Through qualitative analysis of newspaper comments, this paper examines diverse interpretations of Stonehenge and public attitudes towards archaeology. This research reveals that archaeological news, like other evidence-based disciplines, faces challenges of scepticism and backlash in the post-Brexit, post-pandemic era. While Stonehenge continues to attract substantial archaeological news coverage, public interest follows predictable patterns, with persistent fascination for contrarian, esoteric and nationalist narratives. Most archaeological news briefly enters public consciousness before fading, leaving these enduring tropes intact. This work emphasizes the gap between theoretical debates and scholarly knowledge, and public interest in sites such as Stonehenge, which challenges archaeologists to reconsider their approaches to those outside the discipline.
I found the Ju|'hoan San folklore I recorded in Botswana in 1971, when Ju|'hoan people had a completely oral culture, very elusive. Recording many variants of stories, I learned that each storyteller told a given story differently, their performed versions ranging from full to fragmentary, often with vast differences in characters and details, yet always, intriguingly, 'the same' story. Piecing together meanings of these elusive stories required my attention to the cloud of allusions surrounding every word and concept. I saw that studying San folklore was impossible without the information anthropologists gather as ethnography. I also became aware, through David Lewis-Williams' seminal work Believing and Seeing and years of correspondence with him, that detailed ethnographic understanding and the study of many variants likewise supported interpretation of the rock art of the |Xam San. We agreed that San verbal and visual arts were ever-growing, highly social forms, cementing diverse individuals, through personal participation, into effective cultural understandings. I end by celebrating the recently published book of Lewis-Williams and his colleague David Witelson, The Language of Myth and Art. It importantly breaks new ground in understanding the performed nature of, and the ethnographic background to, ancient social processes underlying both expressive forms.
This short article highlights a number of astronomical and cultural parallels between a recently discovered seventh-century post row at Hezingen in the Netherlands, and the 'east-west axis of structural symmetry' identified by Brian Hope-Taylor during his excavations at Yeavering in Northumberland (from 1953 to 1962). At both sites we appear to see related cultures, in the same time period, using linear post settings to monitor the progress and position of the equinoctial sunrise along their local horizon. Furthermore, at Yeavering it can be demonstrated that the sunrise alignments associated with Hope-Taylor's east-west axis, and enigmatic structure E, could have been used to regulate the lunar months of the pagan Anglo-Saxon year (described by Bede in 725 AD). Thus, it is suggested that both sites may provide evidence of a shared equinoctial cult or deity, with the most likely candidate being the Bede's goddess Eostre and her lunar month Eosturmonath (from late March to April).
Early visual culture in prehistoric caves is notably characterised by the frequent use of red pigment, dynamic forms and its distribution throughout the cave environment. Given the evolutionary relevance of the colour red for trichromatic species, here we hypothesise that its use served a specific perceptual function. This eye-tracking study explores whether the colour of early non-figurative signs influences visual perception through bottom-up attentional processes. The results indicate that red signs are more quickly detected and sustain longer observation times than black signs. Moreover, when presented alongside figurative motifs, red signs continue to attract greater visual attention. These findings suggest that red signs may have functioned as visual markers, guiding perception and navigation through challenging cave environments by using the attentional salience of the colour red. Based on its saliency, red markers would contribute to domesticate the space thanks to the causal relationship established between them and human presence.
Although shamanism and rock art have been widely discussed worldwide in recent decades, surprisingly little is still known about shamanic rock art in Siberia. What makes Siberian shamanism different from other forms of shamanism, however, is the fact that in Siberia it is a historical indigenous cultural tradition, not just a theory of interpretation. Siberian shamanism is also rich in ethnographic record, yet this data has rarely been used by archaeologists. The article presents new research from the territory of the Republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia, where a unique combination of petroglyphs depicting kams, or 'shamans', and the shape of the rock and its natural features have been observed. Importantly, this replicates an earlier discovery in the Minuinsk Basin, where a shaman holding a drum was placed in a large rock crevice. Rather than generalising, this research contextualises the issue and for the first time identifies a local symbolic pattern in Siberian shamanic rock art, which, based on ethnography, may refer to an initiation ceremony involving a symbolic journey into the interior of a mountain. Finally, implications for the broader issue of shamanism and rock art are shortly discussed.
The intricate relationship between Cultural Heritage, Landscapes, Cultural Identities, and Local Communities requires a deeply interdisciplinary approach. By fostering a sense of place and community, Cultural Heritage strengthens social bonds, enhances well-being, and supports civic engagement. In fact, individual disciplines often struggle to establish a common framework. Thus, this study aims to bridge perception-based methodologies from social psychology and Heritage Studies with spatial approaches from Landscape Studies. The research explores the intersection between the visible and the perceived, recognising it as a crucial factor in cultural identity formation. Additionally, 3D data are examined as a pivotal tool for analyzing these dynamics. This study integrates a quantitative survey assessing Place Attachment, Community Attachment, Historical Place Identity, Place Social Bonding, and Perceived Visibility with 3D visibility analysis to examine the relationship between psychological and spatial dimensions. The findings address key questions on how perceived and physical visibility influence cultural significance, identity formation, and emotional responses to heritage landmarks. This interdisciplinary approach challenges static notions of Heritage by emphasizing its evolving nature, shaped by contemporary societal interactions.
Kaingo Sheep Rock Shelter in the Waterberg, Limpopo Province, preserves a complex palimpsest of images made by hunter-gatherer, farmer, and possibly herder peoples. Through detailed visual analysis of superimpositions, pigment choice, technique, and manner of depiction, we identify seven phases of art making. We argue that each phase represents an act of visual communication, which later artists responded to, forming a dialogue through time and between different cultures. The resulting assemblage records moments of contact, contestation, mutual influence, and reinterpretation. Kaingo Sheep Rock Shelter rock art functions as both a literal and metaphorical palimpsest - a continually reinterpreted record of presence, power, and belonging within a shared ritual landscape.
What do hunter-gatherer rock art motifs portray, and what does this tell us about their religious experiences? David Lewis-Williams was instrumental in establishing the connection between certain cultures' corpora of art, shamanism and altered states of consciousness imagery. But one aspect of that spectrum of consciousness has been previously understudied. This is the place of Jung's 'Big Dreams,' including specifically nightmares, in hunter-gatherer religious experiences. A review of sleep and dream research and far western North American ethnography demonstrates the key connection between shamanism, rock art and nightmares. It also explains the logical empirical basis of some heretofore puzzling aspects of their beliefs and symbolism, including widespread fears of the supernatural.
Folktales and oral narratives, are stories that nurtureand reinforce collective imagination, while preserving cultural roots, resulting in shared cultural spaces and practices. Kerala's folklore and oral tradition decode the rich cultural fabric of the state, interlaced with memories and practices deeply embedded in local communities. Pranthan Kuriachan, an enigmatic figure in Kerala's Christian folklore, is central to a historical legacy that is ritualised within vernacular devotional practice, producing a local moral belief system. He serves as a cultural and historical repository, encapsulating the mystical attributes and reflecting the syncretism between Christian motifs and indigenous beliefs within the cultural milieu of Mattancherry, a neighbourhood in the city of Cochin. Focussed on the nexus between culture and history, the study explores how this memory of resistance becomes ritualised within vernacular devotional practice, where oral narratives, everyday vows, and local ritual acts gradually domesticate ecclesiastical history into a lived moral system centred on Pranthan Kuriachan. Drawing on cultural and communicative memory, the paper demonstrates how historical rupture persists not merely as commemoration but as memory enacted through practice, producing a localised belief system rooted in shared experience.
This article examines the unique iconography of Mithras-Attis as a syncretic figure within the religious and cultural context of the Bosporan Kingdom. Five terracotta plaques, discovered in Crimea and dated to the late Hellenistic and early Imperial periods serve as the starting point for the analysis. Unlike standard tauroctony scenes, these images combine attributes of both Mithras and Attis, revealing an unconventional representation that demands deeper interpretation. By applying Carl Jung's theory of archetypes, the study explores how the father and mother archetypes are symbolically brought into confrontation in the figure of Mithras-Attis, resulting in a complex image of individuation, sacrifice, and catharsis. The bull-slaying motif is interpreted as a psychological struggle with instinctual impulses and the paternal prohibition, while Attis's castration myth reflects a confrontation with the maternal archetype. Furthermore, a Deleuzian framework highlights the productive dimension of desire and the dynamics of power relations embedded in the iconography. Rather than viewing this syncretism as a mechanical fusion of cults, the study suggests that it emerges from the interaction of universal psychic structures with local cultural conditions. Ultimately, the Mithras-Attis imagery is shown to embody both repression and creation, reflecting the interplay of myth, psychology, and religious practice.
This paper fills a research gap on the quarrying, transportation, and erection of megaliths among the Naga communities of Northeast India and South Asia. I draw insights from a megalith-building event documented in 2020 at Willong Khullen, a Maram Naga village in Manipur. In this case, a quarry crew spent 16 days extracting a stone and transporting it approximately 42 kilometres. Contemporary practices combine modern and traditional methods, yet indigenous knowledge shows that villagers once quarried and transported stones on wooden sledges. Survey findings lead me to argue that small-scale traditional societies in the highland regions of South Asia could not have transported stones over long distances. Instead, they transported stones only over shorter ranges - typically less than five kilometres - because of rugged terrain and dense vegetation. I further argue that both the availability of suitable stone and the ability to mobilise a workforce played a decisive role in megalith construction among the Naga communities.
This study examines the rock-carved (troglodyte) spaces in the Cappadocia region from an a-tectonic perspective, re-examining the fundamental principles that constitute the discipline of architecture. Unlike traditional tectonic architecture, these structures are shaped through excavation and subtraction, offering a spatial experience that questions the structural norms of architecture, such as gravity, load bearing, and structural calculations. These spaces are defined within the framework of Descartes' concept of '& eacute;tendu' as purposely segregated voids within an unlimited natural context and propose an alternative definition of the philosophical foundations of architecture. This study presents a critical theoretical literature review methodology that examines architectural theories and philosophies of space, exploring the fundamental conceptual frameworks of these theoretical approaches. By questioning the place of the concept of tectonics in architectural literature, alternative ways of understanding the philosophical and theoretical foundations of architecture are developed. The research focuses on two main topics: First, it discusses how rock-cut spaces offer a unique spatial paradigm in terms of architectural theories; second, it examines the spatial, structural, and legal problems these spaces face in a limited number of contemporary practices. In conclusion, cave structures in Cappadocia provide an alternative perspective for architectural education and practice.
Across Anatolia's three coasts, there are castles or towers on small, deserted islands, mainly built for defence in the Byzantine period. During the Ottoman period, these structures were named Maiden's Tower, and local stories about princesses locked in these towers emerged, later becoming promoted as tourist attractions. This article reveals how the naming and myths of these towers contrast with their male-dominant architectural reality and criticises the narratives' patriarchal mentality that restricts women to inaccessible spaces. The study employs a conceptual framework on storytelling in architecture, reviews prior research on selected Maiden's Towers and Castles, and analyses travel literature to trace the tales' origins. It discusses the interplay between narratives and the architecture of Maiden Towers through feminist methodologies and architectural analysis. The conclusion clarifies how the study offers a critical perspective on gender codes in architecture, narratives, and the conservation of Maiden Towers.
The conservation of historic gardens is crucial for safeguarding monumental, aesthetic, historical, ecological, and economic values in countries worldwide. This study employs textual, iconographic, statistical, and comparative analytical methods, using 400 private garden records collected in The Complete Works of Song and Song dynasty paintings as research material. It aims to restore the real appearance of planting design in private gardens during the Song dynasty while revealing the laws of change and the factors that influence them. The study found that the plant selection in private gardens during the Song dynasty was diverse, and the prevalence of native tree species remained stable. The decreasing prevalence of peonies, peach trees, and plum trees in private gardens and the rise in popularity of plum blossom, sweet osmanthus, and crabapple reflected changes in the literati's aesthetic preferences and the influence of Neo-Confucianism. Moreover, the private gardens of the Song dynasty constructed a harmonious and unified garden space. This study validates the enduring relevance of the Song dynasty's planting wisdom, offering foundational principles for both the restoration of historic gardens and the development of sustainable contemporary landscapes.
