The Hidden Code: Coding and Classifying in rock art. A Northwestern Patagonia study case

V. SCHEINSOHN; C. SZUMIK; S. LEONARDT; F.RIZZO

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory

Springer

Año: 2016

1072-5369

In spite of its importance for rock art studies, rock art motifs coding and classification process is not always made explicit. In this discussion of the process of rock art classification we consider an exploratory research employing two different criteria for the coding of a northwestern Patagonian rock art motifs database. One coding makes use of a ?lumping? criterion, and the other uses a ?splitting? criterion. Each of these criteria will be evaluated using cladistic analysis, recording how each coding criterion affects results. As a conclusion, and given our results, the use of more than one coding criterion is suggested when classifying rock art