Neolithic Rock Art Research Articles

Mother Ranaldi: a post-paleolithic goddess gives birth flanked by supernatural stags

Abstract Birth was one of the most magical, miraculous, and blessed events of post-paleolithic spirituality. The Mesolithic - Early Neolithic rock art paintings of the Ranaldi Shelter (Southern Italy) give distinct visual evidence to a universal subject: the woman during childbirth and the wild animal which, given the context data, is the adult male red deer. The pivotal personage of the drama, Mother Ranaldi, shares her iconographic canon with the Goddess of Childbirth in prehistoric art. She is a majestic, naked, corpulent and fertile anthropomorph who is delivering a new life between her generous thighs. The depiction of the newborn’s head emerging from the vagina emphasizes her female power to procreate. Mother Ranaldi is birthing flanked by two adult stags which she touches with her sacred hands. They are not ordinary animals. Their supernatural nature is described by three features: exaggerated unnatural antlers, clear epiphanic seasonal nature, and bicephalism. They were symbol of worship to the Goddess of Generation, acting as her paredri (supporting, assisting partners). Ranaldi Shelter was used during the seasonal relocation of cervids, which in spring moved from the plains to the summer mountainous ranges. Then, the red paintings had not only a sacred value. Having totemic nature, they carried out a territorial function by contributing to organize and mark the territory, possibly associated with appropriate rituals.

Nomad aesthetic: Cattle modifications among the northern Turkana of north west Kenya

Among the Turkana of north western Kenya, as well as in many other eastern African pastoral societies, cattle are not only a source of food but also an essential tool for a man to establish his own concepts of aesthetic and to visibly express his own personal identity and social relationships among his people. A Turkana man achieves these objectives by choosing a specific male cow and then modifying its external appearance with branding to permanent alter the coat, with a forceful modification of the growth direction of the horns, and with peculiar cuttings of the ear margins and dewlap. These modern-day practices are identical to the images of cattle present in numerous Neolithic rock art scenes over widespread geographical areas. This present-day Turkana custom may facilitate a correct interpretation of prehistoric rock art and help to understand the systems of thoughts, values and aesthetic perceptions of long-vanished prehistoric pastoral societies.

3D digital documentation and image enhancement integration into schematic rock art analysis and preservation: The Castrocontrigo Neolithic rock art (NW Spain)

The Castrocontrigo rock art, located in the southwestern area of the Leon province (Spain), is one of the Neolithic rock art occurrences in northwest Iberia. The showings comprise three schematic panels within two rock shelters characterised by the presence of anthropomorphs and sun-forms. This paper deals with the digital description and documentation of the two shelters using non-invasive procedures based on portable white-light scanner, photogrammetry and digital image enhancement. The acquisition of 3D digital information in combination with the application of image enhancement tools aimed to improve visualization and analysis of motif's degradation by delamination and water runoff. Additionally, enhancement was used to reveal the presence of new motifs in poorly preserved sectors of the studied panels aiming at their conservation. The generation of photorealistic models from the outcrops aims also to better visualization of the motifs from different angles and perspectives, providing valuable qualitative and quantitative information for archaeologist, historians and the general public.

Des dalles ornées durant le Campaniforme et l’âge du Bronze ancien en Bretagne : mythe ou réalité ?

Il est plus ou moins acquis depuis les travaux de P. Du Chatellier qu’il existe une forme d’art à l’âge du Bronze ancien en Bretagne dont les représentations se limiteraient à quelques dalles ornées de cupules et autres motifs simples, opinion défendue par J. Briard mais combattue par C. Burgess. Afin d’y voir plus clair, nous avons repris cette question sans a priori en nous limitant géographiquement à la Bretagne. En premier lieu, nous avons réuni le corpus des dalles ornées découvertes en contexte campaniforme ou Bronze et avons intégré celles issues de contextes probables et possibles. La moisson est plutôt maigre puisque ce sont seulement douze sépultures et un habitat qui ont livré des dalles en contexte certain du Campaniforme ou de l’âge du Bronze ancien, auxquels s’ajoutent onze cas plus incertains. Ces dalles ornées (à cupules ou à représentations figuratives) sont toutes en situation de réemploi selon des modalités variées. Les surfaces gravées sont généralement tournées vers l’extérieur mais aussi cachées vers l’intérieur des sépultures. Ces pierres décorées peuvent être réutilisées telles quelles, cassées ou réaménagées. En second lieu, la confrontation avec le corpus des dalles à cupules des sépultures néolithiques ne permet pas de dégager des types ou des agencements de cupules propres à l’âge du Bronze. On peut donc difficilement soutenir l’idée d’un développement de l’art des cupules à cette période en Bretagne ; ce qu’infirme d’ailleurs le nombre écrasant de dalles à cupules en contexte néolithique. Une large part de ces pierres ornées réutilisées dans les sépultures de l’âge du Bronze pourrait bien provenir d’affleurement à cupules ou de monuments néolithiques, comme l’attestent par ailleurs le réemploi de certaines représentations clairement néolithiques (figures anthropomorphes, haches emmanchées). Cependant, un lot de quatre dalles à cupules se distingue par leur perforation, inédite dans l’art mégalithique néolithique, et des figurations de cupules et de formes géométriques reliées entre elles, alors que les signes gravés néolithiques sont généralement placés côte à côte. Les auteurs proposent d’attribuer ce petit ensemble à l’âge du Bronze ancien, voire au Néolithique final. À cela s’ajoutent six petites dalles à cupules, découvertes sur l’habitat de Beg ar Loued comme dans le tumulus de Cruguel ; leur support modeste paraît être une originalité de l’âge du Bronze.

Optical coherence tomography for vulnerability assessment of sandstone

Sandstone is an important cultural heritage material, in both architectural and natural settings, such as neolithic rock art panels. The majority of deterioration effects in porous materials such as sandstone are influenced by the presence and movement of water through the material. The presence of water within the porous network of a material results in changes in the optical coherence tomography signal intensity that can be used to monitor the wetting front of water penetration of dry porous materials at various depths. The technique is able to detect wetting front velocities from 1 cm s(-1) to 10(-6) cm s(-1), covering the full range of hydraulic conductivities likely to occur in natural sandstones from pervious to impervious.

In situ energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence analysis of rock art pigments from the ‘Abrigo dos Gaivões’ and ‘Igreja dos Mouros’ caves (Portugal)

A portable energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence spectrometer was used to obtain the elemental composition of Neolithic rock art paintings of the ‘Abrigo dos Gaivões’ and ‘Igreja dos Mouros’ caves. These caves, located in the Esperança parish, Arronches' county, in the San Mamede's mountains (Portugal), belong to a group of spread shelters just next to the western Spanish border. Results show the strong presence of iron in bare rock, and this element can be clearly detected as the main component of the red paintings. No evidence of manganese was detected in either the brownish or the black paintings, contrary to other Neolithic paintings in the Mediterranean area. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The date and context of Neolithic rock art in the Sahara: engravings and ceremonial monuments from Messak Settafet (south-west Libya)

The authors find a context for the rock art of the central Sahara by excavating and recording examples of engraved stones from circular platforms used to sacrifice animals. The type of rock art known as the Pastoral style, featuring evocative outline drawings of cattle, appears on upright stones incorporated into the platforms in the period 5430–5150 BP, and probably earlier. Furthermore, they show that these places were part of a dense and extensive monumental landscape, occupying a harsh environment, supplying quartzite, but with little settlement, appearing to serve the spiritual needs of hundreds of Neolithic people.

THE WRITING'S IN THE WALL: A REVIEW OF NEW PRELIMINARY APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY TOMOGRAPHY WITHIN ARCHAEOLOGY

Natural processes are known to cause significant damage to archaeological monuments. In fact, the key to understanding the decay of building materials is the internal movement of water through the mineral matrix, which influences the distribution of chemical, physical and biological deterioration processes. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) was traditionally used as a surveying tool within archaeology, but a new high‐resolution technique that accurately traces the movement of moisture in building materials could provide a vital tool for understanding the decay of many archaeological monuments. This paper considers current progress, the shift of ERT from soil to rock research and the impact that this development could have on future conservation, using Hertford College (Oxford) and Neolithic rock art (Golden Gate Reserve, South Africa) as case studies.

Metanarratives and the (re)invention of the Neolithic

Rock-art reflects cultural narratives and is influential as a medium in the invention of narratives. Images found in South-Central Indian rock-art are particularly useful in considering archaeological transitions. Rock-art here shows a chronology spanning the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Megalithic, Historic, and Modern times. Imagery reflects changing human/animal relationships, from `agile' hunted animals to cattle and its domestication, with rock-art an active medium in the creation of new metanarratives focused obsessively upon bulls. While bulls in the singular appear early, later compositional elements imply a growing concern with ideas of herds as interconnecting communities. Through time, panels were focal points for the addition of subsequent anthropomorphic imagery, further reinventing the Neolithic. A Historic period efflorescence of densely applied rock-art perhaps reflects an appropriation of a locality redolent with the past as new mythologies were invented in the ancestral association with the now millennia-old Neolithic rock-art.

Neolithic rock art in context: Landscape history and the transition to agriculture in Mediterranean Spain

Rock art is one of the most salient features of Neolithic societies in eastern Spain and an explicit form of landscape history. This paper summarizes current debates of Mediterranean rock art chronology and interpretation and explores the contextual differences in two areas of Neolithic settlement with rock art: the Canyoles Valley (Valencia) and the Alcoi Basin (Alicante). Large-scale survey of the Canyoles Valley resulted in a clearer understanding of agricultural land use during the Neolithic that contrasts with evidence from the Alcoi Basin. By analyzing Neolithic rock art in its archaeological context, we discuss the significance and limitations of rock art analysis for understanding and characterizing landscape histories and the transition to agriculture in the region.

British Neolithic Rock Art in its Landscape

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 Spiral in British and Irish Neolithic Rock Art

Summary This paper provides an up-dated account of all spiral-sites in Neolithic British and Irish rock art. The focus is on spirals executed on open-air rock surfaces like outcrops and boulders; the ones in passage tombs and single graves will be discussed for comparative reasons. The paper describes many spirals recently discovered. But moreover, it introduces a new group of spirals, which, because of their specific nature, have long been taken for normal cupand-rings. It thus proves that spirals are more common in cup-and ring art than often suggested and consequently the distribution pattern of the spiral has somewhat changed. The spiral-motif has often been used, together with other symbols, to divide the Neolithic rock art of Britain and Ireland into two rather strictly separated traditions. The main conclusions of this paper are that, in the opinion of the author, there never existed two separate rock art traditions and that cupand-ring art may even be older than the passage tomb art.