An Overview of the Rock Art of AlUla: Tracing Changes in Content and Form Across 12,000 Years of Human History

Reviewed by: Pecos River Style Rock Art: A Prehistoric Iconography by James Burr Harrison Macrae Timothy K. Perttula Pecos River Style Rock Art: A Prehistoric Iconography. By James Burr Harrison Macrae. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2018. Pp. 112. Illustrations, bibliography, index.) James Burr Harrison Macrae’s Pecos River Style Rock Art primarily concerns the structure and character of Pecos River Style painted rock art, which dates from ca. 4,000–1,500 years ago and is found in rock shelters in the lower Pecos River area in the West Texas and Mexican Chihuahuan Desert. This rock art was produced by painters in Middle and Late Archaic-period-hunter-fisher-gatherer societies who seasonally ranged across the land. The book also represents the author’s efforts to explain and understand both the rock art and the aboriginal peoples who created it. The polychrome painted rock art, in red, black, yellow, and white pigment-based paint, features elongated linear and abstract anthromorphs as well as a wide variety of other core and non-core motifs. Macrae makes a strong case that the rock art has both “metaphorical and spiritual connection to the landscape” (73), and was meant to convey ritual and supernatural events, religious precepts as well as cosmology, and depict the hierarchy of important men and leaders in their society. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the Lower Pecos region, its geology (especially its limestone overhangs, which were used as rock art panels) and climate, and the archaeological context of the rock art. Most interestingly, it also includes autobiographical information about the author and his decision to focus academically on the Pecos River Style art. In chapter 2, Macrae provides the methods and theoretical approach he employs in the study of the rock art. Here, Macrae characterizes the approach as structural-iconographic analysis. This analysis relies on the identification of repetitive patterns and symbols in the art, along with determining the contextual relationships between the symbols and patterns in each rock art panel at rock shelter sites. Macrae follows this by defining nineteen core motifs in the rock art imagery in chapter 3. The imagery is divided into anthropomorphs, material culture, and zoomorphs (mainly mountain lions, deer, and birds, as well as centipedes), enigmatic characters, and geometric symbols combined into an abstract and symbolic narrative on “paintings layered one on top of another” (30). The heart of the book arrives in chapter 4 with the presentation of [End Page 459] Macrae’s well-illustrated typology of those nineteen core motifs along with fifty-five non-core motifs and symbols identified in the Pecos River Style rock art. This typology includes a description of the unique character of these motifs as well as interpretations of their symbolic meaning offered by Macrae and a variety of rock art researchers. These interpretations represent the best current view of their meaning, “subject to the best available evidence and theory” (36). Macrae ties together these disparate pieces of information and symbolic content on Pecos River style rock art in Chapter 5. He argues that this rock art was created by hunter-fisher-gatherer groups as part of a long-term ritual cycle tied to periods of social pressure and stress among Lower Pecos bands. During periods of increasing populations or aridity, the rock art functioned “as a stabilizing and unifying cultural process” that was manifest as cyclical nucleation of bands and the creation of sacred space “at natural shrines on the landscape” (77). I highly recommend Macrae’s book to readers interested in the aboriginal rock art of the Lower Pecos region, as well as in the author’s research approach. I hope Macrae will continue his studies of Pecos River Style rock art and delve further into the complex rock art created by Lower Pecos peoples. Timothy K. Perttula Austin, Texas Copyright © 2019 The Texas State Historical Association

Many parts of the Arabian Peninsula contain rock art that has received minimal archaeological attention or has not yet been thoroughly surveyed. In 2001 an extensive rock-art complex called Shuwaymis, Ha'il Province, Saudi Arabia was brought to the attention of the Saudi General Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. This paper sets out the results of the first high-resolution geospatial mapping and recording of rock art at this remote site. The research saw the innovative use of a differential GPS to record rock-art panels to within 5 mm of accuracy at the site of Shuwaymis-2, the first time that such technology has been used to record rock art in the Arabian Peninsula. With such technology it was possible to show which of eighty-three late prehistoric rock-art panels surveyed were in their original position and which had fallen, and to demonstrate that there was spatial homogeneity of rock-art styles and composition across the site. The mapping recorded multiple panels of cattle, ibex, equid, large cat and other animals. The depictions of lions and cattle in particular indicate that the rock art must have been engraved no later than the early Holocene humid phase (c.10–6 ka BP).

Rock art is defined as systematic and man‐made depressions or paintings on a smooth rock surface. In contrast to other cultural monuments, they have hardly any ecological importance. Nevertheless rock art sites should be regarded as a part of the landscape, both with respect to interpretation and preservation. The method of gluing together fragmented rock art panels with an organic glue, and the repairing of cracks on rock art panels by mortar, are criticised. The author raises doubts about the ‘crumbling effect’ of mosses and the effect of ‘aggressive lichen’, postulated by other authors. The need for a long time perspective and international co‐operation in rock art preservation and conservation is underlined, and it is emphasized that experiments with new methods of conservation should be done on panels without rock art. Based on observations of an accidentally covered rock art panel in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, a new and reversible method for stabilisation of severely weathered rock art panels is proposed, using dissolved calcium carbonate which is precipitated in a calcification process on the weathered rock and in cracks.

In this article, the potential of archaeoacoustics for understanding past communities is discussed by looking at a range of acoustic parameters. Our case study is the Urkosh rock art area in the Ongudai district, Republic of Altai (Russia). The rock art of this area dates possibly from the Upper Palaeolithic and definitely from the Early Bronze Age (second half of the third millennium BCE). There are important periods in the Early Iron Age (first half of the first millennium BCE) and the medieval era, after which there are later additions up to the present day. Major and minor sites were tested, as well as some with no art. The results obtained from the tests conducted using the impulse response method indicate high values for sound clarity not only in the rock art sites but also in at least one nearby panel without rock art. Although these results cannot explain why rock art was produced precisely in specific locations, they objectively describe the acoustic conditions under which particular intangible cultural practices were probably organised in them. In particular we focus on storytelling and music, cultural practices for which there is a wealth of information in the ethnographic sources written about the area.

Recent research has shown evidence of ancient admixture from both eastern and western Eurasian genetics in the human populations of Mongolia going back to at least the Eneolithic Afanasievo archaeological culture (ca. 3000 BCE). Eastern mtDNA lineages found in ancient and living Mongolians in the past and present have greatest affinity with Neolithic populations from the Transbaikal region of southern Siberia, suggesting that people from this region were likely the first to colonize northern and eastern Mongolia after the last glacial maximum (ca. 24,500–17,000 BCE), while western Eurasian groups probably migrated to the steppe in association with the earliest forms of pastoralism. While some studies suggest the contribution of these ancient western lineages to the modern populations in Mongolia was minimal, this research demonstrates that western mtDNA lineages were particularly prominent among the burial populations of the Early Iron and Iron Ages in the region. This is most notable among the burial population associated with slab burials and the burial population of their successors, the people associated with the Xiongnu polity (209 BCE–91 CE). Similarities between mtDNA haplogroup frequencies of the slab burial and Xiongnu burial populations also strongly support the proposal that the builders of the slab burials were the principal ancestors of the Xiongnu people.ObjectivesThe objective of this research is to increase understanding of human population change on the Mongolian steppe during the first millennium BCE and how it may be associated with cultural change and the creation of early eastern steppe empires. It examines the mtDNA haplogroup frequencies of the burial population from slab burials in Mongolia and compares it with frequencies from various other populations to determine population affinities.MethodsThis study was primarily based on Sanger sequencing the HV1 of the mtDNA of ancient individuals from Mongolia during the Early Iron Age for haplogroup determination and then comparing mtDNA haplogroup frequencies with previously published data including 110 ancient and modern populations. The 21 samples used in this study were selected based on region, dating, and availability. Pairwise Fsts of mtDNA haplogroup frequencies were calculated using the Arlequin population genetics program.ResultsThe mtDNA hg of 20 of 21 samples are determined and added to previously published data, increasing the total sample to 35 for the particular population of interest. Using this mtDNA gene pool, it is determined that by the Late Bronze Age an east–west mixed population has already been established, which stays relatively stable into the Iron Age (Xiongnu) period, suggesting that the people practicing the slab burial tradition are the most likely biological ancestors of the Xiongnu. It also notes a distinct difference in mtDNA haplogroup frequencies between north‐eastern and central populations in Mongolia during the Iron Age.ConclusionsThere was little change in mtDNA haplogroup frequencies during the first millennium BCE, which contrasts with the clear change in the first millennium CE. MtDNA hg frequencies (matrilines) seemed to be stable at around 28%; however, Y‐ch frequencies have a dramatic shift towards western lineages during the Xiongnu period (300 BCE–200 CE). The mtDNA haplogroup frequencies from the population from the slab burials have close affinity with the Xiongnu population frequencies. This suggests a notable and consistent western Eurasian component in Mongolia during the first millennium BCE, established before the end of the Bronze Age and possibly associated with the introduction of the domestic horse.

ABSTRACTThe Ndalambiri rock shelter in the Ebo region of Angola is a key site for assessing human occupation there given its potential association between stratigraphic contexts and rock art panels. Focusing on the Iron Age and European contact periods, this study characterised the site’s rock paintings using Raman spectroscopy, while also obtaining AMS radiocarbon dates from paint residues and charcoal collected in stratigraphic context during a trial excavation below one of the painted panels. Raman spectroscopy results revealed the use of a carbon-based pigment (charcoal?), haematite and calcite to prepare black, red and white paints respectively. AMS dating of a black paint sample showed that it was produced between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries, corresponding to the last known phase of rock art production in the area, as further indicated by its stratigraphic position and the depiction of firearms at the site. Earlier occupation of the site associated with metallurgical activity was dated to the mid-first millennium AD and may suggest that the oldest rock art at Ndalambiri corresponds to the arrival of metal-using populations in the region.

Nature vs. Culture: present-day spatial distribution and preservation of open-air rock art in the Côa and Douro River Valleys (Portugal)

This volume is the result of a 2010 workshop (of the same name) held at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. Much like the original workshop, Unearthing the Wilderness aims to address long-standing issues in the study of the Negev and Edom, such as the effect of copper mining and incense trade in the southern Levant, the impact of imperial administration, the rise and nature of socio-political organization, and the interpretation of artifacts that have spread from one polity to another. The essays focus on data from Iron Age Israel/Palestine and, to a lesser extent, the Transjordan and the Arabian Peninsula, broadening in time and space when the arguments warrant. As a result, the volume remains centered on the target region, while at the same time grounding the studies in the larger imperial, economic, and geographic contexts of the ancient Near East.The essays are divided into four sections: “Wilderness and Beyond” provides a broad outline of political and economic factors influencing the region; “Timna Reconsidered” focuses on archaeological data excavated at this important mining site; “Studies Arising” includes iconographic and epigraphic investigations; “Edom over the Border” explores the interpretation of Edomite material culture excavated in the Negev. The four sections hold together, albeit loosely, essays spanning a range of methodologies and a wide variety of data types, including the Hebrew Bible and other Near Eastern texts, ceramics, metals, inscriptions, radiocarbon data, and stratigraphic reports. When taken as a whole, the volume largely avoids overreliance on the biblical text, although biblical passages are addressed in several essays. Rather, many of the essays engage scholarship from the social sciences, like world-systems theory, and they focus on political and economic issues to explain the rise of trade networks and secondary states in the region.In the opening essay, “Socio-Economic Fluctuations and Chiefdom Formation in Edom, the Negev, and the Hejaz during the First Millennium BCE,” Juan Manuel Tebes introduces several important approaches to analyzing tribes, chiefdoms, enclave economies, and the relationship between imperial centers and peripheries. Tebes then provides an historical overview of what he considers a two-step polity formation process, with Phase I (eleventh to ninth centuries) focusing on Timnah, Faynan, Tel Masos, and Qurayyah, and Phase II (eighth to the mid-sixth centuries) focusing on the Arabian incense route, Assyrian imperial administration, and Buseirah. Tebes's overall goal is to counter the assumption that tribes were static or non-historical by situating the southern tribes within the context of changing imperial administrations and economic policies, thereby explaining the rise of chiefdoms and polities in Edom, the Negev, and the northern Hejaz.Although Tebes largely omits a discussion of Judah and Philistia in his essay, they are the centerpiece of John S. Holladay Jr. and Stanley Klassen's essay “From Bandit to King: David's Time in the Negev and the Transformation of a Tribal Entity into a Nation State.” Of all the authors in the volume, Holladay and Klassen remain tied to the biblical text, particularly the account of David's rise to the throne in 1 Samuel. After a short introduction to the relevant passages and their date of composition, the authors address why David (according to 1 Sam 27 and 30) was stationed in the Negev by the Philistines and what his true purpose may have been. Ultimately, Holladay and Klassen use the text to discuss the rise of Israel as a polity in the tenth century BCE. They attribute Israel's success to David's foresight in harnessing wealth from South Arabian camel caravans, which the authors consider a strong economic factor already in the tenth century.Moving into the second section of the book, Tali Erickson-Gini's “Timna Site 2 Revisited” describes the excavations undertaken by the Israel Antiquities Authority from 2005 to 2011. Notable results include evidence for several furnaces, metalworking tools, and a range of pottery types, including Qurayyah painted ware, handmade Negevite ware, and wheel-made vessels. With some important caveats, Erickson-Gini argues that carbon dating seems to confirm Rothenberg's original hypothesis, that is, that the intensive period of activity at the site dates to the thirteenth through twelfth centuries BCE under Egyptian administration. In an appendix to Erickson-Gini's essay, Sana Shilstein, Sariel Shalev, and Yuval Yekutieli describe the results of XRF analysis on slag, charcoal, ceramics, sediment, and corroded metal (“XRF Study of Archaeological and Metallurgical Material from Copper Smelting Sites in Timna”), concluding that the smelting process used in Area A of Site 2 was consistent with previous findings at other sites in Timna and demonstrated a “relatively low level of sophistication in the smelting process” (p. 101). In contrast, samples from Area C differed from previous results and require further testing and analysis.Uzi Avner closes this section with his essay, “Egyptian Timna – Reconsidered.” Avner begins by listing the many published inconsistencies that affect the phasing of the Timna sanctuary site. He then describes the results of three probes he excavated in 1984 and posits an alternate interpretation of the sanctuary. In Avner's opinion, the area enjoyed a much longer use-life than the timeframe originally proposed by Rothenberg. Avner also associates several construction phases with a local, Semitic population rather than with Egyptian administration. He then questions whether the Egyptians can be credited with introducing new mining technologies, noting that mining began in the region long before Egyptian control and extended after Egypt's departure. He concludes that the Egyptians functioned primarily as customers at Timna and that technology and infrastructure was managed by a network of desert tribes. Furthermore, the wealth the tribes generated from these pursuits fostered the development of chiefdoms and polities in the southern region.Tebes introduces the third section of the book with, “The Symbolic and Social World of the Qurayyah Pottery Iconography.” He analyzes the primary themes on painted Qurrayah ware, arguing that the potters combined motifs from Arabia and northeast Africa with motifs known from the Levant and eastern Mediterranean. Paying particular attention to human and bird forms, Tebes compares the iconography with rock art from Arabia, North Africa, the southern Negev, and the Transjordan and with pottery motifs and seals from a host of Levantine cultures during the Bronze and Iron Ages. He concludes that Qurayyah ware was produced for export by a ceramic industry in the northern Hejaz. The motifs depict religious and/or political elites and integrate local and international iconographic elements so local elites of the Hejaz, Transjordan, and Negev could better harness the status associated with imported goods.In their essay, “Arabian and Arabizing Epigraphic Finds from the Iron Age Southern Levant,” Pieter Gert Van der Veen and François Bron use epigraphic materials to test whether trade between the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula became more intensive during the eighth through mid-seventh centuries BCE. Van der Veen and Bron first address Arabian seals and seal impressions with Arabian names at Levantine sites and then discuss possible South Arabian graffiti on Levantine pottery. The authors tentatively conclude that a small amount of evidence supports some type of interaction between the Levant and South Arabia, though the nature of these interactions is not strongly indicated. They do note that trade relations at the end of the Iron Age remain a plausible explanation for some of the inscriptions.The final section of the volume begins with the essay by Yifat Thareani, “The Judean Desert Frontier in the Seventh Century BCE: A View from ‘Aroer.” Thareani uses the lens of ‘Aroer to explore management of Negev settlements in the eighth through early seventh centuries BCE. According to Thareani, stratigraphy at ‘Aroer belies the presence of early seventh-century occupation at the site (and probably more broadly in the Negev), with no major settlement gap between Sennacherib's 701 campaign and reoccupation in the Negev region. Based primarily on the presence of so-called Edomite pottery, ostraca, and seals, Thareani also argues that ‘Aroer and other Negev sites were occupied by a pluralistic society consisting of Judeans, “local tribes with an Edomite orientation,” and an Arabian population, working together to benefit from and support Assyrian imperial interest in southern trade.Although Edomite pottery is not featured in Thareani's essay (she discusses it at length elsewhere), it is taken up in greater detail in “Edomite Pottery in Judah in the Eighth Century BCE” by Lily Singer-Avitz. Singer-Avitz addresses the chronology of Edomite Pottery, focusing on examples from well-stratified contexts in the Negev. The pottery appears in eighth-century strata at these sites, which Singer-Avitz interprets as evidence of trade with the Edomite heartland as facilitated by the Assyrians. She also notes that Edomite pottery was more popular in the seventh century at sites that already saw its introduction in the eighth century. In contrast, at sites founded in the seventh century, Edomite pottery did not become popular. Finally, although Singer-Avitz does not explore the implications of provenience studies, she notes that INAA and petrography indicate that the majority of Edomite-style vessels excavated in the Negev were not imported from the Transjordan.Turning to that topic, the last essay of the volume is Liora Freud's “Local Production of Edomite Cooking Pots in the Beersheba Valley: Petrographic Analyses from Tel Malhata, Horvat ‘Uza and Horvat Qitmit.” Freud presents the results of an important petrographic study of Edomite-type cooking pots, previously assumed to be from southern Transjordan based on typological comparison with pots excavated at Transjordanian sites. Freud's study counters that supposition, demonstrating that Edomite-style pots from Negev sites were not imported. As Freud suggests, these results require scholars to reassess dominant assumptions about the purported connection between typological style and ethnicity and the makeup of the population at sites where this pottery is present in the eighth and seventh centuries.Overall, the strength of this volume is its analysis of the Negev rather than the Transjordan. While Jordanian sites are cited copiously by many of the authors, it is difficult to overcome problems dating strata and material culture in the southern Transjordan; nevertheless, many authors still assume that Edomite objects arose in a Transjordanian heartland and spread to the Negev. Deeper methodological reflection on this problem would have enhanced the volume. The same might be said for the Arabian Peninsula, where the published data is sparser (for the best approach see Tebes throughout). The volume would also have benefited from more discussion of the recent excavations in Wadi Faynan and the important, though problematic, sites of Kheleifeh and ‘En Hazeva. Finally, Holladay and Klassen do not address the archaeology of tenth- to ninth-century Israelite or Negevite settlements and whether the data confirm the biblical account of Judah and the Israelite state. Fortunately, the final section of the book includes a careful consideration of the archaeology of the Judahite Negev in the eighth through sixth centuries BCE.Despite these challenges, Unearthing the Wilderness is a valuable contribution to the ongoing study of the Negev. The essays generally avoid the problematic biblical-archaeological approach to the region, engaging instead with a wide range of data and methodological approaches to address the social, political, and economic forces that shaped the population and their place in the larger imperial systems of the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. The majority of the studies are strongly grounded in archaeological data. As such, the essays are an important and welcome addition to the recent series of Negev site publications and the growing body of work that will help clarify and complicate our understanding of the region.

Rock art monuments provide a link to our ancient cultural pasts, they possess seeming permanence but are sensitive to their environment. The increasing emphasis on non-destructive testing and demand for thorough characterisation of cultural heritage material in situ requires the development of advanced diagnostic methods, providing the motivation for this work on the application of optical coherence tomography, hyperspectral imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance to rock art panels. Optical coherence tomography is shown to be an effective method to determine the grain size distribution and hydraulic conductivity of historic sandstone in situ. Studies were performed on historic sandstone headstones to demonstrate the relationship between the hydraulic conductivity of sandstone and the type and severity of weathering features present. A study of rock art panels in situ is given, to characterise the host rock and provide quantitative assessment of the vulnerability of the panels to weathering processes. The relative impact of natural weathering and anthropogenic damage is shown and a comparison between the characteristic of a proxy sample and the rock art panel itself is provided to highlight the importance of non-destructive in-situ methods for the monitoring and assessing of the vulnerability of rock art monuments. Hyperspectral imaging is demonstrated as an effective technique to determine the presence of moisture in stone, while nuclear magnetic resonance measurements show limitations for use in situ in open air locations.

Since 1909, patrol officers, anthropologists, archaeologists, and others have identified evidence of a pre-contact trading network linking New Guinea with the Torres Strait. Current research in the Lower Sepik River Basin reported various ethnographic descriptions relating to cultural material objects stenciled on various rock art sites in Auwim, Upper Karawari-Arafundi region, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea (PNG). In addition to the rock art, the broader area has one of the most environmentally intact freshwater basins with lowland rainforests in Melanesia, and is famous for its architectural carvings and spirit houses. This paper reports new research that articulates local ethnographic knowledge about rock art with the art-work itself. The rock art panels contain a wide range of stencils primarily consisting of hands but also, importantly, several objects, one of which is the kina, gold-lip pearl (Pinctada maxima) shell. The kina shell stencils are, among other things, indicative of the remarkable distance over which the shells were traded and traditionally used. The Auwim case study is important because it is one of the relatively few sites across PNG for which we still have ethnography of rock art and therefore provides us with important insight into the past-present rock art practices and, concurrently, notions of cultural continuity.

Rock art conservators are faced with complex decisions to prioritize rock art panels for protection from destructive forces of weathering. We provide a system to facilitate such decision making that blends traditional remote sensing with interactive techniques of exploratory spatial data analysis. Our system, ‘mapping weathering forms in three-dimensional (3D)’ (MapWeF) uses a 3D laser scanning device for sub-centimetre data collection from in situ rock surfaces. After image and digital surface model processing, key rock weathering forms are highlighted through classification. Supervised classification builds training classes as a user probes known weathering forms. Guided by these training classes, the user then interactively brushes and assembles pixels from scatter plots until the user is confident that all manifestations of a particular weathering form have been mapped. The purpose of MapWeF is to construct detailed maps that highlight regions of decay on rock art panels. These maps can help rock art conservators take action on panels in need of urgent preservation or remediation.

Studing the relationship of rock art to its landscape context can contribute to a better understanding of how it was used. This paper discusses the methods of the study of open-air rock art, using as a case study the Neolithic rock art from the county of Northumberland (northern England). A GIS analysis is employed with three primary objectives: to create a systematic and objective description of the landscape in which these rock art sites are located, to identify trends and recurrences in the location of rock art sites in relation to distinctive landscape features, and to explore the association of rock art sites with other components of the landscape in terms of intervisibility and movement. Preliminary results of this analysis indicate that variables such as relative elevation and slope were significant in the placement of rock art in Northumberland, and rock art panels appear to have been located to maximize visibility from natural routes of movement between uplands and lowlands.

The Holocene humid period in the Nefud Desert: Hunters and herders in the Jebel Oraf palaeolake basin, Saudi Arabia

In this paper, we characterized for the first time the painting materials in rock art panels of the Patagonian archaeological locality La Angostura using a methodological approach that combined micro-Raman spectroscopy, attenuated total reflection Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. In this way, we obtained detailed information on the red, green, and black pigments as well as on accessory minerals present in the paints. Hematite was the chromophore in the red paintings while celadonite and glauconite were identified in the green motifs. A manganese oxide, presumably pyrolusite, was characterized as the black pigment. The pigment compositions were also compared to those of natural sediments collected along the valley of the Chubut River, but the components of the red and green sediment samples differed from those present in the rock art paints. In the red motifs of two of the rock art panels, a relevant finding was the presence of gypsum and anhydrite as a priming layer of the corrugated rock support onto which the red paints were applied. This revealed a different painting technique in comparison to that at the other analyzed panels of La Angostura where paints were applied as thin layers on a smooth surface of the rock support. As far as we know, this is the first report on the identification of gypsum and anhydrite as components of a preparation layer in Patagonian rock art. This result contributes to the open discussion on the origin and function of calcium sulfate in rock art.

The Native inhabitants of South Central California produced rock art containing red, orange, black, white, green and blue colours using a range of mineral and organic materials. Many of these same colours were used on material culture and body painting. This paper focuses on a sub-group of the Chumash, called the Emigdiano, who produced an enigmatic blue colour used in the creation of rock art. Here, we focus on the blue pigment at the rock shelter site of Three Springs in the Wind Wolves Preserve in South Central California. The composition of blue pigments has previously been the focus of discussion with suggestions that they were produced either using European pigments taken from Spanish missions, or that azurite from a local quarry was the source. Previous experimental work had demonstrated that it was possible for the blue to be produced from locally available azurite. Here we present the in situ analyses of these enigmatic blue pigments using handheld X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF). Results from pXRF analysis of rock art, quarried azurite samples and experimental rock art reconstructions showed that the Emigdiano Blue at Three Springs were not azurite based and was composed of optical blue (a mixture of black and white or grey materials which mimic the appearance of blue). This paper discusses the surprising implications of the use, given the availability of a ‘true’ blue pigment, and the wider ontological importance of combining multiple colours to produce the effect of blue in a rock art panel.