European rock art: arti-facts and fancies.

European rock art: arti-facts and fancies. ASA Asa(ā`sə), in the Bible, king of Judah, son and successor of Abijah. He was a good king, zealous in his extirpation of idols. When Baasha of Israel took Ramah (a few miles N of Jerusalem), Asa bought the help of Benhadad of Damascus and C. FREDELL, KRISTIAN KRISTIANSEN & FELIPE CRIADO BOADO.Representations and communications: creating an archaeological matrix oflate prehistoric rock art. xx+158 pages, 53 illustrations. 2010. Oxford& Oakville (CT): Oxbow; 978-1-84217-3978 paperback 25 [poundssterling]. L. BENGTSSON (ed.). Arkeologisk Rapport 7, Vitlycke Museum.Stiftelsen for dokumentation av Bohuslans hallristningar: Tossene socken[Foundations for the documentation of Bohuslan's rock carvings:parish of Tossene]. 120 pages & 190 pages of illustrations. 2009.Tanum: Vitlycke Museum; ISSN ISSNabbr.International Standard Serial Number 1401-9078 paperback (seehttp://www.hallristing.se/rapport.htm). GERHARD GERHARD German Harvest Automated Retrieval and Directory MILSTREU & HENNING PROHL PROHL Peterborough Recreational Oldtimers Hockey League (ed.). Documentation andregistration of rock art in Tanum / Dokumentation och registrering avhallristningar i Tanum. No. 3: Kalleby, Finntorp, Ryk. 181 pages,numerous colour & b&w illustrations, CD-ROM. 2009. Tanum:Hallristningsmuseum Underslos / Scandinavian Society for PrehistoricArt The perspective and/or examples in this article do not represent a world-wide view. Please [ edit] this page to improve its geographical balance. ; 978-91-85245-40-2 paperback (see http://www.rockartscandinavia.se/pdf/DOC3%201ille%20GMkopi.pdf). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The rock art of northern and western Europe Western EuropeThe countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO). continues to attract awide variety of enthusiasts eager to promote new, and old, approachestowards recognition, record and interpretation. Here we have threediffering attitudes and presentations, two concerned with the creationof physical records and one more wide-ranging in approach. Deriving meaning from rock art We approach Representations and communications with positiveanticipation, as this book emanates from a set of well-respectedauthorities and is the product of a four-year collaboration between theUniversity of Gothenburg and the Heritage Laboratory of the SpanishNational Research Council in Galicia. The nine papers presented range insubject from straight-forward excavations, physical landscapes and lateprehistoric sea-level assessments, to more theoretically-based ideasabout the internal spacing of rock art panels, bodily attributes ofhuman images, the passages of time and the complexities of humanapproaches to sites both today and in the distant past, with glances andasides relating to relating torelate prep → concernantrelating torelate prep → bez��glich +gen, mit Bezug auf +accwider concepts, Indo-Europeans among them. So it is amixed bag of papers on offer, and insightful conclusions promised. Theproblem that arises is that we almost at once meet a spatter spatter,n droplets of airborne particulate matter larger than 50 μm that fall to the ground. of slips,confusions and occasional wider difficulties so that the eager readercannot avoid being distracted, the academic threads and themesinterrupted, and the sometimes logical and interesting conclusionsthereby diminished. The very first paper, on the argument for a more aquatic-basedenvironment and economic basis for the settlements, and rock art sites,near and around Himmelstalund in eastern Sweden, is in effect based upona map (fig. 1.2) which has such peculiar shading as to wholly confusethis reader, and some others who also know the area well: which is whichon the map, sea or land? Exactly the same map area is well set out inthree works published within the past eight years, including one by theeditor of this book, and all clearly separate the Bronze Age Bronze Age,period in the development of technology when metals were first used regularly in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Pure copper and bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, were used indiscriminately at first; this early period is sometimes called the sea fromthe land; so it can be done with a little effort and the reader woulddoubtless benefit. The next figure in this paper, an aerial photographof part of the same landscape, shows six numbered features: four areclearly marked, numbers five and six are stylistically different fromthese and mysteriously masked on the map, barely visible--why? The nextpaper, on an excavation in front of a panel of images in Galicia, hasthe same caption to figures 2.1 and 2.2: one is the panel, the other theexcavation. The third paper, on sea levels in the Tanum area of Sweden,is a basic summary of an author's monographic mon��o��graph?n.A scholarly piece of writing of essay or book length on a specific, often limited subject.tr.v. mon��o��graphed, mon��o��graph��ing, mon��o��graphsTo write a monograph on. thesis; no problemwith the work, but in the concluding statement on a key site that wassubject to direct contact with the Bronze Age seas, we are told'The upper part of the panel was raised from the sea at EBA EBA Eisenbahn-Bundesamt (German)EBA Euro Banking AssociationEBA Emergency Brake AssistanceEBA Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (Australia)EBA Elite Beat Agents (video game)Period Ib.During the preceding phase--EBA Period II--it would be possible to carveon a large part of the surface'. How can this be so? Preceding orsucceeding? Some of these confusions are slips of the pen, or thefinger, and there is more of the same elsewhere in the book. Perhapsenough has been said here on the matter, except that the very last linein the entire book speaks wisely of a 'spatial model that is thesame as that of bell-baker pottery ... although that is very muchanother story'; we lovers of cakes, and students of Beaker beaker/beak��er/ (bek��er) a glass cup, usually with a lip for pouring, used by chemists and pharmacists. beakera round laboratory vessel of various materials, usually with parallel sides and often with a pouring spout. ceramics, cannot but agree with that conclusion. Now for more positive assessments and some selective items. Alengthy paper debates the continuity of an ideology within the north(Sweden) and the southwest (Galicia) of the European landmass land��mass?n.A large unbroken area of land.landmassNouna large continuous area of landlandmass? , using, inan admittedly hypothetical approach, the concept of the 'SunDeer' as depicted on two relevant sites and introducing phasedevolution of the 'Sun Deer' parts of the two panels ofcarvings. The aim of the paper, to suggest that rock art is fruitfulground for creating and testing hypotheses, is undoubtedly acceptable(and has been pursued for over 100 years), bur this paper takes a morepiercing approach than usual. Falling within such investigative conceptscomes a paper on 'rock art knees' and related bodilyattributes, taking an Indo-European perspective; this exploration makesmany assumptions and may well need a closer look at the details ofbodily parts and proximal lines on suggestive images, to sort outchronological variations, accurately represented and illogically il��log��i��cal?adj.1. Contradicting or disregarding the principles of logic.2. Without logic; senseless.il��log depicted elements and the numerical validity of suggested structures.Intriguing it is nonetheless, and just the sort of approach needed tomove the studies on. Yet by relying upon rather basic and ill-definedrepresentations published long ago, rather than upon more recent plansproduced by more objective techniques, the authors mask the reality ofthe evidence (and they might also try to get the ancient referencescorrect in their bibliographies). Following a similar theme is a paper on the journey of the sun asexpressed through Indo-European mythology, pursuing a line alreadywell-expressed in previous publications although here restricted to rockcarvings alone; well-illustrated and well-argued, this accurately buildson work done half a century ago by Sprockhoff (get the name rightplease). In similar fashion, a paper on excavations in front of rockcarving sites in the Tanum area enlarges the pioneering work of Johansensome 35 years ago; this has greatly refined our understanding of what toexpect, where to look, and how the factors of fire and water come intothe scheme of things along with basic rock structures, all affecting theimagery, its position and character, and beginning the exploration ofthe many variables present on what we now call a site (but ewe trees area new one on me). The concluding papers attempt to extricate the basic structures inGalician rock art sites, looking for regularities, identifying prominentfeatures, and thence thence?adv.1. From that place; from there: flew to Helsinki and thence to Moscow.2. From that circumstance or source; therefrom.3. Archaic From that time; thenceforth. pursuing an interpretation that wisely does notrely upon singular aspects. Landscape definitions come within thepurview The part of a statute or a law that delineates its purpose and scope.Purview refers to the enacting part of a statute. It generally begins with the words be it enacted and continues as far as the repealing clause. here, and even if somewhat contrived they open widerperspectives for debate. Final opinions express the ideal of theappearance of heroic societies, evolved from the rural dwellers ofGalicia, and thence to the far wider areas of the world from where, andperhaps to where, new ideologies were adopted and transformed. All in all, this book is overly diffuse, and unifying themes arenot at all evident. Much of the exploratory and deliberately challengingapproaches rely heavily upon a presumed accuracy in the reproduction ofdetails of late prehistoric rock art imagery that is often impossible toachieve, due to decay, or not yet possible to reply upon, throughinadequate recording. Recording Swedish rock Sweden has long been a powerhouse of rock and with either poppy rock or heavy metal. Some of these examples include: ABBA The Ark Bl? T?get Blindside bob hund Brainbombs Broder Daniel The Cardigans Dag Vag Dark Tranquility art Here is where two current projects can, and do, make a substantialcontribution to such matters and thereby allow a control to be applied,and encouragement offered, to the wider theoretical approaches that opennew avenues for studies of form, content and setting. The first of thesemajor projects is the numbered series of Arkeologisk Rapport publishedfrom the Vitlycke Museum in Bohuslan in western Sweden. The series aimsto provide accurate documentation of rock carvings from selected sitesor particular parishes; its first volume appeared in 1995 and thecurrent book, number seven, covers the parish of Tossene. It was clearlyan immense task to survey, search, identify and record the images carvedon the exposed surfaces, some newly-uncovered, on areas of rock deemedworthy of detailed search over a large territory. The ten maps publisheddo not cover the entire parish, and uplands and other areas are omittedfor mostly logical reasons; one map has been duplicated. About 500 rockcarving sites or distinct panels of sites are presented here, with avery brief description of each, in Swedish and English, and plans of theimages as black figures upon the white page. It is important to note themethods used in the recording of the sites: rock surfaces are cleaned,dried, and observed under daylight as well as obliquely by night-lights.Images are thereby identified and painted white with chalkwash; plasticsheeting is laid on the surface and the images are traced by felt-tippens upon the sheets, black for ancient carvings, blue for modernintrusions and red for natural features. Some indication of the depthsof carved images is made upon the sheets. Photographs are taken, sitesdescribed, the sheets then scanned/photographed and plans created at ascale of 1/10 wherever possible. In this way an archive is created as objectively as possible, and,for Tossene as for other areas, presented in periodic seriespublications such as this very substantial book. The key element isnaturally the plans, reproduced here at different scales to suit thepage shape and size. This is a bit unfortunate here and there, where adetailed site with many figures appears at a small scale while a smallpanel with only a couple of cupmarks emerges at a larger scale (e.g.Tossene 48:1 at 1/35 scale with over 200 images; and Tossene 47:2 at1/10 scale with three cupmarks). But let us not criticise here; thesebooks are a key to Swedish rock carving evidence, standard in theirrecording and archive and available to all for as much or as littleexploratory work in field or office, by brush or computer, as anyone maywish to become engaged. Catalogue it is meant to be, and Catalogue itis. We now come to another archival-based series of books, produced byTanums Hallristningsmuseum Underslos/Scandinavian Society forPrehistoric Art. This privately-funded organisation is the outcome, ineffect, of a small museum established in 1952 by a pioneeringarchaeologist called Fred Gudnitz, whom this reviewer met many yearsago. From the preaching of Gudnitz we all learned much, mostly on theartistic qualities of the rock art of the Tanum area. In 1969 theSociety was founded, and from 1978 a project was initiated to documentthe carving sites in western Bohuslan. A series called Documentation and registration of rock art in Tanumis one of the key elements in the Society's work, and three volumeshave so far been published, the first two concerned with specific sitesin the immediate area around the Vitlycke Museum. With volume three, thecoverage has expanded a little, and we now have the sites in thedistricts of Kalleby, Finntorp and Ryk to contend with. The presentationof these areas with their numerous sites is entirely unlike that adoptedfor the Tossene volume noted above. About 90 sites or distinct panelsare introduced, but nowhere is there a black-on-white plan. Instead, weseem to have a compilation of the existing records of known sites, witha reproduction of the newly-created overall view of the sites made ofrubbing sheets fitted together. This method, carefully conducted onsites, allows a full record of surviving carved lines to be created;each sheet of paper fits the next one so in theory a total coverage isachieved. One problem apparent in the rubbing technique is that thejoints of the sheets tend to blur or mask any lines at their precisejunctures (e.g. site Tanum 409.1), although in this book there hasclearly been the greatest care exercised to avoid such a problem bycareful projection of the rubbing to the extreme edges of sheets. Thequestion of variable carving depths is in part answered by archivalrecords rather than by the rubbings. The first site thus published here has reproductions of specialimages of one of the Kalleby sites, with the famous lur-blowers shownsix times, in a series of antique-to-modern recordings, as well as theentire site's 13 rubbing-sheets (with one gap near the base). Moreuseful to the student is the next site in the book with a 12-sheetrubbing, a site view, a photograph of the images chalked white, and aphotograph of the main images with oblique lighting. The work underwayis illustrated throughout the book, with photographs of clearance,sheets in place, rubbing operations and landscape views, the latterextremely useful for those who seek to visit the sites, some of whichcan be difficult to locate amidst the field edges, ridges and woodlands.The book is therefore not an archival catalogue with drawn plans as isthe Tossene volume. It is more a scrapbook A Macintosh disk file that holds frequently used text and graphics objects, such as a company letterhead. Contrast with "clipboard," which is reserved memory that holds data only for the current session. , a useful one it is stressed,that can serve to signal the character of each site and, with the utmostcare, allows the reader to trace the location and relation of images oneto another. The rubbings themselves can be more clearly studied on anaccompanying disc, and it is important to acknowledge their value todayand without doubt in the future when physical changes to rock surfaces,and perhaps local environments, may well have taken place. There is more in the book than site pictures. A brief history ofthe recording of Scandinavian carvings is provided by G. Milstreu, whodescribes the rubbing technology which, he claims 'is still theprimary method, as no other method shows the surface of the rockincluding the carvings more precisely'. This may be a comment onthe method used for the Vitlycke volumes noted above. Painting withpolysaccharide polysaccharide:see carbohydrate. polysaccharideAny of a large class of long-chain sugars composed of monosaccharides. Because the chains may be unbranched or branched and the monosaccharides may be of one, two, or occasionally more kinds, and chalk, and suspended quartzite quartzite,usually metamorphic rock composed of firmly cemented quartz grains. Most often it is white, light gray, yellowish, or light brown, but is sometimes colored blue, green, purple, or black by included minerals. , are also used onoccasion, and photographic work is also pursued. Somewhat surprisingly,and encouraging, is to see a couple of sites with complete rubbingsheets showing surface damage areas with very faint traces of survivingportions of carved images; yet the accompanying chalk-based paintings donot include such survivals (e.g. Tanum 95.1, Tanum 405.1), unless thisreviewer is deluding himself. As part of the introductory section of the book, there are somedescriptive comments and statements of things underway, things done,things to do, much concerned with archival matters which doubtless arewell-intentioned, and for us the text here requires some niftybrainwork brain��work?n.Intellectual activity, especially as an aspect of a person's profession. . Who among us knows what the abbreviations--RANE, SHFA, ATA,ABM, FMIS FMIS Financial Management Information System (Military Sealift Command)FMIS Facilities Management Information SystemFMIS Force Management Information SystemFMIS Force Modernization Information System and more--are? The worthy discussion here, about thedevelopment of systems for recording and managing sites and archivalprocedures, is illustrated by some photographs and plans, although thesites chosen to illustrate this important section are not from the studyarea at all; a frontispiece in the book shows a well-known image fromBro Utmark near Vitlycke, which is described as severely weathered, butI believe it was an ancient chemical attack on the overlying overlyingsuffocation of piglets by the sow. The piglets may be weak from illness or malnutrition, the sow may be clumsy or ill, the pen may be inadequate in size or poorly designed so that piglets cannot escape. vegetationthat caused such dramatic deterioration. Overall, the two archival books noted here aim to fulfil differentconcepts, one a pure and precise record of sites and images thereon, theother presenting an alternative method of obtaining an accurate record,and providing a visual comment upon the images and their settings. Theysucceed: both are impressive documents of identification and areencouragements for future preservative preservativeAny of numerous chemical additives used to prevent or slow food spoilage caused by chemical changes (e.g., oxidation, mold growth) and maintain a fresh appearance and consistency. Antimycotics (e.g. methodologies to be developed andapplied to a threatened resource. Such works also provide a solid basisupon which the exploration of themes such as those featured inRepresentation and communications can be undertaken in the future. John Coles, Fursdon Mill Cottage, Thorverton, Devon EX5 5JS, UK(Email: jmcoles@btinternet.com)