age

Pahranagat representational style
by Stephen Alvarez|January 29, 2019|age, Archaic, Great Basin, Mural of America, Native American, Nevada, North America, Pahranagat, petroglyph, Rock Art
Pahranagat anthropomorphic figures are unique to the Pahranagat Valley of Southern Nevada. There are two types of figures;
Barrier Canyon Rock Art, Utah
by Stephen Alvarez|January 16, 2019|2000 BP, Barrier Canyon Style, Native American, San Juan County, Utah
A Barrier Canyon Painting in Southern Utah
Grotte Pair-non-Pair, Aquitaine France
by Stephen Alvarez|October 1, 2018|age, Aurignacian, cave art, France, Paleolithic, petroglyph, Rock Art
The paleolithic cave Pair-non-Pair was found when a farmer went looking for a lost cow who had fallen in a hole, the cave he discovered
Chauvet Pont d'Arc Horses
Limited Edition Chauvet Portfolio to support the Ancient Art Archive
by Stephen Alvarez|September 2, 2017|36000 BP, cave art, Chauvet, Europe, France, Rock Art
I have selected 12 images from Chauvet Pont d'Arc Cave for a portfolio of prints to help support the Ancient Art Archive. Each image is limited to 12 prints each. Once they are sold there will be no more. The images are approximately 21" x 33" on 2 x 4-foot paper. Go here to see all the images and purchase. I'll be showing six of these prints in Oxford next month as part of a lecture at the Saïd Oxford Business School on September 13. The talk is free but registration is required. Go here for details. -Stephen Alvarez
The oldest site in North America
Paisley Cave, the oldest site in North America
by Stephen Alvarez|May 29, 2017|14300 BP, Great Basin
The road to 5 Mile Point and the Paisley Caves, Lake County Oregon.NRHP Reference #14000708 It is as true in the Northern Great Basin as it is with anywhere else on the planet. Art marks our progress across the world. As we expanded out of Africa more than 55,000 years ago and spread across the globe we left our mark in each new landscape we encountered. The Paisley Caves in Lake County, Oregon yield the oldest dates of human occupation in the Americas. The caves figure large in the history of the Great Basin. Digs have been going on there since the 1930s under the Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Recently, archaeologist Dennis Jenkins has found human coprolites dating to 14,300 years ago. There are charred camel bones that are 700 years older but they were excavated in the 1930s and Jenkins just doesn’t have the documentation to...
Dating the cave paintings of Spain
by Stephen Alvarez|March 11, 2017|36000 BP, cave art, Europe, pictograph, Rock Art, Spain
Alistair Pike discusses the work he has done with Dirk Hoffmann in dating the cave paintings of Northern Spain in this short video that I shot for National Geographic. The open question that Pike is trying to answer in his research is are all the cave paintings of Europe Human or are some of them Neanderthal? Its an interesting question. Neanderthals certainly could have produced some art, but there is not overwhelming evidence that they did. Refined dating techniques have pushed the age of the first paintings in Europe back. The oldest paintings are now known to be older than 40,000 years. But by the same token refinements in tracing migration by looking at the human genome indicate that homo sapiens sapiens first entered Europe 55,000 years ago. So the current oldest painting in El Castillo in Spain is well within the date range that modern humans occupied Europe. Proving that...
Bulls painted in Altamira Cave
Pointillism is 38,000 years old. We have invented nothing
by Stephen Alvarez|March 9, 2017|36000 BP, age, Altamira, Aurignacian, cave art, Gravettian, news, Rock Art, Spain
Pointillism is 38,000 years old. We have invented nothing.
Rochester Rock art Fremont Panel
The Rochester Rock Art Panel, Emery County Utah
by Stephen Alvarez|February 23, 2017|2000 BP, Emery County, Fremont
Rochester Rock Art Panel Panel, Utah by Ancient Art Archive on Sketchfab Located on a prominent spit of land above Muddy Creek and a side canyon, the Rochester Rock art panel is an extremely complex site. It incorporates images from the Fremont culture to historic times so the art varies in age from 2,000 years old to modern. The panel sees a lot of visitation and hence there has been a lot of damage over the years. 
Rainbow Man, Barrier Canyon Style Pictographs, Emery County Utah
by Stephen Alvarez|February 10, 2017|4000 BP, Barrier Canyon Style, Emery County, pictograph, Rock Art, Utah
A horned anthropomorphic petroglyph with rainbows enhanced with D-Stretch. Barrier Canyon Style Pictographs, Emery County Utah Within this faded group of Barrier Canyon Style pictograph is the Double Rainbow man. The figure is somewhat faded so I have run D-Stretch to bring it then recombined it with the original image to make the figure above. (more…)
High Gallery Barrier Canyon Style rock art panel, Wayne County Utah
by Stephen Alvarez|February 9, 2017|4000 BP, Barrier Canyon Style, petroglyph, pictograph, Rock Art, Utah, Wayne County
A detailed view of the High Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon, Wayne County Utah. High Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon, Wayne County, Utah Recorded August 2016 This is the first gallery in The Horseshoe (Barrier) Canyon section of Canyonlands National Park. It is on the East wall of the canyon far above the canyon floor. It has well-preserved anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures in classic Barrier Canyon Style. Besides the pictographs there are also a number of petroglyphs faintly visible within the panel.  BCS style art is thought to be about 4,000 years BP. There is a longer discussion of the age of the art on the NPS Horseshoe canyon page (here). To see the panel in greater context of the canyon look at this image