ABSTRACT
The title of this chapter indicates the complexity of the problem, for there are two different ways of examining the origins of Atlantic rock art. This account considers them both.
At one level the origins of this style raise the same problems as its chronology. One term refers to the date at which it first appeared, whilst the other traces its currency through to the period in which it lapsed. But the origins of Atlantic rock art raise much wider issues, for they also invite us to consider its essential character. In what circumstances were these images first devised? And what can we say about the sources from which they sprang?
