Visual Culture, Heritage and Identity: Using Rock Art to Reconnect Past and Present sets out a fresh perspective on rock art by considering how ancient images function in the present. In recent decades, archaeological approaches to rock paintings and engravings have significantly advanced our understanding of rock art in regional and global terms. On the other hand, however, little research has been done on contemporary uses of rock art. How does ancient rock art heritage influence contemporary cultural phenomena? And how do past images function in the present, especially in contemporary art and other media? In the past, archaeologists usually concentrated more on reconstructing the semantic and social contexts of the ancient images. This volume, on the other hand, focuses on how this ancient heritage is recognised and reified in the modern world, and how this art stimulates contemporary processes of cultural identity-making. The authors, who are based all over the world, off er attractive and compelling case studies situated in diverse cultural and geographical contexts.

About the Author
Andrzej Rozwadowski is Associate Professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, where he also completed his PhD. He is also an honorary Research Fellow of the Rock Art Research Institute of Wits in Johannesburg and has been involved in rock art research since the 1990s. ;

Jamie Hampson is a Senior Lecturer in the Humanities Department at the University of Exeter. He has a PhD and MPhil in archaeology from the University of Cambridge. He has written more than forty articles on Indigenous rock art and heritage.

Reviews

'This is a fascinating book that breathes new life into a subject dominated so long by traditional exegetic interpretations of prehistoric rock art which have achieved little collective consensus, although it is fair to say they have advanced our understanding. It is illustrated with beautiful and vibrant images throughout, and its anthropological/ethnoarchaeological approach is highly commended.'-Mark Merrony (2021): ANTIQVVS, Volume 3, Issue 4

'The editors are to be congratulated on promoting a relatively new concept in rock art research, namely bridging the philosophical gap between ancient and modern art forms, using anthropology and ethnography to legitimise the past and the way it interacts with the present. The publishers, Archaeopress, should also receive praise for producing such a handsome and colourful publication that truly reflects the beauty and rhetoric of modern (rock) art-making.' - George Nash (2022): Current World Archaeology #111

Book Information
ISBN 9781789698466
Author Dr Andrzej Rozwadowski
Format Paperback
Page Count 150
Imprint Archaeopress
Publisher Archaeopress
Weight(grams) 559g