Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde

Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde

On the Chronology and Use of Hunter-Gatherer: Rock Painting Sites in Northern Europe

Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde

Joakim Goldhahn [+-]
The University of Western Australia
Professor Joakim Goldhahn holds the Kimberley Foundation Ian Potter Chair in Rock Art at The University of Western Australia. His research interests include rock art traditions in Australia and northern Europe, the European Bronze Age, and research themes such as human-animal relations, landscape perceptions, death and burial rituals, ritual specialists, war and warriorhood, cultural memory praxis, archaeological theory in praxis, the history of archaeology, and more. His latest publications include ‘Sagaholm – North European Bronze Age Rock Art and Burial Ritual’ (Oxbow 2016), ‘Birds in the Bronze Age – A North European Perspective’ (Cambridge University Press 2019), and the guest editorial issues ‘Contact Rock Art’ for Australian Archaeology (2019, edited with Dr Sally K. May), ‘Rock Art Worldlings’ for Time and Mind (2019), and ‘Human-Animal Relationships from a Long-Term Perspective’ for Current Swedish Archaeology (2020, edited with Professor Kristin Armstrong Oma).

Description

This article discusses the chronology and use of hunter-gatherer rock painting sites in northern Europe from an archaeological perspective, using formal methods. Until recently, the dating of different rock painting traditions has been based on comparative analyses of style and shore displacement data from various areas in northern Europe. During the last few decades, however, several rock painting sites have been excavated. Each of these excavations has produced a variety of answers and questions, but no attempt has yet been made to analyse and interpret the entire assemblages. This article aims to initiate such a discussion. As such, it focuses on available radiocarbon analyses, the deposition of organic material, and material culture. It is argued that there are several distinct patterns in the analysed material, defined here as four time horizons, stretching from ca. 4400 BC to the early modern period. It is suggested that there is more than one way to interpret these horizons.

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Citation

Goldhahn, Joakim. On the Chronology and Use of Hunter-Gatherer: Rock Painting Sites in Northern Europe. Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 7-42 Apr 2021. ISBN 9781781795606. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=31913. Date accessed: 10 Dec 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.31913. Apr 2021

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