Ana M. S. Bettencourt - Weapons and Tools in Rock Art: A World Perspective

WEAPONS AND TOOLS IN ROCK ART

A WORLD PERSPECTIVE

Edited by

ANA M.S. BETTENCOURT, MANUEL SANTOS-ESTVEZ

AND HUGO ALUAI SAMPAIO

Published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by

OXBOW BOOKS

The Old Music Hall, 106108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JE

and in the United States by

OXBOW BOOKS

1950 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083

Oxbow Books and the individual contributors 2021

Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-490-7

Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-491-4 (epub)

Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-492-1 (kindle)

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020951501

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Front cover: (top) Detail of San hunter figure, Zaamenkomst panel (image courtesy of Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa); (bottom) Jebibina (Jebel Ousselat): warrior armed with shield and spear (photo: J. Ben Nasr image after treatment DStretch-ac_yds).

R ODRIGO DE B ALBN -B EHRMANN

Area de Prehistoria.

Universidad de Alcal de Henares

Spain

M ARA S USANA B ARRAU

National University Toribio Rodrguez de Mendoza

Amazonas

Peru

R OSA B ARROSO B ERMEJO

Area de Prehistoria

Universidad de Alcal de Henares

Spain

M ANUEL B EA

Area de Prehistoria,

Dpt. Ciencias de la Antigedad

Universidad de Zaragoza & IPH

Spain

J AFAR B EN N ASR

Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts and

Humanities

University of Kairouan

Tunisia

U LF B ERTILSSON

Swedish Rock Art Research Archives

University of Gothenburg

Sweden

A NA M.S. B ETTENCOURT

Department of History, Institute of Social Sciences

University of Minho, Braga

Portugal

A LESSANDRA B RAVIN

Centre National du Patrimoine Rupestre, CNPR

Agadir,

Morocco

P RIMITIVA B UENO -R AMREZ

Area de Prehistoria

Universidad de Alcal de Henares

Spain

P ATRICIA D OBREZ

Australian National University and Australian Catholic

University

(retired from sessional teaching)

Canberra

Australia

I NS D OMINGO

Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA)

Departament dHistria i Arqueologia

Facultat de Geografia i Histria

Universitat de Barcelona

Spain

A UGUSTIN F.C. H OLL /G AO CHANG

Department of Anthropology and Ethnology

School of Sociology and Anthropology

Africa Research Center, Belt and Road Research

Institute

Xiamen University

Xiamen, Fujian

P.R. China

S HEMSI K RASNIQI

Department of Sociology

Faculty of Philosophy

University of Prishtina

Republic of Kosovo

S TELLA P ILAVAKI

Independent researcher

Greece

H UGO a. S AMPAIO

Landscapes, Heritage and Territory Laboratory (Lab2PT)

University of Minho, Braga

Portugal

M ANUEL S ANTOS -E STVEZ

Landscapes, Heritage and Territory Laboratory (Lab 2PT)

University of Minho, Braga

Portugal

D ANIEL S EUART C ASTILLO B ENTEZ

rea de Investigacin de Arqueologa Instituto de Investigacin de Arqueologa y Antropologa

Kuelap INAAK

National University Toribio Rodrguez de Mendoza

Chachapoyas Amazonas

Peru

B RENT S INCLAIR

Rock Art Research Institute,

University of the Witwatersrand

Johannesburg

South Africa

D AVID S. W HITLEY

ASM Affiliates, Inc., Tehachapi

California

United States of America

The depiction of weapons and tools in rock art is a universal phenomenon found throughout the five continents, covering different chronological periods and cultural backgrounds. It reveals the different perceptions of human groups, from hunter-gatherer communities to state-run societies. It should be viewed as a complex phenomenon, where multiple interpretative approaches are more than comprehensible and acceptable.

Rock art may include engraved or painted representations and is found both in open-air rocky surfaces and rock shelters. In either case, the sites mark different places on a wider landscape.

Identification and iconographic description of rock art sites is relatively easy, through the use of adequate tools and the latest technological improvements ( e.g . photogrammetry, 3D models or drones). However, their interpretation is extremely complicated and highly subjective.

The exercise of interpreting rock art sites, and the depiction of weapons and tools in particular, implies a suitable theoretical background, competences and methodological approaches, that vary according to the different lines of research or even in function of the available data. However, all these frameworks are important in order to build a wider and multivariate body of knowledge. These practices seek to explain why past societies decided to represent their ideological universe in rock outcrops and rocky shelters, and, in many cases, how and why they reused and celebrated, or even obliterated, such places, during more or less long diachronic periods.

Recent expansion in research and the availability of data on this topic, spanning different areas, including the use of different study methodologies to identify, record, analyse and interpret these places, and the need for conjoined discussion of this topic by specialists with different backgrounds, inspired the authors to organise and implement a session at the 20th International Rock Art Congress IFRAO 2018 , entitled Representations of Weapons and Tools in Prehistoric, Protohistoric and Traditional Communities: an Approach by Archaeology and Anthropology , held on 29 August 2018, in Darfo Boario Terme, Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. The session included presentations by researchers from different parts of the world: Australia, Greece, Israel, Portugal, Spain and South Africa. It compiled different perspectives, theoretical approaches, and scales of analysis (areas, regions, communities, or even specific case studies) about the same study object: weapons and tools.

On the basis of the discussions that arose during the session, participants were challenged by the organisers to publish their works with regard to broader geographical approaches and methodologies. This book results from their efforts and different contributions.

The book is divided into 14 chapters, resulting from the presentations made in the above-mentioned session and also invitations addressed to researchers from various parts of the world from Europe to Australia, including Africa and North and South America. The absence of contributions from Asia is the result of social constraints that lie beyond the responsibility of the editors.