Rock Art (Archaeology)

The Gundük rock relief ensemble in a cave located in the northern highlands of Iraq is probably the oldest known example of its kind in the Near East. First reported in the 19th century but never accurately documented, unfortunately two of the three known reliefs were intentionally damaged beyond repair in the decades to follow. This article presents a new art-historical analysis of the preserved third relief as well as a fourth previously unknown carving, based on recent photogrammetric capture. The images can be dated to the Early Dynastic III or Early Akkadian period with motifs, stylistic details and a composition obviously deriving from then-contemporaneous art in southern Mesopotamia.

The Wakimika Petroglyph site located in northeastern Ontario is a rare rock art site within the Canadian Shield that exhibits stylistic similarities with petroglyph sites of the Lake-of-the-Woods style. This style, identified at the Mud Portage site in northwestern Ontario, has been linked with rock art that could date to between 3000–5000 BCE. The Wakimika petroglyphs are located in the Temagami area that is rich in pictograph sites. On the basis of pictorial content and execution, it is argued that these two types of rock art (petroglyphs and pictographs) did not fulfill the same functions and that the difference between them might stem from the different type of knowledge that these places conveyed.

Archaeologists working on the Pajarito plateau have proposed that petroglyph panels (rock art) functioned as "billboards" associating certain groups with territories. Presumably, smaller panels, not placed on the cliff face below the large residential pueblos, and less inter-visible, functioned as something other than billboards. Equally, panels with wide viewsheds or direct line of sight of prominent natural features might have functioned as shrines. I test this assumption by answering the following questions concerning variously placed panels in Mortandad Canyon Technical Area-05 (Figures 1-3). 1. What other landmarks or built cultural features are visible from the panels themselves? 2. Are the vantage points many, few in number, or isolated near pueblo village sites? 3. From where are these carved images visible?

El objetivo de este trabajo es comunicar los avances en la investigación de las técnicas pictóricas empleadas en la producción de las pinturas rupestres prehispánicas de la localidad arqueológica de La María (Santa Cruz, Argentina), a partir de un enfoque experimental y arqueométrico. Dichos estudios se realizan como parte del Trabajo Final Integrador de la Licenciatura en Conservación y Restauración del Patrimonio Cultural de IIPC-TAREA, UNSAM de uno de los autores (M.L.). Para ello se diseñó una metodología que consiste en tres etapas.
En primer lugar, se realizaron inclusiones en resina acrílica de muestras arqueológicas de pinturas rupestres (1 mm2 aprox. c/u), principalmente de motivos rojos, negros y blancos, para luego observar y registrar las secciones transversales bajo instrumentos de amplificación como el microscopio petrográfico.
En segundo lugar, a partir de las primeras observaciones de las muestras y de los resultados preliminares de los estudios químicos, se diseñó y llevó adelante una experimentación inicial utilizando materiales semejantes a los hallados en las pinturas arqueológicas y técnicas de aplicación que, según los relevamientos macroscópicos, habrían sido empleadas en el pasado (digital, a pincel y estarcida).
La tercera etapa, aún en ejecución, consiste en el análisis comparativo entre ambos conjuntos de muestras micro-estratigráficas y la elaboración de conclusiones.
Particularmente, en este trabajo se describe el abordaje experimental para la producción de una probeta con distintos tipos de aplicación de las pinturas, su muestreo, procesamiento de las muestras y los resultados preliminares del análisis físico microestratigráfico de ellas. Para este último punto se tienen en cuenta distintas variables, analizadas bajo un microscopio petrográfico, como la estructura pictórica de las muestras, las características de los estratos (color, forma, espesor, granulometría, textura, etc.), las relaciones entre la capa pictórica y el soporte pétreo, entre otras. Hasta la fecha, se encuentran incluidas 17 muestras experimentales, producidas a partir de tres mezclas pigmentarias básicas de colores rojos, blancos y negros, aglutinadas con agua y aplicadas digitalmente y a pincel.
Luego de la presentación de los resultados obtenidos hasta el momento, se describen los problemas, límites y desafíos futuros de la investigación.

Wanjina and Bradshaw rock paintings were created by highly advanced Pre-Aboriginal races of Rajanes™ and Abrajanes™, long before the ancestors of contemporary Aborigines invaded Australian continent. Aborigines today cannot explain the origin or meaning of these images, as was confirmed by all sincere Aboriginal elders in the past. But the tribes today have the entire taxpayer-funded Aboriginal industry to keep inventing their “sacred traditions” for them.
The last Aboriginal elder who knew the truth about these images was David Banggal Mowaljarlai. David entrusted Vesna with responsibility to properly interpret these Pre-Aboriginal images. She accepted, and is doing so, with help of her group of non-indigenous artists, and in accordance with the information given to her in her communion with the Wanjinas themselves. They are determined to persevere, despite the fact that some violent groups of Aboriginal thugs went into a frenzy, repeatedly vandalising the ModroGorje gallery and its Wanjina and Bradshaw artworks.

In the archaeology of Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art, there is a long-standing debate over the function and role of the engraved weapons and warriors. The question can be boiled down to: Are the depicted warriors actual fighters, or are they showmen merely portraying an identity to gain status and power? One of the proposals was that spears are active because they occur in killing scenes and swords are passive because they are mostly depicted sheathed. Discussing recent rock art research on the transformation of petroglyphs, their narrative structure as well as new discoveries of weapon depictions, and confronting this with results from use wear analyses on similar weaponry, this paper sets out to argue that the answers to this problem may not be as straight forward as previously proposed. Instead it is proposed that while there is a concern with showmanship relating to a warrior identity in Scandinavian rock art, it is based on real combat, fighting, and killing. Rock art was used to enhance the stature of warriors and to make narratives more exciting that involve warriors.

The author describes four types of mobiliary art resembling rock art traditions in southern Peru. He argues for a strong nexus between the two art forms and, by providing reliable dating for some of the portable objects, arrives at the conclusion that some of the rock art conventions existed for a much longer period than had been assumed. At least the portable art has been in use from about 7000 years BP to just before the Inca Empire. Paint brushes with pigment have been recovered at some of the sites. The available evidence is summarized and a synthesis of the region's rock art is offered.