New approaches to the intractable problem of dating rock art

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "New approaches to the intractable problem of dating rock art" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This session will feature recent advances being made around the world in direct, indirect, and contextual dating of pictographs, petroglyphs and other forms of human rock markings. Pictographs in caves or on rockshelter walls and petroglyphs in various outdoor settings have the potential to provide remarkable insights into the visual worlds of early human cultures globally. Extraordinary developments in various scientific fields have enabled researchers to progress age estimations for the earliest human art-making. The ability to understand non-destructively pigment use in symbolic behaviours also engages contemporary community interest. Scientific innovation necessitates collaborative approaches to ensure these highly technical methods are deployed in culturally appropriate and methodologically rigorous ways. Advances in scientific methods are often presented in the absence of theory: meaning that these new − especially old − dates create debate in the public domain rather than through scientific due-process. This session highlights the scientific advances being made in understanding deep-time and more recent symbolic behaviours across the planet and provides a forum for debating how science must align itself with theoretically grounded archaeological interpretations as well as Indigenous perspectives.