Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art

Rock art is one of the most visible and geographically widespread of cultural expressions, and it spans much of the period of our species' existence. Rock art also provides rare and often unique insights into the minds and visually creative capacities of our ancestors and how selected rock outcrops with distinctive images were used to construct symbolic landscapes and shape worldviews. Equally important, rock art is often central to the expression of and engagement with spiritual entities and forces, and in all these dimensions it signals the diversity of cultural practices, across place and through time. Over the past 150 years, archaeologists have studied ancient arts on rock surfaces, both out in the open and within caves and rock shelters, and social anthropologists have revealed how people today use art in their daily lives. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art showcases examples of such research from around the world and across a broad range of cultural contexts, giving a sense of the art's regional variability, its antiquity, and how it is meaningful to people in the recent past and today - including how we have ourselves tended to make sense of the art of others, replete with our own preconceptions. It reviews past, present, and emerging theoretical approaches to rock art investigation and presents new, cutting-edge methods of rock art analysis for the student and professional researcher alike.

Bruno David is Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre and the Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, and Associate Professor in the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He specializes in the archaeology of Indigenous Australia and Papua New Guinea, rock art, and oral traditions.
Ian J. McNiven is Professor of Indigenous Archaeology in the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He specializes in coastal societies and seascapes and ritual and spiritual relationships with the sea. He is a member of the Australian Academy of Humanities.

- List of Contributors
- Online Supplementary Material
- Introduction
- 1. Towards an Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art
- Bruno David and Ian J. McNiven
- Part I: Geographical and Historical Perspectives
- 2. Interpretative Frameworks and the Study of the Rock Arts
- Margaret W. Conkey
- 3. North European Rock Art: A Long-term Perspective
- Joakim Goldhahn
- 4. The Rock Art of Sub-Scandinavian Europe
- Olivia Rivero and Juan F. Ruiz
- 5. The Archaeology of Rock Art in Northern Africa
- Savino di Lernia
- 6. The Rock Art of Sub-Saharan Africa
- Jean-Loïc Le Quellec
- 7. Rock Art of Northern, Central, and Western Asia
- Andrzej Rozwadowski
- 8. The Rock Art of South and East Asia
- Paul S.C. Taçon
- 9. Australia's Rock Art Heritage: A Thematic Approach to Assessing Scientific Value
- Jo McDonald
- 10. Rock Art of the Pacific: Context and Intertextuality
- Meredith Wilson and Chris Ballard
- 11. Rock Art of North America
- David S. Whitley
- 12. Rock Art in Central and South America: Social Settings and Regional Diversity
- Andrés Troncoso, Felipe Armstrong, and Mara Basile
- Part II: Conceptual Approaches to Rock Art: Investigating Meaning
- 13. Tracing Symbolic Behaviour across the Southern Arc
- Natalie R. Franklin and Phillip J. Habgood
- 14. Signalling Theory and Durable Symbolic Expression
- Douglas W. Bird and Rebecca Bliege Bird
- 15. The Psychology of Graphic Perception
- Jan B. Deregowski
- 16. European Palaeolithic Rock Art and Spatial Structures
- Jean Clottes
- 17. Art and Environment: How Can Rock Art Inform on Past Environments?
- George Nash
- 18. Images of Animals in Rock Art: Not Just 'Good to Think'
- Iain Davidson
- 19. Plants Before Animals? Aboriginal Rock Art as Evidence of Ecoscaping in Australia's Kimberley
- Sven Ouzman, Peter Veth, Cecilia Myers, Pauline Heaney, and Kevin Kenneally
- 20. 'Enigmatic Images from Remote Prehistory': Rock Art and Ontology from a European Perspective
- Andrew Meirion Jones and Marta Díaz-Guardamino
- 21. Rock Art, Music, and Acoustics: A Global Overview
- Margarita Díaz-Andreu and Tommaso Mattioli
- 22. The Production of Ethnographic Records and Their Use in Rock Art Research
- Julien Monney and Leïla Baracchini
- 23. Rock Art and Ethnography in Australia
- Liam M. Brady, Robert G. Gunn, Claire Smith, and Bruno David
- 24. Rock Arts, Shamans, and Grand Theories
- Anne Solomon
- 25. A New Framework for Interpreting Contact Rock Art: Reassessing the Rock Art at Nackara Springs, South Australia
- Claire Smith, Jordan Ralph, Kylie Lower, Jennifer McKinnon, Matthew Ebbs, and Vincent Copley Senior
- 26. Creolization in the Investigation of Rock Art of the Colonial Era
- Sam Challis
- 27. Out of Time and Place: Graffiti and Rock Art Research
- Ursula K. Frederick
- 28. Memory, Materiality, and Place in Ojibway Rock Art Performances
- Alex K. Ruuska
- 29. Rock Art as Cultural Expressions of Social Relationships and Kinship
- Liam M. Brady, John J. Bradley, and Amanda Kearney
- 30. Bodies Revealed: X-ray Art in Western Arnhem Land
- Luke Taylor
- 31. Rock Art and Aesthetics
- Thomas Heyd
- Part III: Methods: Marks in Time and Place
- 32. The Science of Rock Art Research
- Guy Gibbon
- 33. Recording Rock Art: Strategies, Challenges, and Embracing the Digital Revolution
- Liam M. Brady, Jamie Hampson, and Inés Domingo Sanz
- 34. GIS in Rock Art Studies
- Michelle L. Wienhold and David W. Robinson
- 35. 3-D Modelling in Rock Art Research: Terrestrial Laser Scanning, Photogrammetry, and the Time Factor
- Stéphane Jaillet, Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Julien Monney, and Benjamin Sadier
- 36. Archaeomorphological Mapping: Rock Art and the Architecture of Place
- Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Bruno David, Robert G. Gunn, Jean-Michel Geneste, and Stéphane Jaillet
- 37. Taphonomy on the Surface of the Rock Wall: Rock-Paint-Atmosphere Interactions
- Emilie Chalmin, Stéphane Hœrlé, and Ina Reiche
- 38. Characterizing Rock Art Pigments
- Emilie Chalmin and Jillian Huntley
- 39. The Use of Harris Matrices in Rock Art Research
- Edward Harris and Robert G. Gunn
- 40. Radiocardon Dating in Rock Art Research
- Fiona Petchey
- 41. Optical Dating of Rock Art
- Richard G. Roberts
- 42. Uranium-Thorium Dating of Cave Art
- Alistair W.G. Pike
- Part IV: The Public Consumption of Art: Applying and Managing Art in the Present
- 43. Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights in Rock Art: A Case Study of Australian Indigenous Art
- Stephen Gray
- 44. The Conservation and Management of Rock Art: An Integrated Approach
- Johannes Loubser
- 45. Rock Art Tourism
- Melanie Duval, Christophe Gauchon, and Benjamin Smith
- 46. Past Images, Contemporary Practices: Re-use of Rock Art Images in Contemporary San Art of Southern Africa
- Leïla Baracchini and Julien Monney
- 47. The Use and Re-use of Rock Art Designs in Contemporary Jewellery and Wearable Art
- Lynette Russell and Myles Russell-Cook
- 48. Visiting Gonjorong's Cave
- Valda Blundell and Woddordda Traditional Owners Donny Woolagoodja, Janet Oobagooma, and Leah Umbagai
- Index