Introduction

Rock art is an archaeological phenomenon found in many regions of the world. Despite this fact, and for a complicated series of historical reasons, it has long been ignored by most Anglophone archaeologists, whether working in the Americas, Africa, Europe, or Australia (e.g., see Whitley and Clottes 2005). The status of rock art research has started to change, however, with recent studies showing its importance in reconstructing symbolic and religious systems (e.g., Boyd 2003; Bradley 1997; Garlake 1995; Keyser and Klassen 2001; Layton 1992; Lewis-Williams 1981, 2002; Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1989; Lewis-Williams and Pearce 2004; Rajnovich 1994; Rozwadowski 2004), defining gender relations in societies (e.g., Hays-Gilpin 2004, 2005, 2006; Sundstrom 2008; Zubieta 2006, 2009), identifying cultural boundaries (e.g., Francis and Loendorf 2002) and cultural change (e.g., David 2002; Whitley et al. 2007), and studying the origins of art and belief (e.g., Clottes 2003; Clottes and Lewis-Williams 1998; Lewis-Williams 2003, 2010; Whitley 2009)—among other topics.