary of the period when the earliest images known in Southern Siberia as “Minusinsk Style” were created. In the Late Pleistocene, the cliff area of the site was buried under alluvial deposits of the first floodplain terrace of the Yenisei River that formed in the second half of MIS 2. At the beginning of the Holocene, before its optimal onset, Yenisei eroded the terrace and exposed the rock surface to mark the potential lower boundary (< 11 ka) when the Maydashy site images were carved. This approach can be useful in rock art research for dating carvings from open-air sites; it is applicable for the rock art sites of other regions where ravine formation affected their natural context.

Indigenous Australian art relies on motifs and figures to visually symbolise a traditional story, myth and/or ritual, encompassing a narrated performance. In contrast, digital tracings or ‘finger flutings’ impressed into the soft precipitate covering cave surfaces are not typically considered visually symbolic expressions. Using Koonalda Cave in southern Australia as a case study, the authors argue that digital tracings also operate within a performative space, but without their narrator these undulating lines are rendered silent. Here, emphasis is placed on ritual maintenance or the spiritual propagation of a prized food or trade item that would then ‘rise up’.

Rock art can be useful as a factor in reclaiming Indigenous identities. One example of this phenomenon is work by contemporary artists who explore and integrate rock art in their creations. The author considers how and why a selection of artists in Siberia/Central Asia and Canada use these ancient images.

La agricultura fue una actividad fundamental de las comunidades aldeanas de las tierras altas de Arica en los Andes centro sur, durante el período Intermedio tardío (1100-1450 dC), hasta convertirse en uno de los principales propósitos de la expansión inca en la región en los siglos quince y dieciséis. Este trabajo presenta el hallazgo, en la cuenca alta del Valle de Azapa, de maquetas o infraestructuras agrícolas grabadas en miniatura. Caracterizamos sus formas y soportes, examinamos su distribución en los territorios tardíos de la región y las contrastamos a macroescala regional con evidencias similares. Finalmente, discutimos su vínculo con el flujo de conocimientos y experiencias relativos al manejo del agua y la topografía, junto con la ritualización del paisaje agrícola en tiempos incas.

The development of freestanding stone sculpture by the Olmec people of Mesoamerica's Gulf lowlands has long been considered one of the defining artistic achievements of the Formative period. However, by the Middle Formative period the production of freestanding sculpture was often eclipsed by the contemporaneous creation of rock art outside the Gulf lowlands. In this article I argue that Gulf Olmec sculptors and audiences occasionally co-opted the aesthetic and ritual treatments of rock art at topographic shrines to construct and reinforce the sacred geographies of primary site cores. In so doing, Olmec elites converted the ideological power of the wild and the animate earth into a form of political capital.

Rock art of the Middle and Upper Orinoco River in South America is characterised by some of the largest and most enigmatic engravings in the world, including snakes exceeding 40m in length. Here, the authors map the geographic distribution of giant snake motifs and assess the visibility of this serpentine imagery within the Orinoco landscape and Indigenous myths. Occupying prominent outcrops that were visible from great distances, the authors argue that the rock art provided physical reference points for cosmogonic myths, acting as border agents that structured the environment and were central to Indigenous placemaking along the rivers of lowland South America.

En este trabajo se presenta el estudio de los sitios con arte rupestre del faldeo oriental de la Sierra de Velasco y occidental de la Sierra de La Punta (norte de la provincia de La Rioja, Argentina). Los objetivos son definir la diversidad de representaciones a nivel local, evaluar la circulación de información a escala regional y examinar su rol en la conformación de paisajes sociales, durante los últimos 2.000 años. Para ello se realiza un análisis de los repertorios iconográficos y de los vínculos entre imágenes y contextos de emplazamiento. Los resultados sugieren que los sitios rupestres distribuidos en altitudes contrastantes implicaron diferentes prácticas sociales. Los emplazamientos pedemontanos, integrados a los espacios residenciales y productivos, se habrían conformado en torno a prácticas domésticas y simbólicas recurrentes, mientras que aquellos situados en las serranías de La Punta estarían vinculados con el uso de vías naturales de circulación. Esta segregación espacial involucra, a su vez, distintas temporalidades para la producción y el consumo de arte rupestre.

Este trabajo se propone avanzar en la comprensión de los procesos históricos de pintado del sitio arqueológico de Oyola (Sierra El Alto-Ancasti, Catamarca, Argentina). En particular, se evalúan similitudes y diferencias en la composición material de las mezclas pigmentarias para entrever la existencia de antiguas recetas pictóricas en la confección de las pinturas rupestres negras. Para ello se realizaron análisis microestratigráficos de 28 motivos mediante microscopía electrónica de barrido con análisis elemental por espectroscopía dispersiva en energía de rayos X (MEB-EDS), y microespectroscopía Raman (RS). Su estudio comparativo señaló el uso alternativo de dos pigmentos negros (carbón vegetal y óxidos de manganeso) combinados, en algunos casos, con un aditivo (sulfato de calcio). De esta forma, fue posible conocer ciertos aspectos de las recetas pictóricas que orientaron la preparación de las mezclas pigmentarias negras, aproximándonos a algunas de las tradiciones y saberes retomados. Para alcanzar una comprensión histórica de dichas recetas, se evaluó la distribución espacial, temporal y algunas características formales de los motivos rupestres realizados con ellas. Al no identificarse tendencias claras, se propone una definición menos normativa de receta pictórica que resalta los aspectos compartidos entre distintos episodios de pintado sin perder de vista las posibilidades creativas de cada evento.

Discussions of contacts between Britain and Ireland usually focus on monuments and on portable artefacts such as Grooved Ware, Beakers, and metalwork. New research on insular rock art suggests that it originated in the Middle to Late Neolithic period and continued to be used and re-used into the Early Bronze Age. This paper considers its relationship with decorated passage graves and other structures. It argues that the distribution of rock art sheds further light on connections between these islands. Estuaries, bays, and landing places were important, but the siting of pecked motifs indicates other links along three overland routes between the North Sea and the Irish Sea. Certain practices were shared between megalithic tombs and recently excavated rock carvings. It is possible that they expressed similar beliefs at a time when long distance travel was important.