Talk to the hand: experimental research on the painted hand depictions of Cerro Azul, Colombia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Experimental research holds great potential for answering questions about the materiality of rock art, revealing insights into the practice of creating images and what it can tell us about the people who produced them. At Cerro Azul in Amazonian Colombia, multi-disciplinary documentation methods revealed that hand depictions were created using a variety of techniques. Hands were simply printed into the rock surface or stylised and decorated with zigzags, spirals, or lines. This presentation shows an experimental and comparative archaeological study of the materiality of Amazonian rock art using Cerro Azul as a case study. Paint recipes were recreated using a variety of both mineral and plant-based coloring agents, as well as exploring the use of different binders, mixers, and grinding techniques. To further understand the technological means for creating prehistoric rock art, the results were compared with pigment analysis (pXRF) of the Cerro Azul paintings. The outcomes of these methodologies reflect how experimental techniques can enhance our understanding of rock art sites beyond the insights provided by traditional methods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38603.0