Atlantic crossing: side views on the rock art

Rock art studies have followed different paths in America (or for the matter, other world regions) and Europe, the reason lying in the very constitution of the discipline for in the latter prehistoric art was an integral –and, at times, controversial– part of the discovery of the fossil man and the approach to this artistic phenomenon was tinged with questions about chronology and sequence so cherished to the Culture-historical archaeology that dominated Europe for a long time. In areas such as North America, prehistoric art does not seem to have played such a conspicuous rôle in the academic development of archaeology and, on the other hand, the very persistence of native peoples favored a more anthropology-informed approach to the rock-art studies, allowing for a closer attention to issues such as the signification of the carved and painted images.The aim of this session is to bring together a series of papers dealing with different conceptions about the analysis of rock art conducted by researchers from different parts of the world, in order to reflect on how the different research traditions can inform the approach to this kind of archaeological manifestations.