6 - Form, Content, and Function: Theory and Method in North American Rock Art Studies

Abstract

This chapter discusses the theories and methods involved in in North American rock art studies. Rock art includes petroglyphs—designs pecked, scratched, abraded or otherwise cut into cliffs, boulders, bedrock, or any natural rock surface—and rock paintings, such as designs painted in similar locations. There is as yet no means of dating rock art directly, and this fact is one of the major and most basic problems confronting rock art research. If rock art imagery is to be successfully integrated with its cultural matrix, a necessary step for its use as an archaeological resource, there has to be some means of locating it in time. To do this, archaeologists dealing with rock art have been forced to devise a variety of approaches that may be used in concert and independently. The dating of rock art is usually only approximate at best, and a number of strategies yield relative rather than absolute dates. Weathering and the accumulation of patina or desert varnish, a natural formation of a brown or black stain of iron and manganese oxides, may provide some clues. Further, differences in the vertical placement of rock art on a cliff face can be a useful indication of relative age, as local changes in specific topographic features can influence the location of rock art through time.