Recent Rock Art Studies in Eastern Mesoamerica and Lower Central America, 2005-2009 (original) (raw)
Rock Art Studies, 2012
"This is the fourth in the five-yearly series of surveys of what is happening in rock art studies around the world. The aims are to present a synthesis of the status of rock art research in different regions of the world, provide information about recent projects, publications, prevailing research objectives and methods, and enable rock art researchers to relate their findings in a specific region to mainstream research results." (source : http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/oxbow-books-imprint/rock-art-studies-4848.html) This article is a "brief introduction showing the dynamic that rock art research has acquired during the last few years in Colombia. Three topics deserve closer examination, either because they are at the centre of current worldwide debates or because they are challenging matters that extend beyond the basic postulates of traditional rock art research. These topics are: the archaeological analysis of rock art; concerns relating to education, presentation and protection of rock art sites from a Cultural Heritage perspective; and the meaning of rock art sites”. (pag. 319)
Rock Art, Ancestors and Water: The semiotic construction of landscapes in the central Andes
Rock Art, Ancestors and Water: The semiotic construction of landscapes in the central Andes, 2017
As landscape art, the rock art of the central Andes offers clues regarding relationships between ancestor veneration and the negotiation of rights to water through time. To understand these relationships this thesis focuses on a large complement of rock art on the Fortaleza Ignimbrite (FI), a distinct geologic formation, situated at the headwaters of the Fortaleza and Santa Rivers in highland Ancash, Peru, (3400 - 4250 m.a.s.l.). A systematic, regional survey of the FI revealed 299 archaeological features, of which 192 are rock art places, consitituting one of the highest concentrations of rock art ever recorded at such high altitudes. GIS analysis of the survey data reveals how certain rock art styles, motifs and production techniques relate to altitude, and specific geologic, hydrological and built features. The stratigraphy of carved and painted rock art of the FI is paired with the archaeological stratigraphy and radiocarbon results retrieved from excavations at three puna rock shelters and one collective tomb, in the lower altitude quechua ecozone, to answer the question of when these works were produced. The results from these methods are synthesized to develop a typological sequence, and a spatio-temporal map of the of the rock art of the FI, defined by styles and traditions, which spans approximately 3,000 years (1800 B.C – A.D. 1820). Because the FI sits at the nexus of ecological, political, economic and religious realms, and because it is located at strategic places of power, this thesis hypothesizes that its rock art was active in constructing social landscapes in the region by facilitating the control of resources, primarily water and heritage. In other words, instead of prioritizing the referential meaning of rock art, the primary question of this thesis asks what role the rock art of the FI had in socializing the land. In this regard, the central argument of this investigation is that rock art places are the result of, and agents of, landscape and that they relate people in a communicative system having to do with their many purposes and symbolism. To support this argument and model the manifold relationships between people, the land and rock art in answering the primary research question, Alfred Gell’s tripartite, semiotic model of icon-index-symbol is applied to the styles and traditions of rock art identified in this thesis. Gell’s other tripartite model of artist-prototype-recipient is then applied to answer the question of who produced these works and who they had intended as their audience. These models inform how rock art relates to landscape construction and provide the basis for developing and applying a Peircean, eco-cultural semiotic model, contextualized in part by 17th century historic accounts from the region, to elucidate how in situ, landscape-based art related to social interactions in the central Andes.
Conservation and recording of rock art in Argentina
Describes a collaborative project initiated by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano to develop conservation, recording, and site management strategies for Argentina's rock sites. Two rock painting sites in Santa Cruz province (Patagonia) are among the sites under investigation: Cueva de las Manos and Cerro de los Indios. The sites are expressions of a hunter-gatherer culture that occupied the region from 9,000 years BP to the end of the pre-Hispanic period. One objective of the project is to evaluate alternatives to chain link fencing that will protect the pictographs, control the flow of visitors, and allow for enhanced interpretation of the site. Raising public awareness and concern for the fragility of the rock art and for its preservation is a high priority of the project. The interest of concerned citizens in the protection and conservation of the sites is encouraging. Existing graffiti was recorded and microscopical samples were removed for analysis of pigments and mineral accretion. (AATA Nos: 2006-54550 and 40-2065; Abstractor: Ian N.M. Wainwright)