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...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Díaz-Andreu, Margarita, García Atiénzar, Gabriel, García Benito, Carlos, Mattioli, Tommaso
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/153388
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/153388
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave: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)
Descripción
Sumario: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.