Recording and interpreting a rock art complex situated in Northern Greece: a tripartite approach

Abstract

This dissertation adopts an innovative tripartite approach in recording and reaching an \nadequate understanding of a hitherto untheorised and under-investigated rock art complex \nsituated in Northern Greece. Post-structuralism and phenomenology form the theoretical ground \non which this study is founded. It phenomenologically explores a set of experiences not \nrestricted to vision but related to a multi-sensory, bodily engagement with the art and the land in \nwhich it exists. It also examines the structuring of the motifs in relation to their location in the \nlandscape in order to identify possible patterns indicative of the social actions that generated \nthem and of which they are the material traces. The parameters of this art are then placed and \nassessed against what is known about the cultural background of the makers from historical \nsources. This study demonstrates that the conceptual and the experiential are inextricably \nlinked, and thus structuralism and phenomenology are not mutually exclusive as has been often \nthought. The third aspect of my approach, namely the use of historical literature, allows \nassessment of the way that structures of meaning might relate to a specific cultural context. The \noverall aim of this thesis is to evaluate the role that the decoration of rocks may have played in \nthe social construction of landscapes and the constitution of the social self.

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