INTRODUCTION
Many words have been spoken and written to define rock art. Although for matters of convenience I will use the term ‘rock art’, in my opinion rock art is not art, but an expression of strong cultural feelings, that often are of a profound religious character. This expression may be culturally and/or personally determined. By this I mean that much of the iconography will be determined by the culture that the manufacturer lives in, but it can never be ruled out that personal views influenced the resulting images and/or composition. It is even likely that some rock art will be rebellious of nature. The manufacturer often is a long way from the centers of power of his or her culture so that he more freely can express his personal feelings.
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Not every expression of ‘art’ using stone is rock art. The main criterion is that rock art uses natural stone surfaces as its canvas. This definition excludes architectural art. Thus the zoomorphic images built in into the stone terraces at Choquequirao west of the city of Cusco, Peru, cannot be regarded as rock art, despite the unwanted manipulation of the definition of rock art by Tumi and Valencia (Rock Art Research 2009: 26-2, pp 213). Also the gruesome images on the temple walls of Cerro Sechín in northern Peru will not be regarded by me as rock art although they are most important in relation to Andean rock art as the imagery gives us clues regarding style and age of many petroglyphs in the area. The exclusion of architectural art does not mean however that true petroglyphs do not occur on - for instance - temple walls. In Egypt I recorded petroglyphs on the walls of the Temple of Seti 1, on the west bank of the river Nile and just west of the town of Luxor (Maarten van Hoek 2009: Sahara 20, pp 171-176). Also excluded by me are all geoglyphs as these are images made with stones, not on a stone surface. But again, the imagery of geoglyphs will help to understand and compare rock art images. What I do include are images on natural surfaces (boulders or outcrop rock, like cliffs and caves) and also mobiliary art on natural pieces of stone (whatever their actual use). Especially in south of Peru there have been found many small and large, smooth and flat natural pebbles that have been painted.
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ROCK ART TYPES
There several types of rock art. Most important in the study area and the focus of my web pages are petroglyphs: images that result by removing part of the rock’s surface. This may have been done in several ways (see next web page) and - depending on rock type and determination of the manufacturer - with varying depths. Fig. 0-3-1 shows a petroglyph, possibly of an archer, at Rosario, a rock art site located about 15 km inland in the valley of the river Lluta. The symbol in the lower right-hand corner indicates that the panel is vertical (if this symbol appears in a photograph, this explanation will not be repeated). In several ways Rosario is an exceptional site. It is the only site in the study area - that I know of - where paintings are found together with petroglyphs and combinations thereof. Fig. 0-3-2 shows a panel where a few rock paintings occur next to several petroglyphs (this photograph has been digitally enhanced in order to make the paintings better visible). The three probable anthropomorphic figures are positioned in front of a possible llama petroglyph. Both these rock paintings and petroglyphs are found high on a vertical, projecting cliff face that is impossible to reach when standing on soil level. One will have used ladders or scaffolding (perhaps even ropes) in order to make those images. Also at Rosario are petroglyphs that have been painted in, for example in Fig. 0-3-3. The symbol in the upper left-hand corner indicates that the panel is steeply sloping (this explanation will not be repeated). The petroglyphs on Panel 036 seem to have paint added around them, as can be seen in Fig. 0-3-4 (this figure has also been digitally enhanced in order to make the paintings better visible).
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FIG 0-3-1: ROSARIO - CHILE - PANEL 30 (detail).
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FIG 0-3-2: ROSARIO - CHILE - PANEL 35.
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FIG 0-3-3: ROSARIO - CHILE - PANEL 19 (detail).
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FIG 0-3-4: ROSARIO - CHILE - PANEL 36 (detail).
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