Archaeometric studies on rock art at four sites in the northeastern Great Basin of North America

Digital Rock Art: beyond 'pretty pictures'

The term 'Rock Art' is loosely used in this article to refer to prehistoric carvings and paintings. Rock art research has changed profoundly in the last two decades. Partly, this is due to the introduction of more 'scientific' methodologies such as digital recording, to overcome the subjective nature of analogue documentation methods. Digital recording offers not only 'pretty pictures' but more immediate and quantifiable datasets and methods of analysis. As a result, new research implementing complex, multi-scalar and inter-relational analyses, which do not focus solely on the motifs or the landscape location, but encompass many variables of the rock art assemblages, have been successful in bringing rock art to wider narratives of prehistory. This article reflects on the interaction between rock art and digital archaeology, considering how the application of digital resources has changed the way we think, record and conduct research in this field. It will be illustrated by two main case studies from Iberia: Schematic Art in its painted form, and Atlantic Rock Art, a carving tradition.

The Sustainability of Rock Art: Preservation and Research

Rock art is a widespread cultural heritage, representing an immovable element of the material culture created on natural rocky supports. Paintings and petroglyphs can be found within caves and rock shelters or in open-air contexts and for that reason they are not isolated from the processes acting at the Earth surface. Consequently, rock art represents a sort of ecosystem because it is part of the complex and multidirectional interplay between the host rock, pigments, environmental parameters, and microbial communities. Such complexity results in several processes affecting rock art; some of them contribute to its destruction, others to its preservation. To understand the effects of such processes an interdisciplinary scientific approach is needed. In this contribution, we discuss the many processes acting at the rock interface—where rock art is present—and the multifaceted possibilities of scientific investigations—non-invasive or invasive—offered by the STEM disciplines. Finally, we suggest a sustainable approach to investigating rock art allowing to understand its production as well as its preservation and eventually suggest strategies to mitigate the risks threatening its stability.