Theme:
1. The Material Record: Current Trends and Future Directions
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Debating Best Practices and New Approaches for a Sustainable Study of Rock Art
Content:
Over the past ten years, there has been a significant increase in scientific approaches to study rock art. This has led to an improved understanding of this critical area of cultural heritage, which provides a glimpse into the ancient visual and symbolic world of ancient humans. Thanks to the progressive adoption of advanced digital imaging methods and physicochemical and isotopic analysis, the role of rock art in archaeological and anthropological debates is changing. However, there is still a dearth of commonly accepted experimental protocols for in-field campaigns, alongside a lack of reference material databases to facilitate data interpretation. Thus, many challenges persist regarding data recording, documentation, dating, and reconstruction of production processes, even due to the endangered state of preservation of engraved and painted motifs and the supporting rocks. Critical in this sense is the need to perform accurate analyses, including physicochemical and microbiological ones, with a sustainable approach guaranteeing the accuracy of results and preservation of rock art.
The main objective of this session is to bring together researchers exploring innovative methods, including non-invasive and micro-invasive techniques, for studying any form of rock art. This includes methods like photogrammetry, microtopography, portable spectroscopic techniques, multi- and hyper-spectral imaging, metagenomics, proteomics, and Artificial Intelligence algorithms for data processing. The session is open to scholars worldwide interested in the field with no restrictions of time or place. The focus will be to identify and assess novel and/or improved technologies, tools, and techniques offering new insights into motif identification, techno-functional analysis, and physicochemical and biochemical characterization. The session will also provide an opportunity to discuss protocols and best practices for a reliable and sustainable study of rock art.
Keywords:
rock art, digital imaging, non-invasive methods, physicochemical analyses, metagenomics and proteomics, Artificial Intelligence
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
yes
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Marina Gallinaro (Italy) 1
Co-organisers:
Simon Radchenko (Norway) 2
Adelphine Bonneau (Canada) 3
Costanza Cucci (Italy) 4
Ines Domingo Sanz (Spain) 5
Affiliations:
1. Dipartimento Scienze dell'Antichità
2. University of Stavanger
3. Department of Chemistry, University of Sherbrooke
4. IIstituto di Fisica Applicata N. Carrara Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR-IFAC) Firenze
5. ICREA, Secció de Prehistòria i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona
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