Signalling and performance : ancient rock art in Britain and Ireland

Signalling and Performance: Ancient Rock Art in Britain and Ireland presents a state of the art survey of the ancient rock art of Britain and Ireland, bringing together new discoveries and new interpretations. Ancient rock art offers unique insights into the mindsets of its makers and the landscapes in which they lived. The making of rock art was not just an aesthetic practice, but an activity informed by deep social and cultural meanings held by its makers - meanings that they were compelled to express on rocks in Britain and Ireland, through mostly abstract images, for thousands of years. For a long time, ancient rock art remained a topic on the fringes of Archaeology. Since the 1960s, however, there has been sustained recording and research into ancient rock art. Increased publicity has evoked growing interest in British and Irish rock art, with professional and amateur archaeologists and the public, with the latter being responsible for many discoveries. In 2007, Aron Mazel, George Nash and Clive Waddington published the first edited volume focusing on ancient British rock art, entitled Art as Metaphor. Since then, there have been a number of publications covering this topic. Building on the increased interest in rock art, this lavishly illustrated volume constructed of thirteen thought-provoking chapters and an Introduction will do much to further enhance of understanding of this fascinating and meaningful resource. It will further establish ancient British and Irish rock art as a significant archaeological assemblage worthy of attention and additional study. Aron Mazel is a Reader in Heritage Studies at Newcastle University (United Kingdom) and a Research Associate at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). George Nash is an Associate Professor at the Centro de Geociências da Universidade de Coimbra and Instituto Politécnico de Tomar in Portugal. Cover 1 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Contents Page 7 Introduction: recording and interpreting the ancient rock art of Britain and Ireland 13 Aron Mazel and George Nash 13 The Past, Present and Future of Rock Art Research in Scotland 22 Tertia Barnett, Joana Valdez-Tullett, Maya Hoole, Stuart Jeffrey, Guillaume Robin, Linda Marie Bjerketvedt and Frederick Alexander 22 Marking the earth: history of research and the distribution of open-air Neolithic and Early Bronze Age panels and motifs at Lordenshaw in central Northumberland, Britain 79 Aron Mazel 79 East of Eden: monumental rock art in Cumbria, North-West England 108 Kate E. Sharpe 108 The Early Bronze Age Landscape of Burley Moor, West Yorkshire 134 Keith Boughey 134 The Carver and the Rock: The Physicality of Carving 157 Vivien Deacon 157 A Wirral Enigma: Understanding the origins of the Willaston Stones 181 Ron Cowell, George Nash and Elizabeth Stewart 181 A reappraisal of the Cronk yn How Stone, Isle of Man 203 George Nash 203 Rewriting Landscapes: Exploring the Context, Regionality and Extended Chronologies of Irish Rock Art 224 Rebecca Aroon Enlander 224 Conserving Rock Art in South-West Ireland 246 Clare Busher O’Sullivan 246 A single panel case study in Kerry – deconstructing a rock art palimpsest 267 Aoibheann Lambe 267 Linear art in the European Neolithic 294 Anne Teather 294 The discovery of Late Upper Palaeolithic rock art at Cathole Cave on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales 309 George Nash 309 Prehistoric Rock Art in Glamorgan and Gwent 328 Edith Evans 328 Back cover 344 Signalling and Performance: Ancient Rock Art in Britain and Ireland presents a state of the art survey of the ancient rock art of Britain and Ireland, bringing together new discoveries and new interpretations. Ancient rock art offers unique insights into the mindsets of its makers and the landscapes in which they lived. The making of rock art was not just an aesthetic practice, but an activity informed by deep social and cultural meanings held by its makers - meanings that they were compelled to express on rocks in Britain and Ireland, through mostly abstract images, for thousands of years. For a long time, ancient rock art remained a topic on the fringes of Archaeology. Since the 1960s, however, there has been sustained recording and research into ancient rock art. Increased publicity has evoked growing interest in British and Irish rock art, with professional and amateur archaeologists and the public, with the latter being responsible for many discoveries.0In 2007, Aron Mazel, George Nash and Clive Waddington published the first edited volume focusing on ancient British rock art, entitled Art as Metaphor. Since then, there have been a number of publications covering this topic. Building on the increased interest in rock art, this lavishly illustrated volume constructed of thirteen thought-provoking chapters and an Introduction will do much to further enhance of understanding of this fascinating and meaningful resource. It will further establish ancient British and Irish rock art as a significant archaeological assemblage worthy of attention and additional study This lavishly illustrated volume presents a state of the art survey of the ancient rock art of Britain and Ireland. Bringing together new discoveries and new interpretations, it enhances our understanding and further establishes ancient British and Irish rock art as a significant archaeological assemblage worthy of attention and additional study.