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A new and unusual corpus of rock art, labelled as Type 3 imagery, forms the focal point of this dissertation. Type 3 art is found at twelve known sites within the region once known and Nomansland, in the south-eastern mountains of South Africa. It is significant because it differs from the three major southern African rock art traditions, those of San, Khoekhoen and Bantu-speakers in terms of subject matter, manner of depiction and use of pigment. The presence of Type 3 art in Nomansland raises questions about its authorship, its relationship to the other rock art of the area, and the reasons for its production and consumption, which I consider in this dissertation. I argue that this corpus of art was made in the late nineteenth century, probably by a small, multi-ethnic stock raiding band. I consider the inception of this rock painting tradition, and the role of the art in the contestation and maintenance of identity.

The aim of the essay is to investigate rock art in Sweden as a cultural heritage. The material in the essay is rock art. The method is a literature study that compiles and analyzes other researchers’ views of the material (rock art). I limit the essay to rock art in Sweden. The essay has 3 questions: 1 How can cultural heritage be used? 2 Which laws protect rock art? 2 Are there archaeological traces of the fact that the rock art continued to have significance after no new rock art were created? The theoretical point of departure of the essay is historical perspective. The physical traces of the past are seen as different functions and have different meanings for different periods of time. The result of the essay is that rock art are seen as memories preserved in physical form (in books) and the actual ritual to punch the pictures or that performing rituals are seen as bodily preserved memory for example memorial ceremonies. The Heritage Board of Sweden works with the protection of culture, with knowledge dissemination and knowledge building, conservation and care authority work and archaeological assignments. County Administrative Board is responsible for protecting, informing and protecting the regional cultural environment as building and settlements, ancient objects and churches, cultural landscapes and industrial history sites. The Heritage Law determines the protection of valuable buildings such as ancient monuments, ancient finds, church cultural monuments and some cultural objects. The rock art form Stone Age may have affected where new rock art were placed under the Bronze Age, which affected the location of Rockies during the younger Bronze Age. Recent visits created a movement pattern in the landscape that may have lived and structured peoples activities also after the tradition of making new pictures had ceased. Rock art premises may have affected where new rock art were placed during the early Bronze Age, which affected the location of Rockies during the younger Bronze Age.

Hydrated amorphous silicon dioxide (Si02.nH-,O), or opal-A, is deposited naturally from seepage and runoff water as white or brown rock surface coatings, called 'skins', that often partly obscure rock paintings and engravings, but occasionally, a thin translucent silica skin can form a protective film over rock art. White lustrous silica skins, less than 1 mm thick, occur where seepage water regularly flows from bedding and joint planes, whereas much thinner brown skins form on the sides of boulders and cliffs where runoff water periodically flows. To find the degree of silica skin variability and to determine how climate and rock type affect the properties of silica skins I collected samples at seven Australian and two Canadian rock painting sites that were located in temperate, tropical and sub-arctic regions. The skins had developed on sandstone, quartzite, schist, gneiss and migmatite. I studied the effects of the skins on rock art stability, documented their compositions, textures and structures to establish their common properties, and searched for a way to date the silica which would provide an indication of the minimum age of the underlying art. 1 also made replication experiments to determine factors that influence the properties of artificial silica skins and the rates of their precipitation so that I could propose a mechanism for natural silica skin formation, and ascertain whether an artificial silica skin could act as a protective rock art conservation measure. I was able to subdivide the analysed samples into silica skin Types I, II and III on the basis of their colour (translucent, white or brown), composition (SiO2, Al2O3 and absorbed water contents) and texture (smooth vitreous or vermiform). I propose that silica skins initially begin to form on stable rock surfaces by a process involving a combination of evaporation- and ionic-induced polymerisation of silicic acid in seepage and runoff water. Condensation reactions, random clustering of small silica spheres and deposition of the resulting aggregates eventually produce a thin surficial silica film. Deposition of silica often traps micro-organisms that live in the damp seepage and runoff water zones, and these fossils in finely laminated skins enable the radiocarbon dating of silica deposition, and therefore the dating of rock paintings enclosed by silica. Micro-excavation of silica layers associated with rock art combined with accelerator mass spectrometry gave preliminary radiocarbon determinations that were either consistent with, or contradicted, prevailing opinions about the antiquity of the rock art at selected sites. Experiments using a laser technique for combusting fossilised microorganisms in finely laminated skins were unable to generate sufficient carbon for dating. Catalysis of a mixture of equal proportions of methyl-trimethoxy silane and water produces a translucent stable film that may be suitable as a consolidant, whereas other artificial silica skins made from silica glass and tetra-ethoxy silane develop microfractures on drying, and these are unsuitable as rock art consolidants.

This thesis examines six prominent Pecos River Style rock art anthropomorph attributes to determine if they are found in limited geographic districts of the Lower Pecos Region. Both Boyd (2003) and Turpin (2004) have suggested that spatially-segregated motif distributions exist in the rock art and that these patterns are important in understanding regional prehistoric hunter-gatherer lifeways during the Archaic Period. This study verifies that the feather hip cluster motif is geographically limited, identified only in the neighboring Seminole and Painted Canyon systems. As part of this spatial analysis, the previously undocumented principle of intersite stylistic traditions is introduced. Possible explanations for these anthropomorph attributes are also discussed. Finally, structural analyses of the six attributes are presented.

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This thesis examines six prominent Pecos River Style rock art anthropomorph attributes to determine if they are found in limited geographic districts of the Lower Pecos Region. Both Boyd (2003) and Turpin (2004) have suggested that spatially-segregated motif distributions exist in the rock art and that these patterns are important in understanding regional prehistoric hunter-gatherer lifeways during the Archaic Period. This study verifies that the feather hip cluster motif is geographically limited, identified only in the neighboring Seminole and Painted Canyon systems. As part of this spatial analysis, the previously undocumented principle of intersite stylistic traditions is introduced. Possible explanations for these anthropomorph attributes are also discussed. Finally, structural analyses of the six attributes are presented.

Plasma oxidation, an alternative to combustion, is shown to be a non-destructive method for obtaining radiocarbon dates on perishable organic artifacts. Electrically excited oxygen gently converts organic carbon to carbon dioxide. Radiocarbon measurements are then performed using accelerator mass spectrometry. Because only sub-milligram amounts of material are removed from an artifact over its exposed surface, no visible change in fragile materials has been observed, even under magnification. Materials in this study include: Third International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (TIRI) sample B (Belfast pine); Fourth International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (FIRI) optional samples; six different materials from a naturally mummified baby bundle from southwest Texas; and peyote from Shumla Caves, Texas, and Cuatro Ci??negas, Mexico. Continuing previous research in the Rowe laboratory, a primary application of plasma oxidation has been its use to date rock art at archaeological sites around the world. This dissertation includes dates for: Toca do Serrote da Bastiana, Brazil; Ignatievskaya Cave, Russia; partially buried megalithic monuments, Spain; Arnold/Tainter Cave, Wisconsin; and Little Lost River Cave No. 1, Idaho.

Handprints and hand stencils are a ubiquitous element of rock art. For archaeologists, they represent a window onto the lives and communities of practice of prehistoric peoples. They are a means of recognizing the individual in the archaeological record and their contribution to the production of rock art. Children represent an understudied archaeological demographic despite comprising 50% of many prehistoric populations. In this thesis, I investigate the applicability of the 2D:4D ratio for sexing children’s hand stencils in a modern context. Based on a sample of 318 living children between the ages of 5 and 16 years old, I analyzed the degree of variance between the ratio derived from the soft-tissue measurements, and the ratio derived from a hand stencil created by the same child. The results of this research support my prediction that the 2D: 4D ratio cannot be used reliably to sex children’s hand stencils archaeologically. / Graduate / 0324 / amandarobins1@gmail.com

Orientador: Paulo José Brando Santilli / Banca: Celia Reis Camargo / Banca: Carlos Alberto Sampaio Barbosa / Banca: Neide Barrocá Faccio / Banca: Marisa Coutinho Afonso / Resumo: Tendo em vista as intensas pesquisas realizadas na área de pré-história e arqueologia, que buscam compreender a presença de antigos grupos humanos nas Américas, o presente trabalho volta-se para os registros rupestres do Seridó, analisando numa perspectiva da comunicação e das práticas ritualíticas em manifestação ao sagrado. Os estudos realizados até então sobre a temática, têm tido diferentes opiniões acerca desses registros, tanto em relação a sua finalidade quanto a sua interpretação. A região do Seridó, especialmente nos município de Carnaúba dos Dantas e Parelhas, apresenta uma rica quantidade de registros rupestres, e estando classificados dentro da Tradição Nordeste, possuem grafismos de ação que mostram, particularmente, a vida cotidiana de seus executores. As cenas de caça, dança, pesca e rituais demonstram como viviam esses grupos humanos e como eles interagiam com o ecossistema. Diante da necessidade de se comunicar e de demonstrar uma importância dada as suas ações cotidianas, esses grupos humanos realizaram tais pinturas em áreas especialmente escolhidas para esse fim, sendo estes na sua maioria, de caráter não habitáveis. Com isso, as pinturas rupestres nos levam a uma ótica de que tanto os grafismos quanto os locais onde estes se encontram possuem uma relação simbólica, e cujo significado impera sob a órbita do cotidiano. / Abstract: In view of the intense research carried through the area of prehistory and archaeology, that they search to understand the presence of old human groups in Americas, the present work is turned towards to rock-art registers of the Seridó, analyzing in a perspective of the communication and the ritualistic practices in manifestation to the sacred. The studies carried through until then about the topic, have different opinions about these registers, as much in relation its purpose as well its interpretation. The region of the Seridó, especially in the city of Carnaúba dos Dantas and Parelhas, present a rich amount of rock-art, and being classified inside of the Northeast Tradition, possess graphisms of action that they show, particularly, the daily life of its executors. The hunting scenes, dance, fishing and rituals demonstrate as these human groups lived and as they interacted with the ecosystem. Ahead of the necessity of communicating and demonstrating to a given importance its daily actions, these human groups had carried through such images in especially areas chosen for this aim, being these in its majority, of character not inhabitable. With this, the rock-art takes us to an optics of that as much the graphisms as well as the places where these meet, possess a relation between the symbol and its meanings and its sanctity. / Doutor