Hunting and Gender as Reflected in the Central Negev Rock Art, Israel

Abstract

There are thousands of panels with hundreds of thousands of petroglyphs that occupy the rock outcropping of the Negev Highlands in southern Israel. These include abstract, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic elements, which are sometimes presented as hunting scenes. In this paper we will define hunting scene, review the themes and relate these figures to the economy, mundane, and spiritual realms of the artist. We argue that a clear panel grammar is in operation whereby the artist is creating a formulaic narrative that conveys a number of underlying messages that include the subsistence strategies and the success of the hunt. There is also subtle gender encoding that accompanies such imagery.