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The rock and the hunter. The significance of rocks and boulders in rock art production in the western Himalayas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2017

Lars Reinholt Aas
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Abstract

This paper is an addition to the recent advances in the field of rock art research and aims to accentuate the significance of rocks and boulders in the production of rock art. I argue that the rock itself must be recognized as an important element in rock art production even in cases where there are no discernible connections between the rock art images and the irregularities found in the rock surface. The paper concerns rock carvings from the Taru Thang site in Ladakh in northern India and builds on ethnography drawn from the Dardic-speaking people of the western Himalayas. I argue that the rocks must be understood as devices of communication between hunters and their supernatural allies, and that the images represent messages conveyed through the rock interface. In these acts of communication, the geological irregularities of the rock surface serve no purpose and have been avoided rather than included in the compositions.

Keywords

Ladakhethnography and archaeologyrocks and communicationhunting and rock artDardic-speaking peoplerock interface
Type
Articles
Information
Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , December 2017 , pp. 155 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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