Petroglyph

A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images. Petroglyphs are found worldwide, and are often associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek prefix petro-, from πέτρα petra meaning "stone", and γλύφω glýphō meaning "carve", and was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe.

For other uses, see Petroglyph (disambiguation).
"Rock carving" redirects here. For other uses, see Rock art.
Rock art in Iran, Teimareh region
Rock carving known as Meerkatze (named by archaeologist Leo Frobenius), rampant lionesses in Wadi Mathendous, Mesak Settafet region of Libya.
European petroglyphs: Laxe dos carballos in Campo Lameiro, Galicia, Spain (4th–2nd millennium BCE), depicting cup and ring marks and deer hunting scenes
Petroglyph of a camel; Negev, southern Israel.
Reclining Buddha at Gal Vihara, Sri Lanka. The image house that originally enclosed the remains can be seen.
Petroglyphs of the archaeological site of Las Labradas, situated on the coast of the municipality of San Ignacio (Mexican state of Sinaloa)

Another form of petroglyph, normally found in literate cultures, a rock relief or rock-cut relief is a relief sculpture carved on "living rock" such as a cliff, rather than a detached piece of stone. While these relief carvings are a category of rock art, sometimes found in conjunction with rock-cut architecture,[1] they tend to be omitted in most works on rock art, which concentrate on engravings and paintings by prehistoric or nonliterate cultures. Some of these reliefs exploit the rock's natural properties to define an image. Rock reliefs have been made in many cultures, especially in the ancient Near East.[2] Rock reliefs are generally fairly large, as they need to be to make an impact in the open air. Most have figures that are larger than life-size.

Stylistically, a culture's rock relief carvings relate to other types of sculpture from period concerned. Except for Hittite and Persian examples, they are generally discussed as part of the culture's sculptural practice.[3] The vertical relief is most common, but reliefs on essentially horizontal surfaces are also found. The term relief typically excludes relief carvings inside natural or human-made caves, that are common in India. Natural rock formations made into statues or other sculpture in the round, most famously at the Great Sphinx of Giza, are also usually excluded. Reliefs on large boulders left in their natural location, like the Hittite İmamkullu relief, are likely to be included, but smaller boulders described as stele or carved orthostats.

In scholarly texts, a petroglyph is a rock engraving, whereas a petrograph is a rock painting. In common usage, the two words are synonymous.[4][5][6] Both types of image belong to the wider and more general category of rock art or parietal art. Petroforms, or patterns and shapes made by many large rocks and boulders over the ground, are also quite different. Inuksuit are also not petroglyphs, they are human-made rock forms found only in the Arctic region.

History
Composite image of petroglyphs from Scandinavia (Häljesta, Västmanland in Sweden). Nordic Bronze Age. The glyphs have been painted to make them more visible.
A petroglyph of a caravan of bighorn sheep near Moab, Utah, United States; a common theme in glyphs from the desert Southwest and Great Basin

Petroglyphs have been found in all parts of the globe except Antarctica, with highest concentrations in parts of Africa, Scandinavia, Siberia, southwestern North America, and Australia; many examples of petroglyphs found globally are dated to approximately the Neolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary (roughly 10,000 to 12,000 years ago), though some, such as those found at Kamyana Mohyla, were created earlier than this; some petroglyph sites in Australia are estimated to date back 27,000 years, and other examples of petroglyphs are estimated to be as old as 40,000 years.

Around 7,000 to 9,000 years ago, following the introduction of a number of precursors of writing systems, the existence and creation of petroglyphs began to suffer and tail off, with different forms of art, such as pictographs and ideograms, taking their place. However, petroglyphs continued to be created and remained somewhat common, with various cultures continuing to use them for differing lengths of time, including cultures who continued to create them until contact with Western culture was made in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Interpretation

Many hypotheses exist as to the purpose of petroglyphs, depending on their location, age, and subject matter. Some petroglyph images most likely held a deep cultural and religious significance for the societies that created them. Many petroglyphs are thought to represent a type of symbolic or ritualistic language or communication style that remains not fully understood. Others, such as geocontourglyphs, more clearly depict or represent a landform or the surrounding terrain, such as rivers and other geographic features.

Some petroglyph maps, depicting trails, as well as containing symbols communicating the time and distances travelled along those trails, exist; other petroglyph maps act as astronomical markers. As well as holding geographic and astronomical importance, other petroglyphs may also have been a by-product of various rituals: sites in India, for example, have seen some petroglyphs identified as musical instruments or "rock gongs".[7]

Some petroglyphs likely formed types of symbolic communication, such as types of proto-writing. Later glyphs from the Nordic Bronze Age in Scandinavia seem to refer to some form of territorial boundary between tribes, in addition to holding possible religious meanings. Petroglyph styles have been recognised as having local or regional "dialects" from similar or neighboring peoples. Siberian inscriptions loosely resemble an early form of runes, although no direct relationship has been established.

Petrogylphs from different continents show similarities. While people would be inspired by their direct surroundings, it is harder to explain the common styles. This could be mere coincidence, an indication that certain groups of people migrated widely from some initial common area, or indication of a common origin. In 1853, George Tate presented a paper to the Berwick Naturalists' Club, at which a John Collingwood Bruce agreed that the carvings had "... a common origin, and indicate a symbolic meaning, representing some popular thought."[8] In his cataloguing of Scottish rock art, Ronald Morris summarized 104 different theories on their interpretation.[9]

More controversial explanations of similarities are grounded in Jungian psychology and the views of Mircea Eliade. According to these theories it is possible that the similarity of petroglyphs (and other atavistic or archetypal symbols) from different cultures and continents is a result of the genetically inherited structure of the human brain.

Other theories suggest that petroglyphs were carved by spiritual leaders, such as shamans, in an altered state of consciousness,[10] perhaps induced by the use of natural hallucinogens. Many of the geometric patterns (known as form constants) which recur in petroglyphs and cave paintings have been shown by David Lewis-Williams to be hardwired into the human brain. They frequently occur in visual disturbances and hallucinations brought on by drugs, migraine, and other stimuli.

Recent analysis of surveyed and GPS-logged petroglyphs around the world has identified commonalities indicating pre-historic (7,000–3,000 BCE) intense auroras, or natural light display in the sky, observable across the continents.[11][12]

The Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) of the University of the Witwatersrand studies present-day links between religion and rock art among the San people of the Kalahari Desert.[13] Though the San people's artworks are predominantly paintings, the beliefs behind them can perhaps be used as a basis for understanding other types of rock art, including petroglyphs. To quote from the RARI website:

Using knowledge of San beliefs, researchers have shown that the art played a fundamental part in the religious lives of its painters. The art captured things from the San's world behind the rock-face: the other world inhabited by spirit creatures, to which dancers could travel in animal form, and where people of ecstasy could draw power and bring it back for healing, rain-making and capturing the game.[14]

List of petroglyph sites

Africa
A petroglyph in Bidzar, Cameroon

Bidzar

Algeria

Central African Republic
  • Bambari, Lengo and Bangassou in the south; Bwale in the west
  • Toulou
  • Djebel Mela
  • Koumbala

Chad
  • Niola Doa

Republic of the Congo

Egypt
  • Wadi Hammamat in Qift, many carvings and inscriptions dating from before the earliest Egyptian Dynasties to the modern era, including the only painted petroglyph known from the Eastern Desert and drawings of Egyptian reed boats dated to 4000 BCE
  • Inscription Rock in South Sinai, is a large rock with carvings and writings ranging from Nabatean to Latin, Ancient Greek and Crusader eras located a few miles from the Ain Hudra Oasis. A second rock sites approximately 1 km from the main rock near the Nabatean tombs of Nawamis with carvings of animals including Camels, Gazelles and others. The original archaeologists who investigated these in the 1800s have also left their names carved on this rock.
  • Giraffe petroglyphs found in the region of Gebel el-Silsila. The rock faces have been used for extensive quarrying of materials for temple building especially during the period specified as the New Kingdom. The Giraffe depictions are located near a stela of the king Amenhotep IV. The images are not dated, but they are probably dated from the Predynastic periods.

Ethiopia

Gabon
  • Ogooue River Valley
  • Epona
  • Elarmekora
  • Kongo Boumba
  • Lindili
  • Kaya Kaya

Libya

Morocco
Lion Plate at Twyfelfontein in Namibia (2014)

Namibia

Niger

South Africa

Zambia

Armenia
Petroglyphs at Ughtasar, Armenia

Azerbaijan

China
See also: Cliff inscriptions

Georgia

Hong Kong

Eight sites in Hong Kong:

India
Petroglyphs in Ladakh, India

Iran
Further information: Rock art in Iran
Map of petroglyphs and pictographs of Iran

During recent years a large number of rock carvings has been identified in different parts of Iran. The vast majority depict the ibex.[23][24] Rock drawings were found in December 2016 near Golpayegan, Iran, which may be the oldest drawings discovered, with one cluster possibly 40,000 years old. Accurate estimations were unavailable due to US sanctions.[25]

Petroglyphs are the most ancient works of art left by humankind that provide an opening to the past eras of life and help us to discover different aspects of prehistoric lives. Tools to create petroglyphs can be classified by the age and the historical era; they could be flint, thighbone of hunted quarries, or metallic tools. The oldest pictographs in Iran are seen in Yafteh cave in Lorestan that date back 40,000 and the oldest petroglyph discovered belongs to Timareh dating back to 40,800 years ago.

Iran provides demonstrations of script formation from pictogram, ideogram, linear (2300 BC) or proto Elamite, geometric old Elamite script, Pahlevi script, Arabic script (906 years ago), Kufi script, and Farsi script back to at least 250 years ago. More than 50000 petroglyphs have been discovered, extended over all Iran's states.[26]

Israel

Japan

Jordan

Kazakhstan
Hunting scene in Koksu petroglyphs

Laos

South Korea

Kyrgyzstan

Macau

Malaysia

Mongolia
  • Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai, UNESCO World Heritage site, 2011[29][30]

Pakistan

Philippines

Saudi Arabia
  • "Graffiti Rocks", about 110 km SW of Riyadh off the Mecca highway
  • Arwa, west of Riyadh
  • al Jawf, near al Jawf
  • Jubbah, Umm Samnan, north of Hail
  • Janin Cave, south of Hail
  • Yatib, south of Hail
  • Milihiya, south of Hail
  • Jebel al Lawz, north of Tabuk
  • Wadi Damm, near Tabuk
  • Wadi Abu Oud, near al Ula
  • Shuwaymis, north of Madina
  • Jebel al Manjour & Ratt, north of Madina
  • Hanakiya, north of Madina
  • Shimli
  • Bir Hima, north of Najran
  • Tathleeth, north of Najran
  • Al-Magar, in Najd

Taiwan

Vietnam

Europe
  • Carving "The Shoemaker", Brastad, Sweden
  • Petroglyph in Roque Bentayga, Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).
  • Petroglyph at Dalgarven Mill, Ayrshire, Scotland.
  • Bronze Age petroglyphs depicting weapons, Castriño de Conxo, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia.
  • Labyrinth, Meis, Galicia.
  • Cup-and-ring mark, Louro, Muros, Galicia.
  • Deer and cup-and-ring motifs, Tourón, Ponte Caldelas, Galicia.
  • Petroglyphs in Zalavruga, Belomorsk, Karelia, Russia

England

Finland
  • Hauensuoli, Hanko, Finland

France
  • The sorcerer, Vallée des Merveilles, France
  • The tribe master, Vallée des Merveilles, France

Ireland

Italy
  • Grosio - Rupe Magna
  • Grosio - Rupe Magna
  • Grosio - Rupe Magna

Northern Ireland
  • Leftmost of three central stones, Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
  • Central of three central stones, Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
  • A stone on the right of the passage, Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
  • Sess Kilgreen
  • Sess Kilgreen Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
  • Sess Kilgreen Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland

Norway
See also: List of rock carvings in Norway

Portugal
  • Carvings of various zoomorphic creatures, including in particular, a horse
  • Paleolithic rock engravings breaking the natural rock formation
  • Various zoomorphic creatures, including in particular, a Bull

Scotland

Spain
Millenarian rock carvings, Laxe dos carballos at Campo Lameiro, this detail depicts a deer hit by several spears

Russia
Petroglyph Park near Petrozavodsk–Lake Onega, Russia
Mammoth on the basalt stone in Sikachi-Alyan, Russia
White Sea petroglyphs, Republic of Karelia, Russia

Sweden

Turkey

Ukraine

Wales

Argentina

Aruba

Brazil

The oldest reliably dated rock art in the Americas is known as the "Horny Little Man." It is petroglyph depicting a stick figure with an oversized phallus and carved in Lapa do Santo, a cave in central-eastern Brazil and dates from 12,000 to 9,000 years ago.[34]

  • Capivara National Park, Piauí, Brazil
  • Ivolandia, Goiás, Brazil
  • Costao do Santinho, SC, Brazil

Chile
  • Numerous rocks boasting thousand-year-old carvings.[35]
  • Modern science and the spectre of ancient man coexist in this thought-provoking image of a petroglyph.[36]
  • Llamas at La Silla[37]
  • Petroglyphs at Orongo, Rapa Nui (Easter Island). A Makemake at the base and two birdmen higher up

Colombia

Costa Rica

Dominican Republic

Grenada

Nicaragua

Paraguay
Fertility symbols, called "Ita Letra" by the local Panambi'y people, in a natural shelter in Amambay, Paraguay

Peru

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Suriname

Trinidad and Tobago
  • Caurita
    The only known Amerindian petroglyph in Trinidad

Venezuela

Canada

Mexico
Near Parras, Coahuila

United States
Petroglyph on western coast of Hawaii
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park
Modern Hopi have interpreted the petroglyphs at Mesa Verde National Park's Petroglyph Point as depictions of the Eagle, Mountain Sheep, Parrot, Horned Toad, and Mountain Lion clans, and the Ancestral Puebloans who inhabited the mesa

Australia

See also

References
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  3. See: Rawson and Sickman & Soper
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  11. Peratt, A.L. (2003). "Characteristics for the occurrence of a high-current, Z-pinch aurora as recorded in antiquity". IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. 31 (6): 1192. doi:10.1109/TPS.2003.820956.
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  • Harmanşah, Ömür (ed) (2014), Of Rocks and Water: An Archaeology of Place, 2014, Oxbow Books, ISBN 1-78297-674-4, 9781782976745
  • Rawson, Jessica (ed). The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, 2007 (2nd edn), British Museum Press, ISBN 978-0-7141-2446-9
  • Sickman, Laurence, in: Sickman L. & Soper A., The Art and Architecture of China, Pelican History of Art, 3rd ed 1971, Penguin (now Yale History of Art), LOC 70-125675

Further reading
  • Beckensall, Stan and Laurie, Tim, Prehistoric Rock Art of County Durham, Swaledale and Wensleydale, County Durham Books, 1998 ISBN 1-897585-45-4
  • Beckensall, Stan, Prehistoric Rock Art in Northumberland, Tempus Publishing, 2001 ISBN 0-7524-1945-5
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