Seeing is deceiving: Rock art and the non-visual

The visual primacy of rock-art imagery can sometimes blind researchers to equally important but less obvious, non-visual aspects of rock art. Recent work from southern Africa indicates that certain San rock engravings were hammered, rubbed, cut and flaked in order to produce sound; to touch certain numinous images and rocks; and to possess pieces of potent places. By combining rock art's non-visual appeal with the concepts of questing and desire we may understand how body, landscape and mindscape combined in an aesthetic and sensory articulation.

Keywords:

• Rock Art
• Southern Africa
• Sound
• Touch
• Quest