Rock Art of the Americas

This site contains excerpts from field journals I kept over the course of my graduate studies on prehistoric art of the Americas while at Virginia Commonwealth University. The journal entries are accompanied by photographs of some of the sites and museum collections I had the pleasure of studying. Not all the journals are represented here, only a select few. In the past I tried to maintain all my journals, but due to server problems and account limits that became practically impossible. The journals I have decided to revive should provide a decent introduction to some of the places I visited.

This site is not "academic" by any means. It is merely my attempt at sharing some of the experiences I had while pursuing research in various places in North, Central and South America. The entries are at times light-hearted and (hopefully) humorous. I have transcribed my notes as I wrote them at the end of each day with occassional omissions (site locations and inappropriate language, for example). This should not only give you an introduction to the prehistoric art, but some idea of the places I visited. As any researcher is aware, "fieldwork" is never limited to just the experiences at a given site. The local flavors of the communities where we pursue our research provide, in many cases, just as much of an education as the object of our specific studies. The journal entries I have included here are intended to provide a taste of the overall experience of travelling and researching in the Americas.

1999 - North America

2000 - Peru

2001 - Brazil

Links and Readings