A comparison of rock art and bluff shelter spatial distributions in the eastern Arkansas Ozarks

ABSTRACT This paper examines the spatial distribution of rock art sites in the eastern Arkansas Ozarks in order to identify the types of environments that were preferred by those who made the art. With few exceptions, Ozark rock art tends to appear inside of bluff shelters. Statistical hypothesis testing is therefore used to compare the spatial distribution of rock art sites with that of bluff shelters lacking any rock art, thus revealing which types of settings were specifically preferred for creating rock art. Results indicate that rock art site locations were carefully selected based on desired characteristics, which generally include southern- to southeastern-facing aspects, distance from streams and rivers, and occasionally large viewsheds. These patterns are consistent with ethnohistorical accounts of the Caddo and Osage and suggest that cosmology played an important role in selecting locations for rock art creation.