ARTISTS · Anthropogenic Residue Traces In Speleothems: new methodology for exploring Temporality of human use in rock art Sites

Rock art, one of humanity’s earliest symbolic expressions, is considered a milestone in human evolution. Despite extensive global research, little is known about the specific patterns and rhythms of how past societies used rock art sites. ARTISTS project seeks to understand patterns of use of rock art sites, which hold a special place in prehistoric societies' physical and symbolic territories through three main objectives: 1) Identify and characterize anthropogenic traces (such as chars) from complementary sites (geography, climate and chronology) in Spain and France using an integrated multi-method protocol, 2) Document the temporality of rock art site use with micro-chronological precision and calendar accuracy, and 3) Synthesize findings to understand the dynamics of site use from archaeological and anthropological perspectives. To achieve these goals, Dr. Vandevelde will study sooty speleothems, which are exceptional archives for micro-chronological research. They offer precise radiometric dating and high-resolution paleoenvironmental data through annual laminae. They also serve as anthropogenic records, capturing traces of human activity, such as soot from lighting, allowing the construction of a relative chronology of visits at a site. These detailed chronologies can reveal occupation patterns on an annual scale, providing groundbreaking insights into human mobility. By targeting rock art sites, ARTISTS will shed new light on occupation dynamics of sites visited for symbolic activities. A decorated cave is not a vitrified site, and recent studies show that the temporal complexity of rock art sites is much greater than previously believed. By combining innovative in-lab and on-site multidisciplinary methods from archaeology and geosciences, ARTISTS can reveal this complexity with unprecedented accuracy. For the first time, integration of rock art sites into annual or multi-year cycles of nomadism will be discussed directly from archaeological data.