Speaker Details

Dr Alessandra   Lumachelli
Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy

Presentation Abstract:

"Understanding Petroglyphs: Ancient Symbols"

-Petroglyphs are engravings on rocks situated outdoors. This definition excludes the incisions placed in the caves and the carvings that adorn decorative objects, plates, pebbles. There remains the category of the engravings on the rocks outside the artistic technique more widely in space and time.-History.The problem of the dating of petroglyphs is not scientifically settled. There is no chemical or physical means to assign an age to an engraving, a pat or abrasion of the stone. Neither the patina, or flaring of the edges of the incision, or the profile of the groove provide the means for an exact date. The only source for the chronological study are the representations themselves. The subjects, weapons, tools are relevant to a certain era largely defined: thus for the bronze, iron or the plow. The study of styles, techniques, frequency of certain subjects and analysis of issues that relate to the same myth and evolution of the figures in relation to their pictorial quality, and the analysis of symbolic signs, you can define and moments later stages of the same cave complex. It remains to locate the beginning and the end of this art in the time scale. Crimson, but very rarely, you can find nearby archaeological evidence, such as settlements or tools, but the relationship between the remains that come from archaeological layers and carvings situated on the rocks remains uncertain. The only possibility is the discovery, in an archaeological layer dated, an object decorated with a decoration identical to that of the rock. (...)