Rock Art and Regional Identity

A book like this lifts rock art from anecdotal and disorganized research to genuine confrontation with underlying theoretical and empirical issues. On that account, it will be of interest to all archaeologists, not just rock art specialists - Professor David Lewis-Williams (Rock Art Research Institute, Johannesburg) A welcome addition to rock art literature, addressing rock paintings and petroglyphs of little known regions in the Trans-Pecos of west Texas and South Africa. Hampson's provocative approach to meaning is certain to promote a continuing debate into the future on this challenging topic. - Dr Polly Schaafsma (School for Advanced Research, New Mexico) What do rock art images and rock art regions u amongst the most beguiling of all ancient traces u actually mean ? This central question is brilliantly explored and answered by Jamie HampsonAEs innovative and pioneering study. Hampson builds a secure basis for interpretation, with a focus on regionalism and also on the rhythms of ritual, and on embodiment. A remarkable study, imaginative and vivid, but always closely based on the field realities, just what is out there, just what it is we look at. - Dr Christopher Chippindale (University of Cambridge) Jamie Hampson has produced a landmark study of Trans-Pecos rock art that moves the field significantly further forward and will prove a key resource in North American u and global u rock art studies. Using a wide range of evidence, he convincingly shows how the art can most profitably be understood from an aeinsiderAE perspective grounded in the ethnography of relevant Native American groups and informed more broadly by parallel studies elsewhere in the world, notably southern Africa. Elegantly and accessibly written, it deserves a place on the bookshelves of anyone with interests in rock art or the North American past. - Professor Peter Mitchell (University of Oxford)