Testing tools: an experimental investigation into technical and economic aspects of Levantine rock art production

Abstract

For over a century, scholars have presented several proposals regarding the paint application tools used to create Levantine rock art. However, such proposals have largely rested on theoretical assumptions and inductive inferences that have not been rigorously tested. In this experimental investigation, we compiled these hypotheses and crafted 60 tools that were tested through systematic experiments to assess their performance and technical affordances for the creation of images with techno-visual features equivalent to those of the Levantine paintings. These experiments allowed us to obtain analytical parameters with independent validation, which were used as diagnostic criteria to analyse the rock art from nine sites located in eastern Spain. Results reveal that out of 60 tools, only 10 –five hair brushes, three plant brushes, and two feather brushes–afforded the production of images with techno-visual features highly similar to those of the archaeological paintings. Subsequently, we employed these tools to paint 10 full-size replicas of Levantine motifs, aiming to explore their potential role in the toolkit of prehistoric painters. Drawing on the data from both the systematic and the replicative experiments, and taking into account the level of labour investment required by the technical operations that permeate the production of the paint application tools, we suggest that Levantine technology was not based on an economic logic aimed at minimizing the costs associated with producing the images, but rather on a perspective where the priority was creating paintings with specific techno-visual qualities that reinforced the information transmitted through the graphic code.