What Were Rock Art Sites Like in the Past? Reconstructing the Shapes of Sites as Cultural Settings

Rock art research often focuses on the art, rather than on the site or its landscape. Yet what makes the art meaningful in culture is not just the paintings, stencils or engravings, but the individual and connected places where they are found and of which they are a part. Over time, those places can change, and sometimes dramatically so. To understand the art, attention thus needs to be given on these spatial contexts: the details of what was where in the past matter. In this chapter we argue that in archaeology—a discipline aimed at understanding the cultural past—the form of the landscape of rock art sites at the time the art was produced and engaged needs to be understood. We do so by investigating four dimensions of a site’s past landscapes: its past landforms; its palaeo-entrance; its palaeo-landmarks and pathways; and its past rock surfaces. Each brings new insights on the physical configuration of a rock art place, as context of its cultural significance and engagements.