The Sustainability of Rock Art: Preservation and Research

Rock art is a widespread cultural heritage, representing an immovable element of the material culture created on natural rocky supports. Paintings and petroglyphs can be found within caves and rock shelters or in open-air contexts and for that reason they are not isolated from the processes acting at the Earth surface. Consequently, rock art represents a sort of ecosystem because it is part of the complex and multidirectional interplay between the host rock, pigments, environmental parameters, and microbial communities. Such complexity results in several processes affecting rock art; some of them contribute to its destruction, others to its preservation. To understand the effects of such processes an interdisciplinary scientific approach is needed. In this contribution, we discuss the many processes acting at the rock interface-where rock art is present-and the multifaceted possibilities of scientific investigations-non-invasive or invasive-offered by the STEM disciplines. Finally, we suggest a sustainable approach to investigating rock art allowing to understand its production as well as its preservation and eventually suggest strategies to mitigate the risks threatening its stability.

Automated summary

Rock art is a widespread cultural heritage that interacts with the complex interplay between rocks, pigments, environmental parameters, and microbial communities. Understanding the processes affecting rock art requires interdisciplinary scientific approaches. This article discusses the various processes at the rock interface, as well as the non-invasive or invasive scientific investigations offered by STEM disciplines. It also proposes a sustainable approach to investigate rock art for understanding its production, preservation, and mitigation of risks threatening its stability.