Time and Mind Volume 3—Issue 3—November 2010, pp. 331–334

Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture

Volume 3—Issue 3November 2010pp. 331–334DOI 10.2752/175169610X12754030956057

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Book Review

Aesthetics and Rock Art, IIIrd SymposiumThomas Heyd and John Clegg (eds)Archaeopress BAR International Series 1818, 2008 Pb, 102 pp. ISBN 9781407303048

Reviewed by George Nash

In recent years there have been a number of attempts to tackle the burning questions of social structure, visual, and non-visual meaning in rock art. This volume, featuring papers from the ‘Aesthetics and Rock Art IIIrd Symposium’ held at the XV UISPP World Congress in Lisbon in September 2006, is one of two books currently focusing on aesthetics and rock art; the other, published in 2005, was also edited by Clegg and Heyd. This novel and unique approach focuses on the power and rhetoric of painted and carved images and the places in which they are found. The book is divided into five themed sections and is very much a world event, covering regions as diverse as Portugal, Australia, Brazil, Borneo, and Wales.

The book has a clear but concise introduction outlining terminologies and concepts of aesthetics. More importantly, and crucial to a volume such as this, Heyd brings the study of aesthetics to rock art, which for many years has been treated merely as a visual record. A similar theme is taken up in section 1 with a paper by Margaret Bullen, who discusses the visuality of rock art in Upper Paleolithic societies; in other words, who sees what and when. Bullen successfully uses a number of anthropological and ethnographic analogies to illustrate the socio-political role of early prehistoric art, using controversial sites such as Chauvet in southern France. Again using historic and prehistoric analogies, Der ̨ egowski in chapter 2 looks at the fundamental underlying influences that occur within society. Moreover, the chapter clearly promotes the concept of an intentionality of design, using Bushman

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figures from southern Africa to illustrate the powerful role of art in society.

In section 2, John Clegg and Shiv Jamwal’s paper studies the visual perception of the audience, veering away from what Clegg and Jamwal call ‘prettiness’ of the art. This distinction between power and aesthetic quality in imagery is, in one respect, easy to define but in another the two are very much integrated, especially when Clegg and Jamwal bring into question the design concept and the functionality of certain complex images. This paper is alas weakened by the short sections concerning specific rock art areas such as the Valcamonica; it is not helpful just to throw in the odd example without including clear context and geography. Livio Dobrez considers the role of hermeneutics and, in particular, the significance of reception theory when evaluating figurative and non-figurative art. Attention is paid to the cognitive mechanisms involved in the viewer’s experience. This paper in many respects extends beyond the realms of rock art and makes an important contribution to this book. Art historian Michael Eastham, working with material from Arnhem Land, explores the cultural divides and associations concerned with the meaning behind the rock art image, looking at the language of these sites. Rock art, according to Eastham is a recognizable communication system that conveys different levels of message to different strands of society. A chapter written by Andrei Isnardis, Vanessa Linke, and André Prous applies a practical field-orientated approach towards aesthetics, looking at the Planalto rock art tradition of central Brazil. In this paper the authors are concerned with zoomorphic themes within this early Holocene rock art assemblage.

Expanding on Michael Eastham’s ideas about communication structure, of who sees what and how, Ann Eastham opens section 3 by exploring the intentionality and meaning behind the setting up and use of engraved and non-engraved standing stones in Pembrokeshire. This area possesses a rich and varied assemblage of prehistoric and early medieval standing stones, many associated with the rituals of death in the form of Neolithic and Bronze Age funerary monuments and Early Christian sites. Eastham’s chapter explores the concept of use and re-use, the latter witnessed through both carving and re-carving. In order to substantiate these actions Eastham, quite rightly, has used a variety of examples outside the study area, in particular the Christianization of Neolithic monuments in Brittany. Jean-Michel Chazine looks at the recent discoveries of painting in eastern Borneo, focusing on the distribution and arrangement of negative and positive stencils of hands that probably date to the Late Pleistocene. The ongoing fieldwork and research recognizes over 1,500 negative hand prints to date. Chazine suggests that there is a clear link between the function of these enigmatic designs and the power and rhetoric they convey.

The rhetoric of painting is further explored in section 4 by Thomas Heyd, who looks at the diffusion of meaning between rock art areas and the protocols that are observed at them; what Heyd terms ‘the ethics of transculturation’. Several of the examples in this chapter, some featured in a previous study by Heyd (2007), deal with the distortion caused by influences from neighboring communities. At the same time, though, Heyd counter-argues that

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transculturation is an essential mechanism for socio-political development as reflected in the changes of style in rock art. The following chapter, very different from the rest, discusses the role of conservation and how the rhetorical value of the art can be enhanced for a present-day audience. The author, António Pedro Batarda Fernandes, uses the outcropping of the Côa Valley in north-eastern Portugal as an example to tackle the controversial issue of the extent of conservation – how much of the panel should be conserved. He is concerned in particular with the non-engraved rock panels that surround the imagery.

The penultimate paper in section 5 is written by John Clegg and sets out to provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of aesthetics within rock ar t studies. As his title of ‘What I have learnt’ would suggest, Clegg presents an honest and forthright discussion. What is missing is the arrogance that one usually expects with a conference volume, especially from

those who profess to have all the answers. The final chapter is by April Novell and looks at issues of context and place in post-modernist approaches towards Upper Paleolithic ar t. This short but important paper suggests that a meaningful discussion can be achieved using, in part, universal concepts that govern, control, and manipulate the ar t.

This is an important interpretive volume, which has been cleverly crafted by Heyd and Clegg. There are the usual niggling typos and some chapters skimp the provision of important practical information; nevertheless, this volume will prove an important addition to theory and rock art studies, primarily in offering the next step in this discipline of so many factions, namely interpretation.

References

Clegg, J. and Heyd, T., 2005. Aesthetics and Rock-art. London: Ashgate.

Heyd, T., 2007. “Transculturation and Cross-Cultural Contact.” Rock-art Research 24i: 191.