[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6788\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EShelters with echoes thought to be preferred sites for prehistoric rock art\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Margarita D\u00edaz-Andreu and Dr Tommaso Mattioli, both from the University of Barcelona, Spain, spent two years visiting rock art sites in France, Italy and Spain to compare acoustics and assess their relevance to the choice of location.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027In a cliff such as Baume Brune (in Vaucluse, France), with 43 shelters, why were only eight selected to be painted?\u0027 said Prof. D\u00edaz-Andreu. \u0027There are other apparently similar ones nearby that were left empty. Why?\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EArmed with a specialised portable tool for measuring acoustics, the researchers showed the rock art sites studied have distinct acoustic features.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese take the form of either many echoes in the shelters where the art was found, or strong reverberations. At some sites, it was possible to hear sounds from great distances. Other undecorated shelters in the area lacked these special effects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027We found that in all of the areas that we tested, the people who had chosen places to decorate had selected places with good acoustics,\u0027 said Prof. D\u00edaz-Andreu, who is also research professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA). In two particular sites, the team demonstrated that the places that were decorated were those with more echoes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMusic\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis suggests that the rock art sites were used for rituals, or religious ceremonies, and may or may not have involved music.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027As archaeologists we are obsessed with material culture,\u0027 said Prof. Diaz-Andreu, \u0027But in fact, sound and music are very important to the way in which we feel and the way we react. Sound has special properties that facilitate us to reach a type of mental state that is prone to enhance religious feelings.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018The echoes were most likely perceived to be voices coming from the spirits living within the rock,\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EMargarita D\u00edaz-Andreu, University of Barcelona, Spain\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Jamie Hampson, a researcher at the University of York, UK, who works on a project exploring the modern-day use of rock art (see box), agreed that the rock art has spiritual significance. \u0027We\u0027ve got a lot of ethnography from groups in South Africa in particular about the rock face being a veil between this world and the spirit world,\u0027 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. D\u00edaz-Andreu and Dr Mattioli believe that prehistoric humans may have used echolocation techniques such as tongue clicks, cane tapping and handclapping to select the shelters. However, this is impossible to prove.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027Clicking and handclapping do not leave a trace in the archaeological record,\u0027 Prof. D\u00edaz-Andreu said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERock art is found at hundreds of thousands of sites throughout the world. Throughout history, people from all walks of life have used rock carvings, engravings and paintings to express themselves, and the oldest sites found are more than 65,000 years old.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EManual rubbings\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUp until now, researchers have had to take manual rubbings of rock art to analyse in the lab. But this low-tech, 2D and labour-intensive option meant that important data, such as colour and the 3D nature of indentations in the rock, were missing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow, new zoomable 3D digital models of rock art sites are providing archaeologists with better tools for analysing data \u2013 and they could shed light on why certain sites were chosen. They could also help archaeologists work out whether traces at certain sites are man-made or natural, and potentially identify the styles of individual artists.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Sue Cobb of the University of Nottingham, UK, led the 3D-PITOTI project, which developed fully interactive virtual replicas of several rock art sites at Valcamonica, Northern Italy, in high detail.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe said: \u0027The archaeologists were looking for a way to analyse the content that they were studying in more detail and in different ways. They wanted a better way to view and compare small details of different rock art figures, identify families of figures, and make the 3D rock art available to their fellow colleagues and the public.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo build the models, the project team developed an entirely new scanning device to collect images of the rock surface. Specially designed to capture the colour of the rock art and intricate details, at the same time it is lightweight and portable enough to be easily transported across inaccessible areas, hence the nickname \u0027walking-stick scanner\u0027.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe scanner is so powerful it can reconstruct surface points at 0.1 millimetre spatial resolution, and uses a high=powered flash.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ciframe src=\u0022https:\/\/horizon-magazine.eu\/embed?url=https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/uGMtPyddD4o?rel=0\u0026amp;showinfo=0\u0022 width=\u0022560\u0022 height=\u0022315\u0022 frameborder=\u00220\u0022 allowfullscreen=\u0022allowfullscreen\u0022\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe 3D images allow archeologists to analyse the rock art in laboratory conditions and share their findings in real time. Video courtesy of 3D PITOTI.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA feature of the finished 3D models is that you can zoom in and out from the images easily, and virtually fly over the sites. To achieve this effect, the team took photographs from near-range, mid-range and far-range locations to capture the rock art from a range of distances and angles.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe 3D models can be viewed via a 3D multi-user touch table, a multi-user 3D wall display, or individual tablets. Tourists can use the models in museums and visitor centres, to view rock art that is inaccessible or highly vulnerable to damage.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs well as providing a faithful record of art that is one day likely to vanish from exposure to wind, rain and snow, the highly detailed 3D models are helping scientists answer questions such as whether the view from a particular place was important in selecting the site for decoration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027Archaeologists can compare rock art images located in different sites,\u0027 said Dr Cobb. \u0027They ask - is there anything meaningful about those locations and the images of rock art that are placed at that site that can help us understand why that site was meaningful to people at that time?\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research in this article has been funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022moreinfoblock\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3\u003EModern-day use of rock art imagery\u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ERock art sites can be a big tourist draw and scientists have been looking at how the experience can best be managed. Dr Jamie Hampson from the University of York found that visitor perceptions of artwork and the management of rock art sites in South Africa, Australia and the US were enhanced when there were indigenous tour guides and staff at the sites.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018A lot of visitors point out how much more meaningful their experience is if they\u2019re accompanied by a guide who is part of an indigenous group in the area,\u2019 explained Dr Hampson.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s clear that for many indigenous people, rock art holds a symbolic and spiritual meaning. However, it is often used to create tourist memorabilia, without seeking permission from the relevant indigenous people. Certain images are considered sacred and are not suitable for this kind of use.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018So much of this is about respect and courtesy and taking all possible measures to ensure permission is granted before images are borrowed,\u2019 said Dr Hampson.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe work done by Dr Hampson\u2018s ROCKART project encouraged the employment of more indigenous staff at heritage sites, and raised awareness about image appropriation. The project also aided several Aboriginal corporations in Australia to set up and run their own rock art visitor centres, fueling entrepreneurship in remote areas.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/bit.ly\/newsalertsignup\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/horizon-magazine.eu\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/news-alert-final.jpg\u0022 alt width=\u0022983\u0022 height=\u0022222\u0022\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-v07wurybtp3gxqzouczgldjqtc1cuafj7r4lrgnek28\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-v07wUryBTP3GXQzoUCzGLDJQTc1cUAFj7R4LrgNek28\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]