The archaeology of rock-art.

The archaeology of rock-art. Rock art CHRISTOPHER CHIPPINDALE & PAUL S.C. TACON TACON Tactical ControlTACON Tactical Construction (ed.). Thearchaeology of rock-art, xviii+374 pages, 205 figures, 11 tables. 1998.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). ; 0-521-57256-8 hardback 50 [poundssterling] & US$80; 0-521-57619-9 paperback 17.95 [pounds sterling]& $29.95. Drs CHIPPINDALE & TACON present a stimulating array of casestudies. J. Clottes assesses the west European Upper Palaeolithic in thelight of the discoveries at Chauvet, Cosquer and Coa. Two papers onNorway and one each on the Sydney area and southern Africa considerevidence for culture change. R. Bradley reviews depictions of what looklike Bronze Age weapons in western Britain and western Iberia,suggesting that they expressed boundaries (cf. OLIVEIRA JORGE, in thefollowing section); but the only other paper to assess associations withland use as such is that of R. Hartley & A.M. Wolley Vawser on Utah.There are three papers on altered states of mind, including C.E. Boyd onthe Pecos River region, Texas. The final piece is on grafitti fromSydney, 1855-1922. There are some methodological contributions,including Drs CHIPPINDALE & TACON on style and chronology.Throughout, the editors emphasize the complementary roles ofarchaeological methods and deployment of ethnography; but there arewarnings by A. Solomon on projecting ethnographies into prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to . S.Ouzman contributes a thoughtful piece on foragers' concepts oflandscape: 'we may have to learn to live with some ambiguity in ourinterpretations' (p. 39). British prehistoric rock art reviews the iconography and provides adiscursive gazetteer gazetteer(găz'ĭtēr`), dictionary or encyclopedia listing alphabetically the names of places, political divisions, and physical features of the earth and giving some information about each. , replete with map references, of both sites ofisolated petroglyphs and motifs carved on monuments (e.g. Long Meg,'Passage Grave art'). Interesting patterns become evident.Why, for instance, are there so many petroglyphs in Galloway or so fewin Cumberland? It is a compact, well-illustrated, highly informativebook. (Cf. GONZALEZ BLANCO et al. in 'The Classical world...', below). Later prehistory of Europe The reviewer's shelves sag, this quarter, with books on theMesolithic and Neolithic, and the Bronze and Iron Ages of Europe. Theyinclude both reports of new discoveries and experimentalreinterpretations of old ones. Economic archaeology more in thebackground now, social and cultural theory wafts through many of themlike an ambivalent breeze in early spring (cf. "Newworld'...', below). First, what was the nature of the transition to the Neolithic:? Wasthe late Neolithic a time of greater change in some regions? DrCOUDART'S assessment of early colonists' longhouses in centraland western Europe is followed, here, by four titles on the Baltic,where, by contrast, sedentism and farming were not necessarily directlyconnected with immigration immigration,entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. ; and then follow two sets of books on Britain& Ireland.