Paleoart and Materiality

This book addresses the presentation of scientific approaches to the materiality of rock art, ranging from recording and sampling methods to data analyses. The issue of the materiality of visual productions of the distant past is addressed through various scientific approaches, including fieldwork, laboratory techniques and data analysis protocols.

This book contains a series of selected papers presented at two symposia entitled ‘Scientific study of rock art’, one held in the IFRAO Congress of Rock Art in La Paz, Bolivia, in June 2012, the other held in the IFRAO Congress in Caceres, Spain, in September 2015; as well as some invited papers from leading rock art scientists. The core topic of the book is the presentation of scientific approaches to the materiality of rock art, ranging from recording and sampling methods to data analyses. These share the fact that they provide means of testing hypotheses and/or of finding trends in the data which can be used as independent sources of evidence to support specific interpretations. The issue of the materiality of visual productions of the distant past, which in archaeological theory has attracted much attention recently and has stimulated much conceptual debate, is addressed through a variety of scientific approaches, including fieldwork methods, laboratory work techniques and/or data analysis protocols. These, in turn, will provide new insights into human agency and people-image engagements through the study of rock art production, display and use.

Relevant Issues for the Design of a Protocol for the Interdisciplinary Study of Rock Art - Eugenia P. Tomasini, Mara Basile, Marta S. Maier, Norma Ratto
Superimpositions and Attitudes Towards Pre-existing Rock Art: a Case Study in Southern Patagonia - Anahi Re
Pigments Used in Rock Paintings from the East and West of the Iberian Peninsula Analysed by X-ray Fluorescence: Analogies and Differences - A. Martin Sanchez, C. Roldan Garcia, M. J. Nuevo, J. Oliveira, S. Murcia Mascaros, C. Oliveira
The Material Scientific Investigation of Rock Art: Contributions from non-Invasive X-ray Techniques - Jillian Huntley, Clive Freeman Galamban
Methodological Approach to the Materiality of Rock Paintings Based on Their Physicochemical Characterisation. Proposal and Reflections from Their Study in Chile - Marcela Sepulveda
Step Forwards in the Archaeometric Studies on Rock Paintings in the Bogota Savannah, Colombia. Analysis of Pigments and Alterations - Judith Trujillo T.
What Should We Do or Not Do for the Preservation or Remedial Action in Prehistoric Painted Caves? - F. Bourges, P. Genthon, D. Genty, M. Lorblanchet, France, E. Mauduit, D. D'Hulst, E. David, J.-L. Zimmerman, N. Ferrer
Forensic Replication Work with Australian Cave Art - Robert G. Bednarik, Yann-Pierre Montelle
Experimental Rock Art Studies. Replication of Pictographs from La Primavera Locality (Santa Cruz, Argentina) - Rocio V. Blanco, Natalia G. Barreto
Measurements and Replications of Hand Stencils: a Methodological Approach for the Estimation of the Individuals' Age and Sex - Natalia Carden, Rocio Blanco
Time and Rock Art Production: Explorations on the Material Side of Petroglyphs in the Semiarid North of Chile - Francisco Vergara, Andres Troncoso, Francisca Ivanovic
Taphonomy of the Early Petroglyphs at Daraki-Chattan and in the Region Around It in Chambal Basin, India - Giriraj Kumar, Ram Krishna, Robert G. Bednarik
The Tribology of Petroglyphs - Robert G. Bednarik
Understanding the Technology of Very Small Cupules in Daraki-Chattan, India - Ram Krishna, Giriraj Kumar
Evidence of Collaboration Among Art-Makers in Twelve Upper Palaeolithic Caves - Leslie Van Gelder
A Survey of Developments in Dating Australian Rock-Markings - Graeme K. Ward
A New Cold Plasma System for Pictogram 14C Sampling - Marvin W. Rowe, Eric Blinman, John C. Martin, J. Royce Cox, Mark MacKenzie, Lukas Wacker
Direct Dating of Bolivian Petroglyphs Using Indirect Microerosion Analysis - Robert G. Bednarik
Use of Theodolite and Photographic Techniques in the Recording and Analysis of the Geographical and Astronomical Entorno (surrounding) - Patricio Bustamante, Ricardo Moyano, Daniela Bustamante

Robert G. Bednarik is the Convener and Editor-in-Chief of the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations and is affiliated with Hebei Normal University, China. His principal research interests are the origins of the human ability to create constructs of reality, the evolution of humans, and in a variety of fields providing supplementary information in that quest, including the world’s rock art. He has produced more than 1350 academic publications. • Dr Danae Fiore is a researcher at Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas, Argentina, and a lecturer at Universidad de Buenos Aires. Her main interests are focused on the archaeology of rock art, portable art and body art viewed from technological, economic and cognitive perspectives; hunter-gatherer archaeology; archaeological theory and methods; and visual archaeology (the study of indigenous material culture through ethnographic photographs). • Dr Mara Basile is an archaeologist and a researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina. She has been a member of the Archaeological Project Chaschuil Abaucán (www.proyectopacha.com.ar) since 2002. Her main research interest is to delineate the visual languages that circulated in different expressive media over time in the region of Fiambalá (Catamarca, Argentina). • Dr Giriraj Kumar is Professor in Rock Art Science and Indian Culture and Founding Secretary General and Editor, Rock Art Society of India (estd. 1990), carrying out scientific research on early Indian petroglyphs and their dating in collaboration with Australian and other scientists. He published a book on Indian rock art and more than eighty research papers on Stone Age Indian rock art and culture. • Dr Tang Huisheng is the Director of the International Centre of Rock Art Dating and Conservation, Hebei Normal University, China. He also teaches as a Professor at the of Archaeology Department of Nanjing Normal University. His principal interests are the rock art of China and its dating, and the Chinese Neolithic period.

• Edited by Robert G. Bednarik
• Edited by Danae Fiore
• Edited by Mara Basile