Do You Hear What I See? Analyzing Visibility and Audibility in the Rock Art Landscape of the Alicante Mountains of Spain
This article examines the relationship between rock art landscapes and perception. It pays particular attention to vision and hearing, the two key senses for landscape awareness. Given the importance of scale in the study of rock art landscapes, a distinction is made between the adjacent landscape a...
| Authors: | ; ; ; |
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| Format: | Article |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication date: | 2017 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya) |
| Repository: | Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:recercat.cat:2445/153388 |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/153388 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Arqueologia del paisatge Art prehistòric Pintura rupestre Percepció visual Percepció auditiva Acústica Sistemes d'informació geogràfica Alacant (País Valencià) Landscape archaeology Prehistoric art Rocks paintings Visual perception Auditory perception Acoustics Geographic information systems Alicante (Valencian Community) |
| Summary: | This article examines the relationship between rock art landscapes and perception. It pays particular attention to vision and hearing, the two key senses for landscape awareness. Given the importance of scale in the study of rock art landscapes, a distinction is made between the adjacent landscape and the broader territorial scale. Several methodological improvements are suggested, including the importance of clipping viewsheds in GIS analysis and measuring directionality instead of orientation of the rock art shelters. In our case-study we explore the rock art landscape of the AlicanteMountains (northeastern Spain) during the Neolithic period (ca. 5600 to 2800 cal bc). A new interpretation of how the cognitive and symbolic behavior of communities changed over time is offered. We argue that the analysis of perception in rock art landscapes can provide novel ways of understanding communities' distinctive appropriation of their landscapes, linking both the tangible and intangible aspects of their culture. |
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