Making visible the invisible. A microarchaeology approach and an Archaeology of Color perspective for rock art paintings from the southern cone of South America

Abstract

From the literature research review of studies that involved the physicochemical characterization of rock art paintings in Argentina and Chile, we evaluate the impact of this analytic approach in our understanding of these visual and material practices in the southern region of South America. We identify the techniques, protocols and sample preparation, the information obtained, and archaeological questions addressed with these analyses. Consequently, we propose the need for a microarchaeological approach. We stress the materiality and particularities of the rock art practice, as an action performed over continuously altered walls, which forms complex microstratigraphies. Moreover, we highlight the benefits of obtaining comparable results with the use of paintings on different supports and contexts to hold an Archaeology of Color that allows studying not only the meaning, but also understand the exploitation, production, and consumption of color, being the painted rock art one form of the final stage of a complex sequence related to color materials.

Characterizing the pigments and paints of prehistoric artists

“…While the number of sites with black pigments analyzed is still low, this preliminary finding could suggest a better access to vegetal organic matters to be charred and employed as pictorial material, than to manganese sources (Domingo et al 2021). Something similar happens with black pigments in Latin America where charcoal has been detected randomly in all prehistoric cultures (Sepúlveda 2021). This does not mean that the prehistoric Levantine painters were not ingenious in finding their raw materials.…”

“…Over the last three decades, archaeometric approaches have highly increased our knowledge of prehistoric pigments used both in caves and in open-air rock shelters and boulders worldwide to create the first masterpieces of the history of art (Salomon et al 2008;Menu 2009;de Balbín Behrmann and Alcolea González 2009;Aubert et al 2014;Chalmin and Huntley 2017;Stuart and Thomas 2017;Domingo et al 2021;Gallinaro and Zerboni 2021;Sepúlveda 2021). The identification of the archaeological pigments and their sources (e.g.…”

“…A similar analytical approach can be also applied to the study of prehistoric portable art. A complete description of the commonest laboratory and portable analytical methods used in archaeological and cultural heritage research can be found in Pollard et al (2008), Nigra et al (2015), Madariagara (2015), Vandenabeele and Donais (2016), Bersani and Lottici (2016), Brunetti et al (2016), while their specific application to the characterization of prehistoric rock art pigments worldwide can be obtained in Vignaud et al (2006), Menu (2009), Aubert et al (2014), Chalmin and Huntley (2017), Stuart and Thomas (2017), Sepúlveda (2021), Gallinaro and Zerboni (2021), Domingo et al (2021), Hernanz and Gavira-Vallejo (2021), to name a few. It is worth mentioning that the analytical approaches and the scientific methods used in the study of rock art pigments have changed over the last 30 years, following and adapting to the contemporary technological advances that occurred in the field of portable spectroscopic analytical instruments.…”

“…Black prehistoric paintings have been produced with two different classes of natural pigments. Organic blacks, characterized by carbon-based pigments, mainly in the form of charcoal or soot, and mineral blacks, based on manganese oxides/hydroxides, are the principal components identified in black pictographs worldwide (Chalmin et al 2003;Vignaud et al 2006;Salomon et al 2008;de Balbín Behrmann and Alcolea González 2009;Menu 2009;Chalmin and Huntley 2017;Stuart and Thomas 2017;Gallinaro and Zerboni 2021;Domingo et al 2021;Sepúlveda 2021). In nature, carbonaceous matter can be found as geological deposits of graphite, coal, etc., but disordered and heterogeneous amorphous carbonaceous matters like charcoal or soot can be made by firing organic substances including wood or bone (Coccato et al 2015).…”

“…Jarosite is a beautiful yellow mineral, quite rare, available in Ariège near caves (Menu 2009). Jarosite has been also detected in several prehistoric yellow figures from Latin America (Sepúlveda 2021). Furthermore, while it is not specifically rock art, it is important to mention the unique collection of Palaeolithic painted portable art coming from Parpalló Cave, (Gandía, Spain), one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in the Spanish Mediterranean region.…”