Relating to Rock Art in the Contemporary World: Navigating Symbolism, Meaning, and Significance

Rock art has long been considered an archaeological artifact reflecting activities from the past, yet it is also a phenomenon with present-day meaning and relevance to both indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Relating to Rock Art in the Contemporary World challenges traditional ways of thinking about this highly recognizable form of visual heritage and provides insight into its contemporary significance.
 
One of the most visually striking forms of material culture embedded in landscapes, rock art is ascribed different meanings by diverse groups of people including indigenous peoples, governments, tourism offices, and the general public, all of whom relate to images and sites in unique ways. In this volume, leading scholars from around the globe shift the discourse from a primarily archaeological basis to one that examines the myriad ways that symbolism, meaning, and significance in rock art are being renegotiated in various geographical and cultural settings, from Australia to the British Isles. They also consider how people manage the complex meanings, emotions, and cultural and political practices tied to rock art sites and how these factors impact processes relating to identity construction and reaffirmation today.
 
Richly illustrated and geographically diverse, Relating to Rock Art in the Contemporary World connects archaeology, anthropology, and heritage studies. The book will appeal to students and scholars of archaeology, anthropology, heritage, heritage management, identity studies, art history, indigenous studies, and visual theory, as well as professionals and amateurs who have vested or avocational interests in rock art.
 
 
Contributors: Agustín Acevedo, Manuel Bea, Jutinach Bowonsachoti, Gemma Boyle, John J. Bradley, Noelene Cole, Inés Domingo, Kurt E. Dongoske, Davida Eisenberg-Degen, Dánae Fiore, Ursula K. Frederick, Kelley Hays-Gilpin, Catherine Namono, George H. Nash, John Norder, Marianna Ocampo, Joshua Schmidt, Duangpond Singhaseni, Benjamin W. Smith, Atthasit Sukkham, Noel Hidalgo Tan, Watinee Tanompolkrang, Luke Taylor, Dagmara Zawadzka
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Release date: Dec 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781607324980

Book preview

World

Relating to

Rock Art in

the Contemporary World

Navigating Symbolism, Meaning, and Significance

Edited by

Liam M. Brady and Paul S.C. Taçon

University Press of Colorado

Boulder

© 2016 by University Press of Colorado

Published by University Press of Colorado

5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C

Boulder, Colorado 80303

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of Association of American University Presses.

The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, Utah State University, and Western State Colorado University.

∞ This paper meets the requirements of the ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

ISBN: 978-1-60732-497-3 (cloth)

ISBN: 978-1-60732-498-0 (ebook)

If the tables in this publication are not displaying properly in your ereader, please contact the publisher to request PDFs of the tables.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brady, Liam M., 1978– editor. | Taçon, Paul S.C. (Paul Stephen Charles), 1958– editor.

Title: Relating to rock art in the contemporary world : navigating symbolism, meaning and significance / edited by Liam M. Brady and Paul S.C. Taçon.

Description: Boulder : University Press of Colorado, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016023593| ISBN 9781607324973 (cloth) | ISBN 9781607324980 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Rock paintings. | Indigenous art.

Classification: LCC GN799.P4 R445 2016 | DDC 759.01/13—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023593

The University Press of Colorado gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Monash University toward the publication of this book.

Cover photograph: Curator Mohammad Sherman Sauffi William, Sarawak Museum rock art exhibition, Kuching, Malaysia, 2013. Photograph by Paul S.C. Taçon.

Liam M. Brady: for my daughters

Paul S.C. Taçon: for my extended family and friends, indigenous and non-indigenous, from many nations

Contents

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List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Note to Reader

1. The Place of Rock Art in the Contemporary World

Paul S.C. Taçon and Liam M. Brady

2. A Fabricated Past? The Case of Nyero Rock Art Site, Kumi District, Uganda

Catherine Namono

3. What Rock Art? Stories from Northeast Thailand

Noel Hidalgo Tan, Atthasit Sukkham, Gemma Boyle, Watinee Tanompolkrang, Jutinach Bowonsachoti, and Duangpond Singhaseni

4. What the Places Teach Us: Challenges for Cultural Tourism and Indigenous Stewardship of Rock Art Sites in the North American Midcontinent

John Norder and Dagmara Zawadzka

5. That Painting Now Is Telling Us Something: Negotiating and Apprehending Contemporary Meaning in Yanyuwa Rock Art, Northern Australia

Liam M. Brady and John J. Bradley

6. Parks, Petroglyphs, Fish, and Zuni: An Emotional Geography of Contemporary Human-Animal-Water Relationships

Kurt E. Dongoske and Kelley Hays-gilpin

7. Rock Art in South African Society Today

Benjamin W. Smith

8. Inscribing History: The Complex Geographies of Bedouin Tribal Symbols in the Negev Desert, Southern Israel

Davida Eisenberg-degen, George H. Nash, and Joshua Schmidt

9. Land/People Relationships and the Future of Rock Art in the Laura Basin, Northeastern Australia

Noelene Cole

10. From Science to Heritage: New Challenges for World Heritage Rock Art Sites in Mediterranean Spain in the Twenty-First Century

Inés Domingo and Manuel Bea

11. Rock Art, Cultural Change, the Media, and National Heritage Identity in the Twenty-First Century

Paul S.c. Taçon

12. Teaching and Learning about Rock Art in Argentina

Dánae Fiore, Mariana Ocampo, and Agustín Acevedo

13. Recent Art History in Rock Country: Bark Painters Inspired by Rock Paintings

Luke Taylor

14. Marks and Meeting Grounds

Ursula K. Frederick

15. Establishing New Ground: Reflexive/Reflective Thinking and Plotting a Future for Studying Rock Art in Contemporary Contexts

Liam M. Brady and Paul S.c. Taçon

Contributors

Index

Illustrations

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Figures

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1.1. Northern Territory (Australia) coat of arms

1.2. Australian bicentennial banknote featuring a female X-ray figure

2.1. Map of Uganda showing Nyero rock art sites

2.2. Nyero 2 rock paintings

2.3. Examples of canoe shapes at Nyero 2

2.4. Mzee Okerenyang sitting on the large boulder leading to Nyero 2

2.5. Mzee Ikara sitting at one of the entrances to Nyero 2 pointing at the spot where women sat

2.6. Rock art awareness workshop participants and resource persons, Kumi District, January 25, 2011

2.7. Local participants of the rock art awareness workshop at Kumi articulating the symbolism of the paintings, 2011

2.8. Mr. Emmanuel Woncan articulating a point during the rock art awareness workshop at Kumi, 2011

2.9. Jack Obonyo at a rock art site on Mfangano Island, 2006

3.1. Map of northeast Thailand with names and locations of sites mentioned in text

3.2. The main Buddhist shrine and rock art of Khao Chan Ngam

3.3. Buddha footprint enshrined in Wat Phrabat Bua Buabok

3.4. Some of the sandstone landscapes at Phu Phra Bat

3.5. The painted elephant of Tham Chang, a rock painting from the Lan Xang Period

3.6. The carving of the Buddha at Tham Phra

3.7. The main sema stones arrangement found in Wat Phra Phuttabat Buaban

3.8. Showing the abbot of Wat Phra Phuttabat Buaban the rock art at the site

4.1. Selected and referenced locations in this study

4.2. Medicine wheel petroforms, Wyoming

4.3. Jeffers Petroglyph Historic Site, August 2011

4.4. Active lichen removal activities at Jeffers Petroglyphs, August 2011

4.5. Lichen removal signage at Jeffers, August 2011

4.6. Structure built over the petroglyphs at Peterborough, June 2008

4.7. Interpretive panel at the Learning Place, June 2008

4.8. Medicine wheel in the Learning Place, June 2008

5.1. Map of the Sir Edward Pellew Islands, southwest Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia

5.2. View from eastern end of Limiyimiyila on Black Craggy Island looking west; screen shot of the Dugong Hunters from the Dugong Hunter Dreaming digital animation; hand stencil from Limiyimiyila 3 at Black Craggy Island

5.3. Black Craggy Island, Limiyimiyila 5, hammerhead shark

5.4. Surveying for the yirrikirri (donkey) at the Lilardungka 2 rock art site, South West Island

5.5. Example of fading and deteriorating rock art from Vanderlin Island

5.6. Turtle-like zoomorphs at Liwarrangka, South West Island

5.7. Mawarndarlbarndarl rock art site at Mandarilla, South West Island; screen shot of the Groper Spirit Being from the a-Kuridi (Groper) digital animation

5.8. Mawarndarlbarndarl rock art—ngabaya (spirit being); rrungkal design (stitched from individual photographs; angled photograph of the rrungkal); blue-ringed octopus; jellyfish and kangaroo tracks

6.1. Location map showing Zuni Indian Reservation

6.2. Grand Canyon and the Colorado River

6.3. Map depicting the general Zuni migration routes

6.4. Petroglyph depicting Supai Man

6.5. Incised figure at El Morro National Monument, identified by Zuni consultants as similar to figures in Grand Canyon that represent ancestors and water creatures or lizards

7.1. (a) South African fifty-rand banknote, issued in 2012, with rock art as background; (b) rock-art-themed motorway service station condiment

7.2. South African one-pound note from the Apartheid era; 7.2b. South African national coat of arms from the Apartheid era

7.3. (a) Pierneef rock art wall murals in Ficksburg High School; (b) Pierneef rock art wall murals in Ficksburg High School

7.4. An example of a rock-art-themed piece of Kalahari Ware pottery and the Helen Tongue copy upon which it was based

7.5. Examples of rock-art-themed Drostdy Ware and Crescent Ware

7.6. Replica Bushman; painting the rock art of Main Caves since 1970

7.7. Rock-art-themed South African team flag for the 1996 Olympics

7.8. Advertisement for 1995 Rugby World Cup official rock-art-themed medallions

7.9. (a) The official South African national coat of arms since 2000 and the rock art image upon which it was based; (b) a draft of the South African coat of arms

8.1. Negev rock art sites mentioned in the text: Ezuz and Giva’t HaKetovot; Har Michia; Har Karkom; Ramat Matred and Har Eldad

8.2. Janabib wasm (tribal symbol) superimposed over an older and darker camel motif

8.3. Schematic representation of Negev rock art phases

8.4. Bedouin marks superimposed over older imagery at the Giva’t HaKetovot rock art site in the western Negev Highlands

8.5. Similar motifs from different eras on adjacent rocks, Har Eldad

8.6. Doodling(?) of wusum on a panel at Har Michia

8.7. Pre-existing ibex engraving reshaped to form an Azāzmeh wasm

8.8. Engraving of crouching camel with wasm placed besides it at Ramat Matred

8.9. Engraving of a camel and rider alongside later period wasm at Har Karkom

8.10. An illegal/unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev Highlands

8.11. Wasm engraved on the headstone of a grave, Bedouin cemetery near Ezuz

8.12. A strategically marked rock at Ramat Matred that acts to declare ownership over the cultivated field system in the riverbed below

8.13. Bedouin graffiti: the family name Abu Asa sprayed on a wall in Beer-Sheva

9.1. Laura Basin, southeast Cape York Peninsula, Australia

9.2. Section of a rock art panel from Giant Horse rock shelter featuring a red Quinkan Timara spirit figure

9.3. The Laura Basin showing some Quinkan area properties

9.4. Rock paintings are stories: ancestral figures in Quinkan rock art

9.5. Boardwalk at Yindayin (Endaen) rock shelter, Flinders Group National Park

9.6. Tommy George, Kuku Thaypan elder and Senior Ranger, at Mushroom Rock, Welcome Station; the late George Musgrave (Kuku Thaypan elder, 1921–2006) teaches archaeologist Alice Buhrich about engravings at the Laura River Story

9.7. Laura Rangers at Split Rock escarpment south of Laura

9.8. Aboriginal tour guide, Steve Wilson, guiding tourists at the Quinkans for the Quinkan and Regional Cultural Centre

9.9. Traditional Owners (Harrigan family) recording rock art, Normanby Station

10.1. Geographical distribution of Levantine rock art within the Iberian Peninsula; communities where the initiatives in this chapter took place: Aragón and Comunidad Valenciana; distribution of Levantine rock art sites within these two communities

10.2. Levantine rock art motifs and scenes: archer, Covatina del Tossalet del Mas de la Rambla (Vilafranca, Castellón); wild goats, Cabras Blancas (Tormón, Teruel); archer, Abrigo del Sordo (Ayora, Valencia); bull, El Torico (Castellote, Teruel); archer and two deer, Tortosilla (Ayora, Valencia); human figure, Roca Benedí (Jaraba, Zaragoza)

10.3. Rock art recording methods and equipment: total station, structured light scanner, laser Phase-shift scanner, nocturnal photography, laser scanner

10.4. Fencing a site in Portell de Morella (Castellón) following new landscape-based criteria: view of the site before installing the fence, site with the fence installed, view of the ravine from the site (note the fence does not block the view from the site)

10.5. Replacing old fences with new ones at Plano del Pulido (Caspe, Zaragoza) following new landscaped-oriented criteria: old cage fence, new fence and structure to access the site

10.6. Disseminating ARAMPI rock art: popular and scientific publications, and press releases

10.7. Disseminating ARAMPI rock art: printed materials designed to reach the younger generations of the local community

10.8. Disseminating ARAMPI rock art through exhibitions, public talks, open days, workshops, and mass media

10.9. Visiting ARAMPI sites on the Internet: front page of ARAM Project web page including examples of the type of content and 3D models of sites accessible digitally

11.1. Wellington Range (Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia): painting of a pearling lugger with crew, including someone looking through a telescope, discovered in 2009

11.2. Ronald Lamilami and the author at the Djulirri rock art site, Wellington Range, Arnhem Land

11.3. August 2014 Kakadu rock art conservation strategy workshop

11.4. Cecil Namunidjbuk with indigenous and Malay Sarawakians at the Sarawak Museum in May 2013

11.5. Ni Peijian is a Chinese artist whose contemporary work is inspired by and relates to China’s rock art heritage

11.6. A massive direct intervention rock art conservation project began at the main Huashan rock art site in 2010 and was continuing in July 2014 when this photograph was taken

11.7. Mianjiang Huashan rock art site of Longzhou County, Guanxi Province, southwest China

11.8. Ou Ruiying, born 1944, who is the leader of the nearby Zhuang village of Bangnup

11.9. Huashan rock art exhibition at the Municipal Zhuang Culture Museum and Rock Art Centre in Chongzo, Guangxi

12.1. Drawing of rock art panel from Carahuasi (Salta, northwest Argentina)

12.2. Photograph of a motif published in book #27

12.3. Panel showing hand stencils from Viuda Quenzana (Patagonia, Argentina)

12.4. Panel showing engraved zoomorphic footprints, human hand motifs, and geometric designs from Mercerá Canyon (Patagonia, Argentina)

12.5. Drawing of a rock art scene in a cartoon style, published in book #48

12.6. Photograph of a painted panel from Cueva de las Manos (Patagonia, Argentina), published in book #63

12.7. An engraved rock art scene from Sapagua (Jujuy, northwest Argentina), published in book #63

13.1. Map of western Arnhem Land showing language groups and locations identified in the text

13.2. Photograph of Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra taken in 1986 with a painting that he completed ca. 1930 on Injalak Hill near Gunbalanya

13.3. Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra and Alex Nganjmirra with rock paintings they completed on Injalak Hill in 1984

13.4. Artist unknown. Bark Drawing of a Native Spearing a Large Rock Kangaroo, collected by Baldwin Spencer at Oenpelli in 1912

13.5. Artist unknown. Gobolba the white ibis, collected by Paddy Cahill for Baldwin Spencer at Oenpelli in 1914, Museum Victoria, Melbourne

13.6. Rock art near Nourlangie Rock depicting arms and hands decorated with diagonal cross motifs in the manner of Mardayin designs

13.7. Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek. The Female Rainbow Serpent Beneath Waterlilies in Her Sacred Billabong, 1991, John W. Kluge collection University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

13.8. Mick Kubarkku. Dird Djang, Moon Dreaming with Sun, 1994, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

13.9. John Mawurndjul painting on bark at his home at Milmilngkan in 2004

13.10. John Mawurndjul completing fine cross-hatching on bark painting in 2004

13.11. John Mawurndjul with uncompleted bark painting of the Rainbow Serpent Ngalyod giving birth in 1988

13.12. John Mawurndjul. Mardayin Design at Kakodbebuldi, 2002, Laverty Collection, Sydney

14.1. Sir George Grey’s reproduction of a Wandjina with the caption: Figure drawn on roof of Cave, discovered March 29th

14.2. Lin Onus, Balanda Rock Art, 1989

14.3. Rock paintings made by Brett Whiteley, 1970

14.4. Rock painting made by Brett Whiteley, 1970

15.1. Creating the Lascaux replica, 2002

Tables

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12.1. Variables recorded for each textbook containing information about rock art

12.2. List of twenty-six textbooks (with bibliographic information) containing some form of rock art content

Acknowledgments

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We take this opportunity to thank the many people who made this volume possible. In particular we thank Jessica d’Arbonne and Laura Furney at the University Press of Colorado for their unwavering enthusiasm and support of our project; our contributors for taking up the challenge to think about and engage with rock art in new and different ways that will hopefully stimulate new research approaches to the study of rock art; the many individuals and institutions who generously provided permission to reproduce images in this volume (Octavius Seowtewa, Dismas Ongwen, the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Santillana Publishing, and Tinta Fresca Publishing); the various families, communities, and organizations in Australia, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere whom we have worked with for many years and who have generously shared knowledge about their visual heritage that has helped shape the direction of this volume; our copyeditor, Sonya Manes, for her careful reading of the manuscript; and finally our respective institutions—Monash University and Griffith University—for their support of our research projects, of which this is one.

Note to Reader

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Dates

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As a volume with international contributors from a range of scholarly backgrounds and traditions, dates are presented here using a variety of acronyms. These terms include BP (years before the present) and BC/AD (before Christ / year of our Lord). BCE/CE (before common era/common era) equates to the BC/AD but in a non-religious sense. Calibrated radiocarbon dates are cal BP.

Terms

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We deliberately capitalize the term Indigenous in reference to the first peoples of Australia (Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders) but not when referring to first peoples more broadly and outside Australia, following both Australian and international conventions. Secondly, the term Traditional Owners is also used in an Australian context to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Third, the terms paintings and pictographs are used interchangeably, as are engravings, and petroglyphs, and carvings to reflect the different scholarly traditions and backgrounds of our contributors.

Figures

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The print edition of this book contains color plates of select figures, and callouts in the text will cross-reference both these plates and their black-and-white versions.

Relating to Rock Art

in the Contemporary World

Chapter 1

The Place of Rock Art in the Contemporary World

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PAUL S.C. TAÇON AND LIAM M. BRADY

Images that have been painted, drawn, stenciled, engraved, or printed on rocky surfaces around the world have captured the interest and fascination of scholars and the public alike for many generations. As the world’s most widespread and longest-lasting form of visual heritage, these images are powerful communication tools that have been used to tell stories, convey experience, enhance memory, and record history. Rock art evokes strong aesthetic responses, as well as wonderment, reflection, and contemplation. It was made for many reasons, for instance, to reflect knowledge, spirituality, political viewpoints, conflict, transition, emotion, awareness of the environment, encounter and identity, among other things. Creativity and imagination are central to rock art production, but the placement of imagery in enduring landscapes allowed humans to convey information beyond one-on-one encounters between individuals. Human experience and knowledge could now be passed on between many individuals, varied groups, and even generations over time. This symbolic storage revolutionized the way people shared information, leading to full-blown modern human culture as we know it, and eventually to great art traditions, books, television, and iPads.

Although rock art is an archive of deep-time human experience, it also is an unparalleled body of imagery that is very relevant to the contemporary world. Across the globe indigenous and non-indigenous people continue to express relationships to rock art in many different ways. A strong feature of these relationships involves rock art as an aspect of individual, group, national, and even broad human identity. For instance, in January 2015 National Geographic—the world’s most read geographic magazine—featured rock art from the incredible cave of Chauvet, southern France, on its cover. In bold letters superimposed on top of a photograph of rock paintings of horses and rhinos screamed the heading the first artists. A second line of text below proudly stated, How creativity made us human. This cover story occupies twenty-five pages of the January issue and includes a massive four-page centerfold (see Walter 2015). In other words, in the contemporary world of 2015 rock art is still appealing, exciting, and interesting. But why is this so? Why and how is rock art, a practice usually associated with the ancient human past by archaeologists, important in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing digital world? This is the key question that is addressed in the pages and chapters that follow.

Exploring Our Rock Art Legacy

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The majority of questions posed by scholars and the public regarding rock art—long considered an artifact relegated to the archaeological realm and reflective of activities from the past—concern their antiquity, meaning, symbolism and the role they played in the societies that created them. Indeed, for decades, the field of rock art studies has most often been associated in one way or another with archaeology (Bahn 2010, 7). One only has to peruse the voluminous literature (academic and popular) concerning rock art to discover how many of the common themes that drive research are, for the most part, fixated on using rock art to explore various aspects of the past: dating motifs, identifying symbolic markers of past interregional interaction, identification of territorial boundary markers, relationships with past landscapes, and so on. There is no denying that these archaeological-based research projects have helped change our understanding of the past. A recent example of an archaeological-related discovery is the dating of rock paintings of animals from Sulawesi, Indonesia, to over 36,000 years ago and human hand stencils to at least 40,000 years, dramatically altering our view of human history and challenging long-held theories on the development of both art and modern humans (Aubert et al. 2014; Taçon et al. 2014). Yet, for all the attention devoted to interrogating the past function and symbolism of rock art, a major challenge facing researchers today is how to approach and engage with rock art as a contemporary phenomenon (see also Morphy 2012). More specifically, how can researchers develop a greater awareness and understanding of the present-day significance, meaning, and relevance of rock art to both indigenous and non-indigenous communities?

Thus, our focus with this volume is to challenge researchers to take rock art discourse beyond being a subject of archaeological investigation. Can rock art be considered as something more than an artifact largely thought of as being reflective of past activities or lifeways? How can we begin to think and learn about rock art’s relevance to people today (indigenous and non-indigenous) in various geographical and cultural settings? How is rock art part of living culture?

By bringing together leading scholars from around the globe to address these questions, this volume is the first to provide an in-depth, interdisciplinary analysis of contemporary perceptions of rock art, and it challenges the traditional archaeological framework where rock art is so often located. It examines the myriad ways that symbolism, meaning, and significance in rock art is being (re)negotiated in various geographical and cultural settings today. As one of the most visually striking forms of material culture embedded in landscapes, rock art captivates and evokes multiple responses from diverse groups of people including indigenous peoples, government, tourist operators, researchers, and the general public. Our vision for this volume is to shift the focus of rock art discourse from one that is primarily archaeologically driven to one that considers how rock art, as a distinctive symbolic marker surviving in the modern world, is used to negotiate contemporary relationships between people, places, and identity. By engaging with these questions and issues, contributors to this volume provide unparalleled insights into the contemporary significance and value of one of the most highly recognizable and enigmatic forms of visual heritage.

The volume has three interrelated themes that run through all of the papers but are expressed by authors in different ways. The first theme, symbols in the contemporary world, explores the symbolic aspects of rock art in various contemporary contexts (e.g., the role of rock art in post-Apartheid South Africa [chapter 7], and painted images as sources of inspiration for western Arnhem Land bark painters [chapter 13]). The second theme, interactions and encounters, examines the various ways that knowledge about rock art is being negotiated and produced in contemporary settings as well as how people are engaging and interacting with rock art (e.g., through media, museums, school textbooks [e.g., chapter 11, and chapter 12]). The third theme, managing value, addresses the changing ways that people (indigenous and non-indigenous) are engaging with and managing rock art at local levels, from small-scale sites cared for by indigenous peoples (chapter 4, chapter 9) to rock art landscapes managed by states or nations, such as World Heritage listed locales (e.g., chapter 10, and chapter 11; and see Sanz 2012). All chapters are also about reinterpretation, renegotiation, and the contemporary use of rock art for conveying important cultural messages.

From Archaeological to Contemporary Relationships with Rock Art

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The most common question asked that perpetuates the archaeological discourse around rock art concerns its age, while the second most common question focuses on meaning (Taçon 1999, 95). Usually, both researchers and the general public seek exact dates and precise meaning, but rarely is this achievable. Assigning an exact age or age estimation to an image immediately catapults it (and the viewer) into a Western-defined temporal dimension where it becomes an old object, something prehistoric, or otherwise. Likewise, questions of meaning come back to the past: What were the artists’ intentions when inscribing a rocky surface with a picture? Is there a single meaning that we, hundreds or thousands of years distant from the minds of the artists who created these images, can accurately read? But what if a meaning for an image cannot be identified or recovered? Speculation, hypothesizing, gazing, and guessing have all been employed in the search for meaning, but does it matter if the original intention(s) remain elusive? Does this diminish the value or importance of rock art? Does rock art research become unscientific if meaning is pursued? Can rock art be important in other ways that are perhaps linked to present-day concerns?

Our intention with this volume is to demonstrate that there are indeed many ways that people see, respond, and react to rock art in different cultural contexts, and there is nothing wrong with this even though it may disappoint or even disturb some conservative archaeologists and other science-focused researchers. Regardless of whether the original intention(s) are known or recoverable, rock art continues to be an important symbolic marker that is used and engaged with in multiple ways (e.g., to unite people, to reaffirm/reinforce identity, to transmit cultural knowledge, as inspiration for modern and contemporary artists). Relationships to this distinctive form of heritage are still visible and are being reinforced or created in new and unique ways, and new messages about the importance and relevance of rock art are being transmitted in different media—all of which signal a dynamic place for rock art in the contemporary world.

There are many different types of relationships that people have to rock art and rock art sites in the contemporary world, some similar to those of different periods of the past, some quite modern and different. And across the globe, the nature of knowledge pertaining to rock art differs considerably. For instance, in some indigenous contexts, such as in the American Southwest and many parts of northern Australia, there remains a strong knowledge base among indigenous peoples about the meaning and symbolism of some or many motifs, and perhaps their relationship to a site or broader landscape. These types of relationships are the ones that researchers and the public alike are perhaps most familiar with. Some examples include M. Jane Young’s (1985, 1988) work among the Zuni, where she explored contemporary Zuni perceptions of engravings by noting how her Zuni instructors considered the images as signs of the ancestors (see also Dongoske and Hays-Gilpin, chapter 6); and in Australia, the detailed investigations of the painted Wandjina Ancestral Beings in northwestern Western Australia that explored, among other things, the role of motifs in cosmology and identity (e.g., Blundell and Woolagoodja 2005, 2012; Crawford 1968; Layton 1992) (see also e.g., Keyser et al. 2006; Taçon 1992). While these examples highlight the symbolism and meaning of the art at a certain point in time—the ethnographic present—it should be remembered that relationships indigenous people have to rock art are also dynamic and constantly undergoing renegotiation through time, a point that Brady and Bradley explore in chapter 5 on Yanyuwa rock art from northern Australia’s southwest Gulf of Carpentaria region.

Conversely, in places where insider knowledge about the original intentions behind the creation, meaning, and symbolism of rock art are absent/non-existent or difficult to access, relationships are very different from those described above (note: this can be in both indigenous and non-indigenous contexts). In these instances, relationships to rock art are constructed around different factors that are, for the most part, not related to the original intentions behind the artworks. Indeed, the meaning making or significance making process takes on different qualities that are rarely explored. While some may tend to shy away from interrogating the nature of these relationships, we believe they are critical for understanding how and why this form of cultural heritage remains relevant today. For example, Catherine Namono (chapter 2) explores the reinterpretation of the Nyero 2 rock art site in Uganda by people who have moved into the area as a result of different circumstances (resettlement, etc.) but draw on their own experience and knowledge to make sense of the rock art here. It is precisely the way that people engage and interact with rock art sites that is particularly intriguing—there is no right way or wrong way of doing this, but understanding the how and why of this engagement and interaction will help us to better comprehend the role this distinctive form of cultural heritage plays in people’s lives today.

The relationship between rock art, identity, and symbolism is particularly important to consider given its ability to highlight processes linked to the contemporary uses and functions of rock art. Recent research by Liam Brady (2009) and Taçon et al. (2008) has shown how Indigenous Australian communities are using new rock art discoveries in the Torres Strait islands (far north Queensland) and the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (New South Wales) to symbolically reaffirm their distinctive social identities and challenge notions that they have lost traditional knowledge as a result of the colonial experience.

For example, beginning in the early 1900s, the Kaurareg Aboriginal people were forcibly removed from their homelands in the southwestern Torres Strait because of government removal policies and only began returning from the mid-1940s onward. Today, Kaurareg are collaborating with researchers to use archaeology, and more specifically rock art, to highlight their distinctive local and Aboriginal identity as opposed to the Islander identity other local groups in Torres Strait use to self-identify. One way of doing this has been through the identification of distinctive motifs in the rock art record such as the baidamalbaba—a unique shark-tooth studded weapon used only by Kaurareg people and found painted in a rock shelter on Muralag, their home island. The Kaurareg are also using their rock art to try to establish broader links with Cape York Aboriginal groups on the Australian mainland with whom they have historically had strong social and cultural links (Brady 2009). In this way, rock art plays an active symbolic role in Kaurareg’s pursuit of specific goals or outcomes related to their identity.

The same is true for Darug, Darkinjung, Wiradjuri, and other Aboriginal groups near Sydney (Taçon et al. 2008), with strong relationships between stories, rock art, and environment renegotiated and rearticulated with each new rock art discovery. Similarly, Dongoske and Hays-Gilpin (chapter 6) illustrate the strong relationships between rock art, animals (fish), the environment, and Zuni identity. For the Zuni, rock art is multivocal and is used today to express their relationships to their ancestors and migration story from the Grand Canyon.

In other contexts, the relationship between rock art, identity, and symbolism is much broader. In Australia’s Northern Territory, rock art appears in the coat of arms (along with other Aboriginal symbols) in the form of a female X-ray figure (a style of painting where the internal organs of a motif such as an animal or human are depicted) based on one found at the Anbangbang rock shelter (Nourlangie Rock) in Kakadu National Park (Figure 1.1; and see Taçon and Chippindale 2001). As well, the Australian bicentennial ten-dollar banknote features a more faithful depiction of another female X-ray figure from the same panel, along with hand stencils (Figure 1.2). Both X-ray figures are based on rock paintings by Najombolmi, the last great and prolific rock painter of western Arnhem Land, who practiced until his death in the mid-1960s. These occurrences in new media signal that Aboriginal identity, as seen through rock art and other symbolic markers, is an important aspect of the Northern Territory’s broader identity today, as well as Australia’s. Taking this relationship further, Benjamin Smith’s analysis of the range of contemporary uses of rock art within its historical contexts (banknotes, coat of arms, etc.) in South Africa highlights its role in promoting a new post-Apartheid identity (chapter 7). In a similar sense, Taçon’s chapter (11) explores the relationship of rock art to national identity, and its value in present-day society by comparing and contrasting three countries—Australia, China, and Malaysia—with a focus on how it is researched, managed, protected, and promoted.

Figure 1.1. Northern Territory (Australia) coat of arms.

Figure 1.2. Australian bicentennial banknote featuring a female X-ray figure. (Photograph: Paul S.C. Taçon.)

Brady and Bradley’s (chapter 5) exploration of Yanyuwa rock art in Australia’s Gulf Country illustrates how meaning is negotiated through existing relationships to country (for a more in-depth explanation of this term in an Australian context see chapter 5) and kin, as well as knowledge of recent events. Here, meaning is context driven, and there is no one single explanation that can be provided for the art. Similarly, in Uganda (chapter 2), images are constantly reinterpreted, and new contexts of meaning and reinterpretation emerge through new people to rock art regions. However, all of these reinterpretations are grounded in the cultural and individual experiences of those making meaning of rock art. In this sense, sites (locations in landscapes) are as important as images, as Noel Tan and Taçon (2014) have shown for many parts of Southeast Asia. In countries such as Thailand (Tan et al., chapter 3) there is integration of rock art sites into new religious sites, along with the coexistence or reuse of sites or of place markers in the environment.

Eisenberg-Degen, Nash, and Schmidt (chapter 8) argue similarly but for the Bedouin of the Negev Desert in southern Israel. Today Bedouin rock art is seen as a symbolic marker of land and identity but is also now being used in new urban contexts, most notably through graffiti on walls, trash cans, and doors, etc. Despite this change in medium, memories and relationships to these distinctive symbols endure and are intimately connected to Bedouin identity today.

Many chapters explore the challenges facing rock art today. For example, in Australia’s Cape York Peninsula, Cole (chapter 9) describes how the Laura Rangers and Traditional Owners are dealing with mining incursions, tourism, land tensions, and differing views on ownership that threaten the long-term survival of these remarkable rock art galleries. Norder and Zawadzka (chapter 4) discuss similar challenges for cultural tourism, development, and management in the midcontinent of the United States and a major site in southern Ontario, Canada. As with Australia’s Cape York, there is tension between dealing with different stakeholders, managing Indigenous relationships and ownership of sites with tourism and the meaning about what the places teach us.

Although there are no direct indigenous descendants of the artists who made rock art in Spain, there are local people with vested interests in the rock art located near where they live. In this European context, Domingo and Bea (chapter 10) discuss the challenges they have faced while communicating the values of the World Heritage listed Levantine rock art sites on the eastern or Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain to a range of stakeholders, including local landowners whose views of the sites may be very different from those of tourists and government administrators. Their experiences highlight the complexities linked to the management and protection of sites as well as the communication of knowledge about their relevance. Differing perspectives on rock art research, promotion and management, between researchers, levels of government and local people, illustrate both the passion for and relevance of these rock art sites in the contemporary world.

And in many parts of the world modern and contemporary artists are also passionate about rock art, drawing inspiration from rock art images, sites, and landscapes. This includes both non-indigenous contemporary artists (Frederick, chapter 14; Taçon, chapter 11) and indigenous, such as bark painters of Australia’s Arnhem Land (Taylor, chapter 13). But it is not just through new imagery and artistic creations that rock art is invested with renewed, renegotiated meaning; it is also through text. In chapter 12, Fiore, Ocampo, and Acevedo outline the role of education in formulating knowledge about rock art sites by analyzing the type of knowledge that has been presented in school curriculum and textbooks to see how it affects the way people perceive rock art.

Conclusion

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This volume was purposely designed to be interdisciplinary in nature and attractive to both academics and the general public. We challenged authors to think about how to engage with the question of the contemporary relevance of rock art, and the contributions that follow represent only a tiny fraction of the possibilities available to researchers. For those who work with indigenous communities, this may seem to be an easier request but, in fact, it is quite a complex issue even in these situations. By taking rock art out of its archaeologically oriented framework and inserting it into discussions that transcend disciplinary boundaries, the intention has been to increase its accessibility to a broad new audience. Academics from archaeological, anthropological, historical, art history, and visual studies backgrounds will undoubtedly be interested in the theoretical approaches articulated here as well as the global case studies presented. For instance, rock art was purposely included in Jaynie Anderson’s 2011 Cambridge Companion to Australian Art (Anderson 2011) so as to better introduce the subject to art historians, and we have taken this a major step further to show that rock art has relevance to many disciplines and all branches of the humanities. Rock art also has a major role in contemporary cultural discourse. For the general public, the visual and aesthetic nature of rock art, and the often rugged landscapes it is located in, appeals because visiting places with rock art allows for temporary escape from the chaos of the contemporary world.

By disconnecting rock art from an archaeological or past narrative and repositioning it into a present one, this volume shows that rock art is just as important today as it has been in the archaeological past. But what of the future? Will the contemporary world learn to better value rock art so that its cultural richness of varied and shifting meaning and symbolism in relation to specific places survives into the future? Or will the pressures of development, tourism, and environmental change soon rob us of this valuable and vulnerable part of our global human heritage? Only time will tell, but we hope this volume makes a special contribution toward both understanding and protecting rock art. As western Arnhem Land Traditional Owner Big Bill Neidjie (also known as Kakadu Man) was fond of saying at rock art sites: If you miss this story, well bad luck. This one, now, history, history book: good for you (see Taçon 1992, 11). North Queensland Wakaman elder Carol Chong elaborates further: Rock art is our record and our keeping place of our knowledge, lore and culture. Rock art is a powerful link between our country, our past and our people, and we want to protect and preserve it for future generations (pers. comm., 2013).

References

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