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 'to carve', and was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe.Using knowledge of San beliefs, researchers have shown that the art played a fundamental part in the religious lives of its San 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.Rock carving on Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong. This 3000-year-old rock carving was reported by geologists in 1970Petroglyphs at Cholpon-Ata in KyrgyzstanTamgaly petroglyphs in KazakhstanBuddhist carvings at Ili River in KazakhstanPetroglyphs on a rock wall found in the Sierra Madre mountain range, Rizal, PhilippinesPetroglyph found in Awashima shrine (Japan)Carving 'The Shoemaker', Brastad, SwedenPetroglyph 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, RussiaThe sorcerer, Vallée des Merveilles, FranceThe tribe master, Vallée des Merveilles, FranceGrosio - Rupe MagnaGrosio - Rupe MagnaGrosio - Rupe MagnaLeftmost of three central stones, Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern IrelandCentral of three central stones, Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern IrelandA stone on the right of the passage, Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern IrelandSess Kilgreen Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern IrelandSess Kilgreen Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern IrelandCarvings of various zoomorphic creatures, including in particular, a horsePaleolithic rock engravings breaking the natural rock formationVarious zoomorphic creatures, including in particular, a BullTalampaya National Park, La Rioja Province, ArgentinaPetroglyph on Tunduqueral hill at Uspallata, ArgentinaCapivara National Park, Piauí, BrazilIvolandia, Goiás, BrazilCostao do Santinho, SC, BrazilNumerous rocks boasting thousand-year-old carvings.Modern science and the spectre of ancient man coexist in this thought-provoking image of a petroglyph.Llamas at La SillaPetroglyphs at Orongo, Rapa Nui (Easter Island). A Makemake at the base and two birdmen higher upEl Abra archaeological site, CundinamarcaPetroglyph in the Chiribiquete Natural National Park. (Possible equine)Petroglyph in the Chiribiquete Natural National Park. AboriginalPetroglyph in the Chiribiquete Natural National Park. (Possible mammal).Petroglyphs in the Chiribiquete Natural National Park.Petroglyphs on a Bishop Tuff tableland, eastern CaliforniaSouthern UtahSouthern UtahUtahArches National ParkAnimal print carvings outside of Barnesville, OhioArizonaColumbia River Gorge, WashingtonUpside-down man in Western ColoradoRochester Rock Art Panel in the San Rafael Swell in UtahWeb-like petroglyph on the White Tank Mountain Regional Park Waterfall Trail, ArizonaChipping petroglyph on the White Tank Mountain Regional Park Waterfall Trail, ArizonaSample of petroglyphs at Painted Rock near Gila Bend, Arizona off Interstate 8.Puye Cliff Dwellings, New MexicoThunderBird Rock Carved Petroglyph in West Central WisconsinSky Rock Petroglyphs, Bishop, California.Sky Rock Petroglyphs, Bishop, California.Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, New South WalesPart of a 20-metre-long petroglyph at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, New South WalesKu-ring-gai Chase National Park, New South WalesMutawintji National Park, New South WalesBurrup Peninsula, Western Australia 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 'to carve', and was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe. 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, 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. 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. 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. The term petroglyph should not be confused with petrograph, which is an image drawn or painted on a rock face. 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. Some petroglyphs might be as old as 40,000 years, and petroglyph sites in Australia are estimated to date back 27,000 years. Many petroglyphs are dated to approximately the Neolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, if not earlier, such as Kamyana Mohyla. Around 7,000 to 9,000 years ago, other precursors of writing systems, such as pictographs and ideograms, began to appear. Petroglyphs were still common though, and some cultures continued using them much longer, even until contact with Western culture was made in the 19th and 20th centuries. 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 hypotheses explain the purpose of petroglyphs, depending on their location, age, and subject matter. Some many be astronomical markers, maps, and other forms of symbolic communication, including a form of proto-writing. Petroglyph maps may show trails, symbols communicating time and distances traveled, as well as the local terrain in the form of rivers, landforms, and other geographic features. A petroglyph that represents a landform or the surrounding terrain is known as a geocontourglyph. They might also have been a by-product of other rituals: sites in India, for example, have been identified as musical instruments or 'rock gongs'. Some petroglyph images probably have deep cultural and religious significance for the societies that created them; in many cases this significance remains for their descendants. Many petroglyphs are thought to represent some kind of not-yet-fully understood symbolic or ritual language. Later glyphs from the Nordic Bronze Age in Scandinavia seem to refer to some form of territorial boundary between tribes, in addition to possible religious meanings. Petroglyph styles has 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. They are not yet well understood. 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.' In his cataloguing of Scottish rock art, Ronald Morris summarized 104 different theories on their interpretation. 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.