CITCEM – Group “Territories and Landscapes

Late afternoon debates.

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Around Rock Art

October 15, 2021, 6:00 PM

Previous Note: Approved at the meeting of the Territories and Landscapes Group on July 9, 2021, the Late afternoon debates intend to be a space of approach and dialogue between all researchers of the T&P Group and all CITCEM researchers who want to join us. In an informal way and on a monthly or bimonthly basis, we will try to feed this space for debate, which is intended to be plural in themes, chronologies, and perspectives. Each session will host, within a common theme, two contributions from CITCEM researchers. This initiative is intended to contribute to a greater cohesion of the T&P Group and to an exchange of ideas among all its members. The first session, by the kind permission of Maria de Jesus Sanches and Joana Castro Teixeira, focuses on Rock Art. We are now accepting proposals for future editions that should be sent by email to mbarroca@letras.up.pt.

Link to Session 1 “Around Rock Art”:

https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/86721231929?pwd=MkZVZVdtSU9rRGdIcmJFcjBvVEhOUT09

Summary

Under a common title, this presentation has two objectives, which correspond to two parts. The first part will be presented by Maria de Jesus Sanches; the second by Joana de Castro Teixeira.

First part (Maria de Jesus Sanches)

It aims to show how art studies of prehistory and rock art have a long tradition in teaching and research at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto, where, since 1979-80, they have accompanied the creation, pioneer in Portugal, of the variants of the History course: first the variant of “History of Art and Archaeology”; then the variants of “History of Art” and “Archaeology”. This is the opportunity to remember pioneering professors: José António Ferreira de Almeida, Carlos Alberto Ferreira de Almeida, and Vitor Oliveira Jorge.

Also noteworthy are the research and studies, especially in Prehistoric (and Protohistoric) art, embodied in (i) scientific articles (published from 1980 to the present), (ii) in Master’s Dissertations and (iii) in Doctoral Theses. It should be noted here that the first (and, to date, only) PhD Thesis on Portuguese Paleolithic art was developed and defended at FLUP, by André Tomás Santos, in 2017. In this way, Portvgalia (New Series) has become a reference journal, much sought after by researchers studying prehistoric art.

The contextual integration of rock art and prehistoric art into studies of art, archaeology, and the human sciences in general will also be addressed informally.

Second part (Joana de Castro Teixeira)

It aims to dissect around the idea “how art is used and what it is used for”.

In this sense, we will try to frame the idea of art in prehistory (its contexts, supports and perspectives of integration in community life) and its dimension as an object of study in Archeology. Through some case studies, concerning rock art forms with different chronologies and different formal characteristics, we will try to show how the archaeologist approaches these materialities and how he integrates them in the construction of the historical narrative about past societies. Finally, we will make a short approach to the dimension and problematic of rock art as heritage in contemporary society.

(Maria de Jesus Sanches and Joana Castro Teixeira)