Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Rock art research transitioned beyond descriptive–typological studies four decades ago, initially using ethnographic analyses followed by the addition of neuropsychological models and subsequently with a wide variety of approaches, the circumstance today. Current interpretive studies range from traditional but intensive iconographic research through quantitative analyses to landscape studies to collaborations with Indigenous peoples. Concern with the metaphysical beliefs—epistemology and ontology—of the creators of rock art underlies many of these studies, reflecting the continuing influence of the initial ethnographic turn in rock art. Papers in this session highlight the diverse approaches to current global rock art research, in the process illustrating the interpretive advances that have been made in our understanding of this aspect of the archaeological record.

Other Keywords
Iconography and Art: Rock Art • Ethnography/Ethnoarchaeology • Archaic • Rock Art • contact period • Dating Techniques • Warfare • Violence • ontology • Ethnohistory/History

Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) • North America (Continent) • USA (Country) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Utah (State / Territory) • Nevada (State / Territory) • California (State / Territory) • New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-16 of 16)

  • Documents (16)
Documents
  • An Animist Shamanism: The World behind San Rock Art (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sam Challis. Andrew Skinner.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hunter-gatherer cosmology in southern Africa is very clearly multinatural; persons human and nonhuman working to behave intelligibly to each other so that relations are brokered and maintained. Until recently, however, rock art interpretations have implied a physical division between realms animal and human,...

  • Best Foot Forward: The Social Significance of Cattle Forelegs in South African San Rock Art (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only David Witelson.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rock paintings of cattle raids are common in South Africa's southeastern mountains. Traditionally, such scenes are thought to illustrate some degree of conflict between two groups. The postures of the cattle depicted in the same scenes have been interpreted as showing movement such as walking or being driven from one...

  • Dating the Murujuga Cultural Landscape (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jo McDonald.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Dampier Archipelago (including Burrup Peninsula) is one of Australia’s most significant rock art provinces. Recently nominated to the World Heritage List as the Murujuga Cultural Landscape, this talk describes efforts which are being made to directly-date this deep time rock art sequence, by innovative direct...

  • The Geography of Precontact Native American Rock Art in the American Southeast (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jan Simek. Jordan Schaefer. Alan Cressler. Jeremy Price.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, a large number of precontact Native American rock art sites, including caves and open shelter localities, have been recorded in the southern Cumberland Plateau. Cave sites contain pictographs, petroglyphs, and mud glyphs. Most open sites are pictographs or petroglyphs painted or engraved into upland...

  • Interpretative Approaches in Rock Art and Geoglyphs of the Atacama Desert: Between Theories and Methods (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniela Valenzuela. Indira Montt. Marcela Sepúlveda. Persis Clarkson.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study reviews the range of interpretative approaches that have delineated rock art research in the Atacama Desert, which has been mainly informed by ethnohistorical, ethnographic, and landscape archaeology perspectives. We focus on the role that prevailing Andean archaeological theories have played in the...

  • Leaving a Calling Card: Why Is This Rock Art Here? (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only James Keyser.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Plains warfare is well known for its “gamesmanship” aspect, but one of the less emphasized parts of that is the practice of leaving a “calling card” flouting your entry into an enemy’s territory and your success against him. Recent research has located more than a dozen “out of place” northern Plains rock art sites....

  • Meaningful Choices and Relational Networks: Analyzing Western Arnhem Land’s Painted Hand Rock Art Style Using Chaîne Opératoire (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Liam Brady. Luke Taylor. Sally May. Paul Tacon.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A core feature of rock art studies concerns the characterization and analysis of motif styles to generate new insights into their function, meaning, and symbolism in the deep and recent past. Yet what is oftentimes overlooked is attention to the production sequence used to create motifs, and what this can reveal...

  • New Developments with the Shield-Bearing Warrior Motif in the Rocky Mountains (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lawrence Loendorf.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The shield-bearing warrior, a widely recognized rock art motif on the Northwestern Plains, has a more complex pedigree than archeologists originally recognized. Examples in northcentral Montana are radiocarbon dated to the Late Archaic while other sites in southwestern Montana may date to the same time. Adding to the...

  • The Ontology of Landscape and Hunter-Gatherer Rock Writing (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only David Whitley.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Landscapes are cultural constructs, shaped by cognition and actualized in behavior. Hunter-gatherer landscapes are traditionally viewed in two terms: settlement patterns and systems, and related adaptive/subsistence niches and patches. While useful, these approaches embody the epistemological imperialism of Western...

  • Origins and Tenacity of Myth: Part II—Ethnography (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carolyn Boyd. Phil Dering. Diana Radillo Rolón. Paul Schottmueller.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hunter-gatherer artists of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas produced Pecos River style (PRS) rock art as early as 5,500 years ago. In 2016, Boyd identified patterns in PRS murals similar to the mythologies of the ancient Nahua (Aztec) and the present-day Huichol (Wixárika). She advanced the hypothesis...

  • Origins and Tenacity of Myth: Part I—Archaeology (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Diana Radillo Rolón. Carolyn Boyd. Siobhan Anderson. David Keim.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Origins and Tenacity of Myth is a comprehensive study of Pecos River style (PRS) pictographs in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is a collaborative project between Texas State University and Shumla Archaeological Center. This presentation addresses the...

  • Rock Art and Slow Science: What's the Connection? (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Margaret Conkey.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, I will suggest that rock art research is an excellent example of how we can advance many of the goals of the slow science movement, despite continued practices by some rock art researchers that promote "the scoop" and other problems that slow science advocates are trying to work against. As rock art...

  • Rock Art: A Biographical Perspective from Western Arnhem Land, Australia (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sally May. Joakim Goldhahn. Gabriel Maralngurra.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent decades, studies of contact rock art have significantly contributed to rock art research globally. A key reason for this is that such artworks can represent a reverse gaze across cross-cultural encounters. Another reason is that contact rock art affords us neatly chronological points of time, before and...

  • Rock Imagery, Cultural Landscapes, and Indigenous Ontologies in the North American Southwest (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Radoslaw Palonka. Aaron Wright. Katarzyna Ciomek.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. How we frame the study of rock imagery (i.e., petroglyphs and pictographs) conditions the types of questions we ask, the types of data we employ, and ultimately the types of conclusions we draw. In the North American Southwest, the study of rock imagery has long focused on the images, less so on the rocks, and only...

  • Walking in Winter Landscapes: Reflections on Temporality and Seasonality in Stone Age Rock Art of Northern Europe (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jan Magne Gjerde.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Temporal changes and surroundings are of vital importance to hunter-fisher-gatherers (HFG) and guide activities of HFG in northern Europe throughout the year. Lifeways differ between and within the regions of northern Europe, e.g., coastal northern Norway, inland central Sweden, or lake districts of Finland. The...

  • When the Earth Was New: Memory, Materiality, and the Numic Ritual Life Cycle (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alex Ruuska.

    This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper explores the critical subject of indigenous oral traditions in California and the Great Basin. Using an interdisciplinary approach that considers Numic oral teachings relative to place-based data in ethnography, ethnohistory, archaeology and geology, the author interrogates traditional narratives encoding...