Rock Art: Human history etched in stone

Cueva de las Manos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Argentina. Image courtesy of ExploreRockart.

For over thousands of years, humans all over the world have been creating and imprinting images across the landscape. Each one of those figures, skillfully carved or painted over timeless rock surfaces, provides a window into the minds and lives of those who roamed this planet long before we did. Today, researchers around the globe are going to great lengths in order to decipher and learn as much as possible about this amazing cultural heritage known as rock art.

But what exactly is it?

The term “rock art” encompasses all markings made intentionally by humans on rock surfaces. These are made by either adding pigments onto the rock- and are thereby referred to as paintings or pictograms, or by extracting parts of the darker weathered surface of the rock, in which case they’re called engravings or petroglyphs.

The earliest evidence of rock art to date is around 65 000 years old. But this is not just a practice from a distant past, it has been continued millennia after millennia, up until historical times, and in some places such as northern Australia, rock art sites still play an important part in the lives of indigenous populations.

It is very tempting to look at these representations and automatically attribute meanings and explanations to each drawing - it is hard not to. Figures and symbols trigger associations in our minds based on our experience in the world, and we can’t help but project them onto the rocky canvas. However, this can be a tricky endeavour, because the way we see things today is not necessarily (and in fact not very likely) the same as it was for our ancestors. Why? Because we are immersed in different belief systems, different relationships with nature, and with each other, different priorities, problems and motivations. So we must be cautious and first pay close attention to what this amazing cultural heritage can tell us before stamping an interpretation onto it. Otherwise, we end up imposing our stories and worldview onto the images, instead of getting closer to understanding the actual humans that made them. By paying attention to what is in fact being represented, where these images are chosen to be executed and how these were made, researchers are able to uncover piles of information about these groups and their lives, and sometimes even their beliefs.

Not every aspect of life has been left immortalized in stone. It’s a clear selection of the world, either physical or spiritual, that is being chosen. By identifying what is and what is not being depicted, we can begin to understand a bit more about the minds of the people behind the illustrations. Are they representing the animals that provided their main source of food or the ones they steered away from or feared? Are they painting group activities or just certain prestigious individuals? Strictly human figures or animal-human hybrids? Are there artifacts represented? Weapons, body ornaments, instruments, and if so, which ones?

There is not a common explanation behind all of the world’s rock art. Each society had its particularities and motivations. Some representations could’ve been part of religious rituals or shamanic practices, while others placed as territorial markers, or even as a way of imparting knowledge onto younger generations. We might not be able to figure everything out, but the best way to start understanding what rock art meant to these people is by integrating and comparing what is being drawn with the rest of the archaeological information on these groups.We can also learn a lot by looking at the placement of the drawings in the landscape. One of the most special things about rock art, is that unlike portable artifacts left behind, these representations are found exactly where they were originally intended to be.

Objects can travel, move places, change hands - sometimes by human actions, other times by natural factors. But not rock art. Someone stood in that particular place, and intentionally left their mark in that spot. Therefore, we have a special chance to learn a lot about the relationship between past humans and artistic expression by paying attention to where the images are located. In Europe, for example, most palaeolithic rock art sites are found in hidden places, deep within dark complex cave systems, in some cases very hard to access and with no natural light whatsoever. This rock art was not expected to be seen by everyone, and most likely only a few actually took part in the making and admiring of these paintings.

There is also a lot to learn about the process in which these images were created. Let’s take paintings for example. The pigments used are often comprised of a colouring substance (usually a mineral such as iron oxides -hematite for red, goethite for yellow, etc) mixed up with a binder (such as sap, animal fat, or gypsum) which provides the viscosity needed to apply the colours onto the rock. Chemical analysis of the paintings can tell us what recipe was used in order to create such images. With that information we can also start questioning, for example, how far did they need to travel to obtain resources. It is also possible to tell when a drawing required skilled craftsmanship to illustrate or almost no prior training at all; also, if instruments were needed to apply a pigment or if hands were used. By studying the process in which these representations were made we can assess the effort, time and dedication implied in such endeavours, and thus the importance given by past humans to this activity.

Creating visual images and etching them in stone is not a physiological requirement, it is not a matter of primal survival, yet this practice was carried for so long and for so many, and in incredibly varied environments and social dynamics, that we can’t ignore the relevance the visual expression has had for humanity throughout history.

Rock art allows us to connect not with a distant hominin, but with another human. If we listen carefully to what the past has to say, without judging or imposing, one might be lucky enough to feel the presence of the artist looking back from across the brush strokes.

Images credits:

ExploreRockart
https://www.patagonia.com.ar/Aluminé/159E_Rock+Paintings+a+great+heritage.html
ExploreRockart

Rock Art: Human history etched in stone

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