Water Flows and Water Accumulations on Bedrock as a Structuring Element of Rock Art

Abstract

The paper proposes a new method to quantify the flow of water and water accumulation zones on bedrock panels. This can be used to investigate how water influences the placement of rock art. The analysis is based on photogrammetric models on which water flows and accumulations were modelled using a NetLogo simulation and the SAGA hydrology package. To test the hypothesis that water was a structuring element in the creation of rock art, case studies of Bohus-granite panels from south-western Sweden were used. The described approach should be possible to use on most rock art placed on bedrock panels regardless of rock type, its state of cleaning, or present microfauna. The modelling of water flows and accumulations is a powerful tool to compare the image placement and image density in relation to water even on widely separated panels on which such observations cannot be made directly.