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What Does Rock Art Mean?
Rock Art Myths and Facts
Myths:
•
Rock art is
not really art
the way we think of it. The images and designs were not done for their aesthetic
value or as an individual expression of an artist. In reality, rock art is not a
good name at all. It is more appropriate to use the phrase “images on stone.”
There are two types of rock art
images:
pictographs and
petroglyphs.
•
Rock art is
not writing. The
individual designs do not stand for sounds or words. They cannot be read like
text.
•
Hohokam
rock art images do not tell a story.
They are not narrative. Many images appear side by side but were probably done
at different times by different individuals. We see the cumulative result of
many individual acts.
o
The grouping
of many images is due to the limited space on rock surfaces that have the
appropriate characteristics for rock art: a flat surface and a dark “patina” or
outer layer on the rock.
o
Rock art is
often found in areas that were visited frequently, such as along a trail, in a
good camping spot, near a village or by a source of water.
Facts:
•
Rock art is
made up of visual
symbols.
These images carry coded messages but the code to decipher them has long been
lost. Contemporary Native Americans have meanings for some of
the symbols, but these meanings may have changed as they were passed down,
generation to generation, through the centuries.
o
The cultures to which we belong are full of
visual symbols: types of clothing,
hand gestures, product logos, street signs, etc.
o
We understand
these layers of meaning because we are members of a culture. If a Hohokam
person was alive today and saw those symbols,
he or she would have no idea what they
meant.
- We know
very little about the meaning of most rock art.
It is as if the prehistoric peoples who created
these images are speaking to us in a language of visual
symbols that we do not understand. We must accept the fact that we
probably will never be able to completely
break the code and decipher what they mean.
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