A case study to evaluate the use of microfading spectrometry (MFS) for the study of colored systems found in prehistoric rock art paintings was conducted in the Cova Remígia rock-shelter, Castellón (Spain). This rock shelter is part of the rock art sites of the Mediterranean basin on the Iberian Peninsula included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Some of the paintings belonging to this group ar...

As a uniquely human talent that has evolved from prehistoric cave paintings, art draws on many brain areas responsible for various cognitive processes. The pattern of degeneration in dementia leads to predictable changes in art. The visuospatial deficits in Alzheimer disease lead to less precision and attention to spatial relationships. In some cases of frontotemporal dementia, artistic creativ...

The Northumberland and Durham Rock Art Project (NADRAP), a three year English Heritage funded project formally completed in July 2008, set out to pilot a meth­ odology for creating an index of around 1,500 known rock art panels located across two counties of the north-east of England. Principally using around 60 volunteers recruited from the local community, this would provide a georeferenced d...

Sexuality as a social and psychological construct varies within the socio-cultural traditions in the history of the human society. The absence of prehistoric written records does not allow us to explore in depth its genesis, so we have to use models and hypotheses based on fragmented and indirect data and on comparative studies. In this session we will attempt to explore the following problems:...

A technique to digitally document and thereby permanently preserve prehistoric rock art has been developed. Laser scanning and texture mapping from digital images were used. Methods involving texture mapping require the exact relationships between the image and geometrical sensors. For geological structures, such as caves, the distinctive features required for registering the texture with the g...