Rock Art Research

The relationship between rock art and music is complex and has been studied from many angles. Competing interpretations of this relationship include shamanism, animism, art-for-art’s sake (l’art pour l’art) and ethnographic parallelism. The study of the Saharan rock art establishes that the authorship of rock art relates to a purely aesthetic activity that articulates local beliefs and sensibilities, independent of any shamanism or animism.