Communicating through rock art

An ethnoarchaeological perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID20081982
AuthorsDomingo Inès (Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats), Sally K May (0000-0003-2805-023X), May Sally, Smith Claire (Australian National University)
Year2016
Pages9-26
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueSignes et communication dans les civilisations de la parole (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherÉditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/books.cths.1706
OpenAlexW2949970416
ISBN9782735508709
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited8

In many past and present preliterate societies rock art has been used as a means of communications to convey ideas, believes, ancestral knowledge, traditions, identities, rules, stories, social behaviour or laws. Through an ethno-archaeological perspective based on Arnhem Land rock art, we explore the different functions of the art, how cultural information is embedded in the imagery and more importantly, to what extent the information can be decoded by an uninitiated or an outsider to the culture producing the art. The results of this research provide insight into the complexities of analysing and interpreting this form of non-verbal communication including the extent to which archaeologists can decode cultural information hidden in past forms of art

Archaeology · Art · Rock art · Sociology · Visual arts · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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