![]() ![]() Rock art in much of Canada is linked with the search for helping spirits and with shamanism - a widespread religious tradition in which the SHAMAN's major tasks are healing and prophesy, along with the vision quest. ![]() While the tradition of rock art was no doubt brought into Canada by its earliest occupants during the last ICE AGE, it is most unlikely that examples of great antiquity will ever be found. No foolproof method for the precise dating of rock art has been discovered, other than speculative association with stratified, relatively datable archaeological remains. It is part of a worldwide genre of prehistoric art, which includes the cave paintings of Spain and France as well as the rock art of Scandinavia, Finland, northeast Asia and Siberia. In fact, pictographs and petroglyphs may constitute Canada's oldest and most widespread artistic tradition. Rock art sites have been discovered throughout all Canada. ![]() Petroglyphs are carvings that are incised, abraded or ground by means of stone tools upon cliff walls, boulders and flat bedrock surfaces. Although the majority of the images were traced with the finger, some could be executed with brushes made of animal or vegetal fibres. Pictographs are paintings that were made by applying red ochre or, less commonly, black, white or yellow dye. Rock art is generally divided in two categories: carving sites (petroglyphs) and paintings sites (pictographs). ![]()
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