Digital Rock Art: beyond 'pretty pictures'

Abstract

The term ‘Rock Art’ is loosely used in this article to refer to prehistoric carvings and paintings. Rock art research has changed profoundly in the last two decades. Partly, this is due to the introduction of more ‘scientific’ methodologies such as digital recording, to overcome the subjective nature of analogue documentation methods. Digital recording offers not only ‘pretty pictures’ but more immediate and quantifiable datasets and methods of analysis. As a result, new research implementing complex, multi-scalar and inter-relational analyses, which do not focus solely on the motifs or the landscape location, but encompass many variables of the rock art assemblages, have been successful in bringing rock art to wider narratives of prehistory. This article reflects on the interaction between rock art and digital archaeology, considering how the application of digital resources has changed the way we think, record and conduct research in this field. It will be illustrated by two main case studies from Iberia: Schematic Art in its painted form, and Atlantic Rock Art, a carving tradition.