Knowledge-building in Open-air Rock Art Conservation: Sharing the History and Experiences with Levantine Rock Art

Abstract

ABSTRACT Levantine rock art sites were discovered in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, since then, the preservation of this delicate prehistoric heritage has been a considerable challenge, both for the scientific community and for heritage managers. The extreme fragility of this art and the natural bedrock used as the substrate, together with the location in the open air, most of them without physical protection (fence) and dispersed over a large territory, are factors that have contributed to the natural deterioration of most of the sites. This deterioration has also been accelerated by human action over the last century. The international recognition as World Heritage (in Kyoto in 1998) was a turning point in terms of protection, conservation, and management, incentivized by public authorities. As a result of this boost for recognition and research, the inventories of the sites discovered in the different territories are being updated and preventive conservation actions are being carried out, protective barriers are being installed, and the first direct interventions on the painted surfaces are beginning. These practices, which in many cases have improved the stability and visibility of the sites, have not always been supported by agreements reached by interdisciplinary teams and have aroused a degree of controversy. They have sometimes even involved the removal of items of possible archaeological interest (flowstones and layers of oxalate) or the addition of materials that could interfere with archaeological research on past raw materials. This highlights the need to make an inventory of rock shelters where such work has been carried out and to review the treatments and products applied, assessing the possible effects they may have generated on the rock surface and/or the paintings in the 20 years since they were applied. This historical review is intended to offer an updated assessment of the initiatives that have been carried out over a century in Levantine rock art conservation, drawing attention to the need to establish future protocols for action supported by scientific research to achieve a balance between research, conservation, management, and current uses of this ancient heritage.