1492 BCE: A New World of Pre-Columbian Painting

Abstract

This essay offers an updated chronological sequence and stylistic analysis of one of the oldest dated Pre-Columbian rock art styles in the ancient Americas, the Nordeste Style centered in northeastern Brazil. Since its first publication in the 1990s, the Nordeste Style and its various sub-styles have been dated c. 8500 bce – 200 ce, but more recent and updated dating technology provides a revised chronology of the style, and a reconsideration of the relationship of the style to the broader Pre-Columbian world. The original scholarship from the 1990s championed the formal distinction and regionally limited boundaries of the style, but a more critical analysis of the formal characteristics of the style, in conjunction with the revised chronological sequence, suggest that the original Nordeste artists may in fact have participated in a hemisphere-wide artistic network, ranging as far north as the American Southwest.