Arriving at a Meaningful Rock Art Interpretation

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Role of Rock Art in Cultural Understanding: A Symposium in Honor of Polly Schaafsma" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Knowing the past through rock art interpretation has been a hallmark of Polly Schaafsma’s rock art studies. She has advocated and practiced her stance that the meaning of rock art is not a guessing game but is instead the result of data collection and analysis completed within a theoretical framework, and this may result in different scenarios relative to function based on the knowledge of the individual doing the study and the questions they ask of the data. Her use of ethnographic information is often tied to rock art’s place within the greater landscape, and this approach can serve the study of rock art in any region around the world. On the edge of the Northwestern Plains of North America there are two caves whose interiors are completely painted red. These sites predate any historical records, and their complete painting leaves no figurative images that can be compared with others. However, their location within the landscape, their sizes, shapes, and associated nearby cultural items and ethnographic and historical information on tribal beliefs and rituals all provide data to create a meaningful interpretation of their function prior to European contact.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Role of Rock Art in Cultural Understanding: A Symposium in Honor of Polly Schaafsma   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26015