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Over more than a century, several proposals have been made on the composition and technical features of the pictorial recipes used by Levantine prehistoric painters. In this paper all these proposals are surveyed and tested through systematic experiments to determine the technical affordance of pigments and binders in different pictorial recipes. Experimental results were then used as independent analytical parameters employed as diagnostic criteria to systematically study an archaeological sample of nine sites located in the Maestrazgo region (Spain) and their surroundings. Results reveal that out of 112 experimental recipes, only 16 afforded the production of paintings technically similar to Levantine rock art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, research into aggregation sites has focused on the material dimension of the archaeological record and has thus led to an incomplete view of the prehistoric reality. Early communities chose sites for many reasons. In this article, we explore the possibility that something as immaterial in nature as the acoustics of the sites may have influenced the selective choices made by the prehistoric peoples who created and used rock art in these meeting places. Employing the Impulse Response (IR) methodology, we systematically analyze the acoustic properties of Cuevas de la Araña, an aggregation site in eastern Spain with Levantine rock art, and 16 satellite sites in its surroundings. The results indicate that the acoustics of La Araña could have been important for creating affective engagement through musical performances carried out during the production and use of rock art, as well as for the choice of the site as a meeting place for Levantine populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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