Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology pp 5415–5426Cite as

North American Rock Art

  • Reference work entry

  • 254 Accesses

Introduction and Definition

Rock art is a landscape art: images created on natural rock surfaces, such as cave walls and ceilings, cliff and boulder faces, and the natural ground surface. North America, especially western North America, has a very rich record of rock art. This includes rock paintings and drawings (pictographs; Fig. 1); peckings, incisings, and scratchings (engravings or petroglyphs; Fig. 2); and intaglios and rock alignments (earth figures or geoglyphs; Fig. 3). Although contemporary and historical Euro-Americans have sometimes created graffiti of various kinds on the landscape, rock art in this discussion is limited to imagery created by Native Americans.

North American Rock Art, Fig. 1
figure 1499 figure 1499

Pictographs or rock paintings are common in many regions in North America. Although red, made from ocher, is the most common color employed, this is an example of a black and white bichrome painting from the southern Sierra Nevada, California

Full size image

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   5,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bostwick, T.W. 2002. Landscape of the spirits: Hohokam rock art at South Mountain Park. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diaz-Granados, C. & J. Duncan. (ed.) 2004. The rock-art of eastern North America: capturing images and insight. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorn, R.I., D.S Whitley, N.V. Cerveny, S.J. Gordon, C.D. Allen & E. Gutbrod. 2008. The rock art stability index (RASI): improving the sustainability of rock art sites. Heritage Management 1: 37-70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heizer, R.F. & M. Baumhoff. 1962. Prehistoric rock art of Nevada and eastern California. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keyser, J.D. 1992. Indian rock art of the Columbia Plateau. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keyser, J.D. & M. Klassen. 2001. Plains Indian rock art. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keyser, J.D. & G. Poetschat. 2012. Clan crests and shamans’ masks: petroglyphs in southeast Alaska. Portland: Indigenous Cultures Preservation Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keyser, J.D. & D.S. Whitley. 2006. Sympathetic magic in western North American rock art. American Antiquity 71: 3-26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis-Williams. J.D. 2012. Rock art and shamanism, in J. McDonald & P. Veth (ed.) A companion to rock art: 17-33. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis-Williams, J.D. & T.A. Dowson. 1988. The signs of all times: entoptic phenomena in upper Palaeolithic art. Current Anthropology 29: 201-245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loendorf, L.L. 2008. Thunder and herds: the rock art of the High Plains. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 2012. Old petroglyphs on the North American High Plains, in J. Clottes (ed.) L’Art Pleistocene dans le Monde. Actes du Congres IFRAO 2010. Prehistoire, Art et Societies: Bulletin de la Societie Prehistorique Ariege-Pyrenees LXV-LXVI: 112-113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rajnovich, G. 1995.Reading rock art: interpreting the Indian rock paintings of the Canadian shield. Toronto: Natural Heritage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaafsma, P. 1980. Indian rock art of the Southwest. Santa Fe and Albuquerque: School of American Research and the University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, E.T. 1974. Alaskan petroglyphs and pictographs. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Alaska.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tratebas, A. 2012. Late Pleistocene rock art traditions on the North American Plains, in J. Clottes (ed.) L’Art Pleistocene dans le Monde. Actes du Congres IFRAO 2010. Prehistoire, Art et Societies: Bulletin de la Societie Prehistorique Ariege-Pyrenees LXV-LXVI: 108-109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitley, D.S. 2000.The art of the shaman: rock art of California. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 2001. Rock art and rock art research in worldwide perspective: an introduction, in D.S. Whitley (ed.) Handbook of rock art research: 7-54. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitley, D.S. & R.I. Dorn. 2012. The earliest rock art in far western North America, in J. Clottes (ed.) L’Art Pleistocene dans le Monde. Actes du Congres IFRAO 2010. Prehistoire, Art et Societies: Bulletin de la Societie Prehistorique Ariege-Pyrenees, LXV-LXVI: 106-107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitley, D.S. & T.K. Whitley. 2012. A land of visions and dreams, in T. Jones & J. Perry (ed.) Issues in contemporary California archaeology: 255-314. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitley, D.S., J.M. Simon & R.I. Dorn. 1999. The vision quest in the Coso Range. American Indian Rock Art 25: 1-32.

    Google Scholar 

Further Reading

  • Wellman, K. 1979. A survey of North American Indian rock art. Graz: Akademische Druck-und Verlagsanstalt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitley, D.S. (ed.) 2001. Handbook of rock art research. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 2011. Introduction to rock art research, 2nd rev edn. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ASM Affiliates, Inc., Tehachapi, CA, USA

    David S. Whitley

Authors
  1. David S. Whitley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David S. Whitley .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Cite this entry

Whitley, D.S. (2014). North American Rock Art. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2144

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2144

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation