Rock Art Research Articles

Rock engravings marking the Redan landscape in Gauteng, South Africa

The ontological1 and epistemological2 foundations of reality, myths, beliefs, and practices in ritual behaviour have long been studied by scholars around the globe. There is no single understanding and representation of reality, as all that is real or existent within the universe is historically shaped by interdependent cultural and social processes and fear factors. Although the study of rock art is primary a branch of archaeology, cultural history also focuses on a past time and place, to study beliefs and ideas from a bottom-up approach and include the objects and experiences (sometimes unwritten) of the everyday life of the uneducated and less privileged. It is particularly well equipped to offer an understanding of the San myths, beliefs, ritual practices, and modes of representation of reality, as represented in their rock art. The Redan open-air rock engraving site is located on the Kookfontein farm, near the former Klip power station at Redan, close to a wetland that was formerly a rivulet that founded its way to the Klip River, a tributary of the Vaal River. The Klip-Vaal area is situated in the southern part of Gauteng, South Africa. Being part of the Late Stone Age hunting, domestic and ritual sites of the San people and later migrants it contains numerous documented and undocumented rock art sites. In line with interpretivism, the methodology is based on published and unpublished literature, as well as several on-site inspections of the site between 2002 and 2022. Authorship of the engravings at the Redan site is unconfirmed, although two dominant views regarding the cultural origin have emerged, namely a San hunter-gatherer shamanistic approach and the Koranna-Khoekhoen initiation site hypothesis.Contribution: The article contributes to the neglected historiography of the rock engravings in the Klip-Vaal region, in particular the Redan site, and the need to facilitate a comparison with similar rock engravings in southern Africa.

Performance of Binarization Algorithms on Tamizhi Inscription Images: An Analysis

Binarization of Tamizhi (Tamil-Brahmi) inscription images are highly challenging as it is captured from very old stone inscriptions that exists around 3rd century BCE in India. The difficulty is due to the degradation of these inscriptions by environmental factors and human negligence over ages. Though many works have been carried out in the binarization of inscription images, very few research was performed for inscription images and no work has been reported for binarization of inscriptions inscribed on irregular medium. The findings of the analysis hold true to all writings that are carved in irregular background. This paper reviews the performance of various binarization techniques on Tamizhi inscription images. Since no previous work was performed, we have applied the existing binarization algorithms on Tamizhi inscription images and analyzed the performance of these algorithms with proper reasoning. In future, we believe that this reasoning on the results will help a new researcher, to adapt or combine or devise new binarization techniques.

Creating a Liquid Transfer Electrical Detector (LTED) to conduct an in-situ, non-destructive examination of the coating loss and weathering of white marble artifacts

A new testing instrument and method were designed to assess the weathering and coating of stone cultural relics. The test instrument applied the principle of transferring liquid to porous materials and monitoring the mass-transfer process in conjunction with impedance-testing instruments. The analysis of liquid transport through a material was based on the impedance–time curve, followed by an analysis of the material properties. The laboratory results indicated that the maximum values of conductivity and capacitance (G-max and C-max, respectively) were linearly and positively correlated with the porosity of white marble. Field experiments revealed that white marble components with higher G-max experienced more severe weathering, leading to a faster decrease in conductivity (G) and a larger difference in conductivity (ΔG). A higher level of aging resulted in better conductivity of components coated with lower-conductivity materials. The test method was nondestructive, portable, highly sensitive, and exhibited good stability during the testing process. This makes it promising for characterizing the properties of the insulating materials found in heritage sites, such as stone carvings, ceramics, and wall paintings.

AI and augmented reality for 3D Indian dance pose reconstruction cultural revival

This paper delves into the specialized domain of human action recognition, focusing on the Identification of Indian classical dance poses, specifically Bharatanatyam. Within the dance context, a “Karana” embodies a synchronized and harmonious movement encompassing body, hands, and feet, as defined by the Natyashastra. The essence of Karana lies in the amalgamation of nritta hasta (hand movements), sthaana (body postures), and chaari (leg movements). Although numerous, Natyashastra codifies 108 karanas, showcased in the intricate stone carvings adorning the Nataraj temples of Chidambaram, where Lord Shiva’s association with these movements is depicted. Automating pose identification in Bharatanatyam poses challenges due to the vast array of variations, encompassing hand and body postures, mudras (hand gestures), facial expressions, and head gestures. To simplify this intricate task, this research employs image processing and automation techniques. The proposed methodology comprises four stages: acquisition and pre-processing of images involving skeletonization and Data Augmentation techniques, feature extraction from images, classification of dance poses using a deep learning network-based convolution neural network model (InceptionResNetV2), and visualization of 3D models through mesh creation from point clouds. The use of advanced technologies, such as the MediaPipe library for body key point detection and deep learning networks, streamlines the identification process. Data augmentation, a pivotal step, expands small datasets, enhancing the model’s accuracy. The convolution neural network model showcased its effectiveness in accurately recognizing intricate dance movements, paving the way for streamlined analysis and interpretation. This innovative approach not only simplifies the identification of Bharatanatyam poses but also sets a precedent for enhancing accessibility and efficiency for practitioners and researchers in the Indian classical dance.

Dances with Zigzags in Toro Muerto, Peru: Geometric Petroglyphs as (Possible) Embodiments of Songs

Southern Peru is home to one of the richest sites with rock art in South America—Toro Muerto. A unique aspect of the iconography of the petroglyphs of the site is the figures of dancing humans, the so-called danzantes, which are additionally frequently associated with geometric motifs, mostly variants of zigzag lines. Drawing upon intriguing data recorded during Reichel-Dolmatoff's research in Colombia related to the meaning of analogous motifs in Tukano art, as well as broader exploration of the sonic sphere in South American cultures and the thesis that Amazonian animism was a more archaic ontology over a broader area of South America, this paper suggests that the geometric patterns at Toro Muerto, with which the figures of danzantes are juxtaposed, may have been representations of songs. An extension of this hypothesis is the suggestion that some of the more complex compositions consisting of danzantes and linear geometric motifs were graphic metaphors of transfer to the other world.

백제 후기 벽주건물지 유형과 전개

This paper examines the current state and structures of the building sites in Gongju, Buyeo, and Iksan, the central areas of the late Baekje period (Ungjin and Sabi periods) where pillar-wall buildings are primarily found, and defines the individual types of walled buildings. The significant attributes of each building type are derived based on their distribution in each region and statistical analyses, upon which the changes in the form and function of each type of building site are examined. The walled building sites were categorized into three types and an additional special type. In Gongju, they were concentrated in key archaeological sites such as Jeongjisan and Gongsanseong Fortress. The pillar-wall buildings at Jeongjisan and Gongsanseong Fortress, where walls supported superstructures like roofs, were judged to have been clearly planned, displaying hierarchical differences in the layout of the building site. Meanwhile, pit-dwelling structures, created by digging the ground to form the floor and erecting pillars, were still used in areas other than these core sites. Regarding the Buyeo region, at Ssangbuk-ri, located southeast of Busosan Mountain, the earliest features were found to consist of pillar-wall buildings and ground or lifted floor buildings of the post-and-lintel construction style, erected by driving the bottoms of pillars into the ground. In contrast, the Gwanbuk-ri site, situated southwest of Busosan Mountain, seems to have been dominated by foundation stone buildings of the post-and-lintel construction style, erected by using flat and carved stones under pillars erected on the ground. Although this might be due to the spatial arrangement of buildings within the city, it was judged to more likely reflect architectural changes over time. Statistical analysis showed that pillar-wall buildings became increasingly formalized from the Ungjin period to the Sabi period, with the sizes of the first and second types being larger than the third type. In particular, Type 1 pillar-wall buildings were all square-shaped, and there was no significant difference in area from the Ungjin period to the Sabi period, making them the most formalized of all the types of pillar-wall buildings. Also, the area of the (elongated) rectangular pillar-wall buildings in the Gongju region was found to be significantly larger than that of the buildings in the Buyeo region. This difference is believed to be related to the fact that the elongated (rectangular) buildings from the Sabi period were in the form of foundation stone buildings of the post-and-lintel construction style. When examining the changes undergone by each type of pillar-wall building sites, Type 1 showed a tendency for the four protruding columns to gradually move away from the walls, and the oemi-gidoong (i.e. the pillar located in the center of the side wall), which had been clearly present in the early buildings, gradually disappeared. Type 2-1 initially featuring a whole-connected drain but began to deminstrate disconnection, with the doorway becoming more prominent. Type 2-2 was an important building type in the Ungjin period but began to be replaced by foundation stone buildings in the Sabi period, during which its number and size reduced. Type 3 was simple in terms of structure, and evidenced changes in the method of column erection, rather than the plane shape. A-I and A-II were identified from the earliest period, and the A-V types were identified in the latest period. Through a comprehensive review of the distribution and size of the buildings, it is possible to propose that the changes in the nature of the building sites would have proceeded differently for each type, with the Type 1 buildings continuously used as important buildings such as national facilities from the Ungjin period to the Sabi period. It is inferred that the function of the third type changed, and they were used for general residential purposes, except for a few cases.

Images of Fish in the Rock Art of the Ancient Population of Northern Europe

The article presents the results of the analysis of the study of the image of fish in the rock art of ancient hunters and fishermen of Northern Europe (final VI – III BC). During the study, 134 fish figures were studied on 6 rock paintings and in 17 clusters of petroglyphs of Fennoscandia. The small proportion of fish figures in relation to the total number of images on the rocks of the region, with a high proportion of fishing in the primitive economy, established by bone remains at Neo-Eneolithic sites, suggests a mythological basis for the images under consideration. Spatial differences in the appearance of fish figures in Northern Europe make it possible to distinguish two areas (western and eastern), radically different in the style of the ichthyomorph image. The rock art mainly reflects representatives of the largest fish species that lived in the region: catfish, sturgeon, halibut, pike, salmon, whitefish. In the bone remains at the sites located near the clusters of rock carvings, other types of fish are usually dominant: zander, cod. In the compositions of fishing, as in other hunting scenes carved on the petroglyphs of Fennoscandia, only active methods of its extraction are presented, although there is numerous archaeological evidence of the use by the inhabitants of the region for catching fish and other animals of various types of traps.

The first investigation of an Iron Age shell midden in Oman: The Nafūn complex

The Nafūn shell midden complex is a cluster of eight shell mounds in al-Wusṭā Governorate (south-central Oman). Located 40 km north of Duqm, the shell midden is part of a unique cultural landscape encompassing a variety of archaeological features. With a total of 207 recorded archaeological sites, the Nafūn area emerges as a significant site for studying the Early and Late Iron Age communities in south-central Oman. The first investigations of the shell midden were conducted between 2019 and 2022. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal samples from the site provided a date range of 1012–536 BCE (cal. 2σ), aligning with the Iron Age II (1000–600 BCE) material culture. Together with stratigraphic observations, this indicates that the midden was intermittently occupied for at least 500 years. Additional evidence indicates that there was also activity in the area during the Late Iron Age, evidenced by the presence of a large rock art site, circular stone burial mounds and numerous clusters of trilith stone monuments along the wadi Nafūn route, with a source of drinking water 3 km from the coast. Such findings underscore the importance of Nafūn as a significant site for enduring socio-economic and cultural contacts, strategically located at the mouth of the wadi that connects with the Indian Ocean. The effective utilisation of marine resources by the local communities not only supported their economic and subsistence needs but also fostered strong economic, social and cultural connections with the inland regions. Furthermore, it facilitated their active engagement in long-distance trade and interactions along the coastal areas. The unique combination of sites and the fusion of elements from both northern Oman and Dhofar make Nafūn an intriguing and, so far, undocumented intersection along the long-distance routes connecting the northern and southern cultural circles.

Exploring the utility of Geometric Morphometrics to analyse prehistoric hand stencils

Hand stencils are a remarkable graphic expression in Prehistoric rock art, dating back to 42 ka BP. Although these stencils provide direct impressions of the artists’ hands, the characterization of their biological profile (i.e., biological sex and age) is very challenging. Previous studies have attempted this analysis with traditional morphometrics (TM), whereas little research has been undertaken using Geometric Morphometrics (GM), a method widely used in other disciplines but only tentatively employed in rock art studies. However, the large variation in relative finger position in archaeological hands poses the question of whether these representations can be examined through GM, or, in contrast, if this creates an unmanageable error in the results. To address this issue, a 2D hand scans sample of 70 living individuals (F = 35; M = 35) has been collected in three standardized positions (n = 210) and digitized with 32 2D conventional landmarks. Results show that the intra-individual distance (mean Procrustes distance between Pos. 1–2 = 0.132; 2–3 = 0.191; 1–3 = 0.292) is larger than the inter-individual distance (mean in 1 = 0.122; 2 = 0.142; 3 = 0.165). Finally, it has been demonstrated that the relative finger positions, as well as the inclusion of all hand parts in the analysis, have an overshadowing effect on other variables potentially involved in the morphometric variability of the hand, such as biological sex.

A DStretch discovery: A crow calling card pictograph at Writing-on-Stone

DStretch enhancement technology has enabled rock art researchers to identify and record previously obscure pictographs at thousands of sites worldwide. Recent DStretch enhancement of photographs from Writing-on-Stone, Alberta, exposed a previously unknown horse and rider pictograph at site DgOv-2. The pictograph can be identified as a “calling card” painted by a Crow warrior-artist to taunt his Blackfoot enemies at one of their most sacred places. The image details the artist’s success against a force of enemies that are presumably Blackfoot.

A multiscalar methodology for holistic analysis of prehistoric rock carvings in Scotland

Prehistoric rock carvings are one of Scotland’s most enigmatic and poorly understood monument types. This article discusses the pioneering approach used by Scotland’s Rock Art Project to enhance understanding of the abstract motifs through multiscalar computational analyses of a large dataset co-produced with community teams. The approach can be applied to suitable rock art datasets from other parts of the world and has international relevance for rock art reserach. Our analysis incorporates data from across Scotland in order to investigate inter-regional differences and similarities in the nature and contexts of the carvings. Innovative application of complementary analytical methods identified subtle regional variations in the character of the rock art and motif types. This variability suggest an understanding of the rock art tradition that was widely shared but locally adapted, and reflects connections and knowledge exchange between specific regions.

Game board rock carvings in Hong Kong and Macao: reexamining their significance and dating

Game board rock carvings in Hong Kong and Macao: reexamining their significance and dating

Water and the Afterlife – Water-related Resources in the Burial Construction of the Nordic Bronze Age

The waterscape, including the sea, rivers, and lakes, was highly important to communities living during the Nordic Early Bronze Age (1800/1700–1100 bc). Waterways acted as highways that facilitated journeys, trade, and warfare, enabling maritime warriors and others to distinguish themselves. This is reflected in the maritime location of rock art and important Early Bronze Age burials, which have been used to reconstruct the Nordic Bronze Age cosmology. This centres on the journey of the sun across the sky during the day, and the underworld during night. This article analyses the use of water-related resources, such as seaweed, petrified organics, beach pebbles, and molluscs, in the construction of burials, which has received little attention despite renewed interest in the maritime seascape. The data demonstrate that local communities used different resources, indicating that a common belief system was realised in local differences. These marine materials were collected from the beach, which can be conceptualised as the liminal zone between the land of the living and the sea of the dead. It is suggested that these materials, in line with other funerary practices, helped to guide the recently deceased into the afterlife in the sea.

Duncan Wright: Rock Art and Street Art

In this article, archaeologist Dr Duncan Wright explores the intertwined realms of rock art and street art. Through an examination of the motivations, methods and materials of rock artists, Wright offers a nuanced reflection on these creative expressions (and their meanings) in their specific cultural contexts. The article investigates geographical, historical and cultural research-based dimensions of art on walls, coupled with an insightful analysis of the intersections between rock art and graffiti/street art, to better understand the power of public art in communicating knowledge.

Chronology of Upper Paleolithic human activities recorded in a stalagmite at Points Cave (Aiguèze, Gard, France)

AbstractIn this article, we propose an approach to reconstruct the timing of human activity at Points Cave, an Upper Paleolithic rock art site located in the middle of the Ardèche River Gorge (Rhône valley, France), based on the dating and characterisation of a stalagmite containing soot. Points Cave (‘Grotte aux Points’ in French), also called the ‘little sister of Chauvet Cave’, is famous for its parietal art including a series of dots made of palm prints. A large number of stalagmites formed in the cave during the last 500 ka. However, quarrying of the cave floors during historic times led to the partial destruction of the sedimentary deposits, and many of the stalagmites were found lying on the floor. In particular, one of them (STM‐18‐04) showed the presence of at least four dark layers in cross‐section, which appeared as possible remnants of fire‐related activities in the cave. Despite being present at the same site, no other specific link between STM‐18‐04 and the rock art has been documented. This stalagmite, however, allows us to identify phases of human presence, located at the cave entrance. To do so, we performed a series of analyses to determine its period of growth and the nature of the dark layers that it contains. Scanning electron microscopy and Raman microspectroscopy confirmed that the dark layers include soot, and uranium‐series dating indicated that the fire events occurred, respectively, around 14,200–14,100 and 12,500 years ago, in agreement with the radiocarbon ages of charcoal specimens recovered from the excavation areas nearby. We thus highlighted phases of human activity at the site during the Upper Magdalenian and/or beginning of the Epipaleolithic. By comparing our results with the regional paleoclimatic record, the soot layers trapped in the stalagmite appear to be synchronous with two cold periods, likely the Older Dryas and the Younger Dryas.

Наскальное искусство Мурманской области

Since 1973, the Kola expedition of the IHMC RAS has discovered and studied 4 rock art sites located in the Arctic. They demonstrate both similarities with other sites of Fennoscandia and significant differences. Individual figures and their compositions are classified into a small number of types. This suggests that it was not “scenes from life” that were depicted, but mythological subjects.

Adaptive response of prokaryotic communities to extreme pollution flooding in a Paleolithic rock art cave (Pindal Cave, northern Spain)

A flood event affecting Pindal Cave, a UNESCO World Heritage site, introduced a substantial amount of external sediments and waste into the cave. This event led to the burial of preexisting sediments, altering the biogeochemical characteristics of the cave ecosystem by introducing heightened levels of organic matter, nitrogen compounds, phosphorus, and heavy metals. The sediments included particulate matter and waste from a cattle farm located within the water catchment area of the cavity, along with diverse microorganisms, reshaping the cave microbial community. This study addresses the ongoing influence of a cattle farm on the cave ecosystem and aims to understand the adaptive responses of the underground microbial community to the sudden influx of waste allochthonous material. Here, we show that the flood event had an immediate and profound effect on the cave microbial community, marked by a significant increase in methanogenic archaea, denitrifying bacteria, and other microorganisms commonly associated with mammalian intestinal tracts. Furthermore, our findings reveal that one year after the flood, microorganisms related to the flood decreased, while the increase in inorganic forms of ammonium and nitrate suggests potential nitrification, aligning with increased abundances of corresponding functional genes involved in nitrogen cycling. The results reveal that the impact of pollution was neither recent nor isolated, and it was decisive in stopping livestock activity near the cave. The influence of the cattle farm has persisted since its establishment over the impluvium area, and this influence endures even a year after the flood. Our study emphasizes the dynamic interplay between natural events, anthropogenic activities, and microbial communities, offering insights into the resilience of cave ecosystems. Understanding microbial adaptation in response to environmental disturbances, as demonstrated in this cave ecosystem, has implications for broader ecological studies and underscores the importance of considering temporal dynamics in conservation efforts.

Analysis of Pigments Unearthed from the Yungang Grottoes Archaeological Excavations

The Yungang Grottoes, excavated during the 5th to 6th centuries AD, stand as a pinnacle of Buddhist sculpture, representing a precious world cultural heritage. Since their excavation, the grottoes have undergone multiple phases of painting, with a significant amount of pigment still present on the surfaces of the stone carvings. Since the 1990s, two large-scale archaeological excavations have been conducted on both the front ground and the summit of Yungang Grottoes. During these excavations, various artifacts with accompanying pigments were unearthed, encompassing stone carvings, grinding tools, architectural components, fragments of murals, and remnants of clay sculptures, spanning the historical periods of the Northern Wei, Liao-Jin, and Ming-Qing dynasties. Using portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, portable microscopy, polarizing microscopy, scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and confocal Raman microscopy, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of these painted elements. The investigation revealed the presence of hematite, vermilion, goethite, malachite, calcium carbonate, lead white, and ivory black pigments in the Northern Wei samples. The Liao-Jin samples exhibited hematite, while the Ming-Qing samples contained vermilion, minium, atacamite, lead white, and Prussian blue.

Archeometrical Characterization of Rock Art Pigments from Puerto Roque Open-Air Rock Art Shelter (Valencia De Alcantara, Extremadura, Spain)

The study seeks to unravel the intricate operational sequence involved in preparing prehistoric pigments for rock art within the Puerto Roque rock art shelter. Sixteen pigment samples were meticulously collected from specific figurative representations. Additionally, three ochre samples were sourced from the shelter’s soil. Employing a comprehensive multi-analytical approach, including Raman microspectroscopy, X-ray microfluorescence (EDxrf), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS), all nineteen samples underwent thorough analysis. Notably, darker pigments revealed a composition of hematite with the added presence of carbon. Meanwhile, one sample exhibited an orange hue primarily composed of goethite and bright red pigments predominantly characterised by hematite, as confirmed by Raman analysis. EDxrf analysis demonstrated an elemental composition akin to the three ochre pieces examined. Furthermore, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy suggested the potential influence of a heating process in enhancing red coloration, corroborated by spectral results from specific samples. This finding aligns with prior research, underscoring the technological sophistication embedded in early artistic endeavours.

Comparative study: enhancing legibility of ancient Indian script images from diverse stone background structures using 34 different pre-processing methods

In recent times, there has been a proactive effort by various institutions and organizations to preserve historic manuscripts as repositories of traditional knowledge and cultural heritage. Leveraging digital media and emerging technologies has proven to be an efficient way to safeguard these invaluable documents. Such technologies not only facilitate the extraction of knowledge from historic manuscripts but also hold promise for global applications. However, transforming inscribed stone artifacts into binary formats presents significant challenges due to angle distortion, subtle differences between foreground and background, background noise, variations in text size, and related issues. A pivotal aspect of effective image processing in preserving the rich information and wisdom encoded in stone inscriptions lies in employing appropriate pre-processing methods and techniques. This research paper places a special focus on elucidating various preprocessing techniques, encompassing resizing, grayscale conversion, enhancement of brightness and contrast, smoothening, noise removal, morphological operations, and thresholding. To comprehensively assess these techniques, we undertake a study involving stone inscription images extracted from the Tanjore Brihadeeswar Temple, dating back to the eleventh century during the reign of Raja Raja Chola. This choice is informed by the manifold challenges associated with image correction, such as distortion and blurring. We undertake an evaluation encompassing a diverse array of stone background structures, including types like flawless-bright-moderately legible, dark-illegible, flawless-bright-illegible, flawless-dull, flawless-irregular-moderate, highly impaired-dark-legible, highly impaired-irregular-illegible, impaired-dark-moderate, impaired-dull-moderately legible, impaired-dusky dark-moderate, and very impaired-dusky dark-legible. Subsequently, the processed outputs are subjected to character recognition and information extraction, with a focus on comparing the outcomes of various pre-processing methods, including binarization and grayscale conversion. This study seeks to contribute insights into the most effective pre-processing strategies for enhancing the legibility and preservation of ancient Indian script images etched onto diverse stone background structures.