Communicating through rock art: an ethnoarchaeological perspective

Abstract

In many past and present preliterate societies rock art has been used as a means of communications to convey ideas, believes, ancestral knowledge, traditions, identities, rules, stories, social behaviour or laws. Through an ethno-archaeological perspective based on Arnhem Land rock art, we explore the different functions of the art, how cultural information is embedded in the imagery and more importantly, to what extent the information can be decoded by an uninitiated or an outsider to the culture producing the art. The results of this research provide insight into the complexities of analysing and interpreting this form of non-verbal communication including the extent to which archaeologists can decode cultural information hidden in past forms of art.

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