Around the world, rock art has long been studied in efforts to decode its meaning and thereby understand the minds and realities of its hunter-gatherer artists. In Argentina, rupestrian art was...Show moreAround the world, rock art has long been studied in efforts to decode its meaning and thereby understand the minds and realities of its hunter-gatherer artists. In Argentina, rupestrian art was first mentioned on the record by Jesuit missionaries from the 16th century, but the first true documentation of these ‘sacred rocks’ was completed by Moreno in 1877 in northern Patagonia. Rock art has been conceived as many things, as territorial markers, evidence of contact between groups, indication of group mobility, transmission of information, and as domestic/non-domestic symbolic creations. The question is, however, what happened to the study of hunter-gatherer rock art outside of these complexes? What can an ontological approach to these pictographs tell us about the cosmologies of the communities from the far-reaching past? The aim of this study is to add to, or rather to spark up again, the discussion of early hunter-gatherer cosmologies as seen through the lens of hunter-gatherer rock art assemblages from several different sites in the central plateau of Santa Cruz, Patagonia. This is accomplished by adopting an interdisciplinary stance combining archaeology and anthropology with an ontological approach that uses ethnographic data as a means of conceptualizing new interpretations. This is all done through a bibliographical position in which previous research is re-evaluated. To this end, the thesis is guided by the following research question: Could an ontological approach to hunter-gatherer rock art from the Late Pleistocene to Mid-Holocene periods (c. 9000–3500 BP) in southern Patagonia (Argentina) help us come up with the beginnings of their cosmology? Three possible interpretations are discussed in this thesis regarding rock art and hunter-gatherer cosmologies. The first relates to the importance of the hunt and identifies handprints motifs as part of an initiation ritual into the hunting tradition. Additionally, I posit that hunter-gatherers used the depictions of hunting scenes as a means of understanding the ecological relationships in their environment and to keep track of hunting strategies, thereby ensuring the continuation of the tradition by possibly using the pictographs to teach their children. Lastly, I suggest that the iconic images of large felines and their accompanying bodily remains in situ were part of a process of symbiosis in which the animal’s favourable traits and capabilities as a prime hunter were taken on by hunter-gatherers themselves. These theories are then conceptualized by ethnographic accounts of the Aónik’enk, their mythology and traditions.Show less
The scarce evidence of copper daggers from the third millennium BC in the Alpine region clashes with the numerous representation of metal daggers on anthropomorphic statue-menhirs and other forms...Show moreThe scarce evidence of copper daggers from the third millennium BC in the Alpine region clashes with the numerous representation of metal daggers on anthropomorphic statue-menhirs and other forms of megalithic art. The identification of a particular recurring type of copper daggers in these representations has led to their attribution to those produced in the context of the Remedello Culture in the central area of the Po’ plain, Italy. How was it possible that this type of dagger appeared over such a vast region during the considerable time-span comprised from 3000 and 2500 BCE? Why was the Remedello-dagger specifically employed? In order to tackle these questions a framework based on branding has been theorised. Following the steps of David Wengrow (2008) and Samuel Becker (2015), the concept of branding has been used to explain the repetition of standardised design conveying some underlying information and its application in different contexts. The establishment of a prototype of the Remedello-dagger brand has been followed by its identification in the archaeological record of the Alpine region. The analysis of the evidence comprised statue-menhirs alignments in Trentino, Lunigiana and Valle Camonica and Valtellina. The evidence of funerary megalithic sites at Saint-Martin-de-Corléans (Aosta) and Petit-Chassuer (Sion), together with the rock-art complexes of Chastel- Arnaud and Mont Bégo. These contexts have been seen as representative of different employments of the Remedellian brand, which marked human (male) bodies, funerary contexts and the landscapes of rock-art complexes. The reason behind this long-lasting form of religious branding has been connected to its link to the newly introduced technology of metallurgy. Copper metalwork through the Remedellian brand was the base of a shared, cross-cultural identity in the Alpine region in the first half of the third millennium BCE.Show less
In the field season of May 2011, progress was made in documenting the petroglyphs found at Aguas Buenas, Nicaragua. This dataset serves as a backdrop onto which problems of rock art analysis and...Show moreIn the field season of May 2011, progress was made in documenting the petroglyphs found at Aguas Buenas, Nicaragua. This dataset serves as a backdrop onto which problems of rock art analysis and rock art documentation are placed. For the rock art analysis, several approaches are considered. First, the semiotic approach is looked at, through the use of theories constructed by Panofsky, Saussure and Pierce. Then, a contrasting way of looking at rock art is described, that also considers the landscape that these images are placed in. Both approaches have their merits and their weaknesses in application to the Aguas Buenas dataset. In the second half, documentation methods and techniques for petroglyphs are subjected to critical evaluation with the purpose of creating a method, that is easy, cost efficient and still provides a high quality. Photography has proven to fulfill these requirements, and instructions are given as to provide a handhold for (starting) rock art researchers to take accurate photographs of petroglyphs. Lastly, the database is explained and provided, and a comparison is made with other petroglyph datasets.Show less
