Reimagining Non-Representational Rock Art through Proto-Historical Indigenous Cartographic Traditions

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Art and Archaeology of the West: Papers in Honor of Lawrence L. Loendorf" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

When confronted with apparently non-representational forms at prehistoric rock art sites, North American researchers tend to categorize such imagery as abstract symbols, shamanic art, or entoptic phenomena. Drawing on research in the field of historical geography and utilizing a direct-historical, ethnoarchaeological approach linking historical ledger art, the Plains "biographic" and other rock art traditions, as well as proto-historical maps drawn by native informants for Euro-American colonists and traders, many of these "abstractions" may be effectively re-interpreted as cartographic elements symbolizing topographic, political, or sacred geographies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Art and Archaeology of the West: Papers in Honor of Lawrence L. Loendorf   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23097