(Chippendale 1996, Dronfield 1995, Faulkner 1996, Fullagar 1996a, Fullagar 1996b, Postgate 1995, Tacon 1996) Faulkner and Simek (1996) reported on a series of caves in east Tennessee that were discovered with rock art from the Mississippian culture that they called "mudglyphs." These were images drawn with fingers on mud, clay and other soft material in the deep part of caves. The imagery was recognizable from other sources and demonstrated the possibility of finding "art" in materials, softer than rock, that are well preserved deep in caves. The cave was referred to as 1st Unnamed Cave because there is nothing blocking the entrance or protecting the site yet. Locatoring information was therefore deleted or generalized. Christopher Chippendale, the editor of Antiquity who has taken some criticism for publishing the Jinmium, Australia findings, wrote extensively in his editorial how the long, medium, and short chronologies for Australia have all been published in Antiquity and he is doing his job in publishing the report from Fullagar, Price, and Head. In the December 1996 issue of Antiquity, Fullagar, Price and Head published the results of their thermoluminescence (TL) dating on cupmarks and other artifacts at the base of a sandstone rock shelter at the Jinmium site in northern Australia. The lowest pecked mark was found 97 cm below the ground surface on a piece of sandstone that had spalled off and was buried. Other artifacts and human occupation in the area were dated to at least 116,000 BP +/- 12,000 years. The rock engraving or cupmarks were dated to earlier than 58,000 years. Besides rewriting the dates for the earliest occupants of Australia, this research showed the possibilities of obtaining early dates at the base of rock shelters (or boulders) and the applicability of TL dating to sites where C14 dating would not be able to go back far enough in time because of the length of its half-life. TL dates are still controversial and are considered somewhat experimental by some archaeologists. Fullagar, Furby, and Hardy (1996) reported that after the SAA meeting in New Orleans there is a growing consensus with regard to the possibility of obtaining useful information from residues on stone artifacts such as identifying blood, plant material, DNA residues and identification of the species that made up the residue. This has obvious implications for rock art sites with stone artifacts, paint and pigments, brushes, and so forth and may advance the techniques available for dating rock art sites. In December 1996, Paul Tacon favorably reviewed an important publication edited by Helskog & Olsen entitled Perceiving rock art: social and political perspectives. This edited volume reviewed the recent history of rock art research in various areas of the world-with the notable exception of the New World. David Lewis-Williams and others provided a well done summary of recent developments in European rock art. Postgate, Wang and Wilkinson (1995) made an interesting point with implications for rock art studies when they reported that an apparent preponderance of ceremonial and symbolic usage in early scripts in different parts of the world seems to have had more to do with archaeological preservation than with any deep seated function of the scripts. In other words, durable materials were preferred as the vehicles for ceremonial texts and so had a better chance of survival than utilitarian texts. It may have been the case that Chinese, Egyptian, or Mesoamerican texts were just as utilitarian as those in Mesopotamia. Utilitarian matters were simply recorded on more perishable items and durable materials were used more for ceremonial matters. Jeremy Dronfield (1995) in an article describing his research analyzing the megalithic art of Irish passage-tombs with their spirals, lozenges and turning curves, looked at the role of drugs and alcohol in the lives of prehistoric Europeans, thus carrying forward an interpretation begun by Bradley (1989). Dronfield argued that Lewis-Williams and Dowson's methodology (1993) was flawed but their conclusions were substantially correct. Citing Bourguignon (1974) who said the number of existing societies where some form of consciousness-altering was not practiced was negligible, Dronfield looked at distributions of highly specific diagnostic shapes and patterns and concluded with approximately 80% confidence that Irish passage-tomb art is fundamentally similar to (as opposed to merely resembling) arts derived from endogenous subjective vision. The endogenous diagnostics included meanders, arc spirals, filigrees, loop arcs, multiple spirals, fortifications, and small arcs. Chippendale, C. 1996 Editorial. Antiquity 70(270):729-739. Dronfield, T. 1995 Subjective vision and the source of Irish megalithic art. Antiquity 69(264):539-549. Faulkner, C. H., Jan F. Simek 1996 1st Unnamed Cave: a Mississippian period cave art site in east Tennessee, U.S.A. Antiquity 70(270):774-784. Fullagar, R. a. J. F., Bruce Hardy 1996a Residues on stone artefacts:state of a scientific art. Antiquity 70(270):740-745. Fullagar, R. L. K., and D.M. Price, L. M. Head 1996b Early human occupation of northern Australia: archaeology and thermoluminescence dating of Jinmium rock-shelter, Northern Territory. Antiquity 70(270):751-773. Postgate, N., Tao Wang, Toby Wilkinson 1995 The evidence for early writing: utilitarian or ceremonial? Antiquity 69(264):459-80. Tacon, P. S. C. 1996 Book Review: Helskog& Olsen (ed.) Perceiving rock art: social and political perspectives. Antiquity 70(270):1015-1016.
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