Making rock images. Experimental Archaeology as a Method for understanding Prehistoric Rock Art Production

Abstract

Rock art has been widely studied within archaeology, typically with a particular emphasis on their iconographical expression and potential narrative meaning. By contrast, scholars have shown less interest in the processes underlying their creation. For example, the preparations for rock art production such as the selection of appropriate panels, selection of production tools, what material the tools were made of and where they came from. The present article seeks to cast light on such processes, with a focus on how the practical work of making figurative images in panels and surfaces of different rock types and geological characteristics are done.
The geology in Alta varies between the different rock art sites and panels. Because of this variation, as well as the different properties of the rocks themselves, it seems likely that the rock art makers of the past needed to differentiate the choice and selection of tools involved in the rock art production. The difference between sites makes it natural to assume that the handling of the different tools would also have been quite dissimilar. It is common knowledge within the archaeological field that the most common methods for rock art production has either been by striking the rock surface directly, with a stone hammer, or chisel or alternatively indirectly, applying a mallet to strike a stone chisel.