Petroglyph

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Petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, southern Utah, USA
Rock carving known as "Meercatze" (named by archaeologist Leo Frobenius), rampant lionesses in Wadi Methkandoush, Mesak Settafet region of Libya.

Petroglyphs are images created by removing part of a rock surfaces by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving," "engraving," or other descriptions of technique to refer to such images. Petroglyphs are found world-wide, and are often (but not always) associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek words petros meaning "stone" and glyphein meaning "to carve" (it was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe).


History

Composite image of petroglyphs from Scandinavia (Häljesta, Västmanland in Sweden). Nordic Bronze Age. The glyphs have been painted to make them more visible.

The oldest petroglyphs are dated to approximately the Neolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, if not earlier (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 20th century. 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.

Interpretation

There are many theories to explain their purpose, depending on their location, age, and the type of image. Some petroglyphs are thought to be astronomical markers, maps, and other forms of symbolic communication, including a form of "pre-writing." 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." [1]

Some petroglyph images probably had 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. It also appears that local or regional dialects from similar or neighboring peoples exist. The Siberian inscriptions almost look like some early form of runes, although there is not thought to be any relationship between them. They are not yet well understood.

A petroglyph of a caravan of bighorn sheep near Moab, Utah, USA; a common theme in glyphs from the desert southwest

Some researchers have noticed the resemblance of different styles of petroglyphs across different continents; while it is expected that all people would be inspired by their 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 read a paper to the Berwick Naturalists' Club at which a Mr John Collingwood Bruce agreed that the carvings had "... a common origin, and indicate a symbolic meaning, representing some popular thought." [2] In his cataloguing of Scottish rock art, Ronald Morris summarised 104 different theories on their interpretation. [3].

Other, more controversial, explanations are mostly 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 made by shamans in an altered state of consciousness[4], 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 to be "hard-wired" into the human brain; they frequently occur in visual disturbances and hallucinations brought on by drugs, migraine and other stimuli.

Present-day links between shamanism and rock-art amongst the San people of the Kalahari desert have been studied by the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) of the University of the Witwatersrand [1]. 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 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.

List of petroglyph sites

Africa

  • Tassili n'Ajjer in Algeria
  • Bidzar, Cameroon
  • Bambari, Lengo and Bangassou in the south of the Central African Republic; Bwale in the west
  • Niola Doa, Chad
  • The Niari River valley in the Congo, 250km south west of Brazzaville
  • Ogooue River Valley, Gabon
  • Akakus, Libya
  • Jebel Uweinat, Libya
  • The Draa River valley in Morocco
  • Twyfelfontein, Namibia
  • Life-size giraffe carvings on Dabous Rock, Air Mountains, Niger
  • Wadi Hammamat in Qift, Egypt 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 B.C.E.

Australia

  • Arnhem Land / Kakadu National Park, Northern Australia
  • Murujuga, Western Australia - world heritage assessed
  • Sydney Rock Engravings, New South Wales

Asia

  • Rock carving on Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong. This 3000-year-old rock carving was reported by geologists in 1970

  • KyrgyzPetroglyphs.jpg

    Petroglyphs at Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan

China

  • Eight sites in Hong Kong: on Tung Lung Island, Kau Sai Chau, Po Toi Island, Cheung Chau, Shek Pik on Lantau Island, Wong Chuk Hang and Big Wave Bay on Hong Kong Island, Lung Ha Wan in Sai Kung
  • Yin Mountains in Inner Mongolia

India

  • Edakkal Caves Cavesin Wayanad, Kerala. They date back to about 4000 B.C.E.

Kazakhstan

Korea

  • Bangudae Petroglyphs,

Kyrgyzstan

  • Several sites, mostly in the Tien Shan mountains; Cholpon-Ata, the Talas valley, Siymaliytash (Saimaluu-Tash), and on the rock outcrop called Suleiman's Throne in Osh in the Fergana valley

Pakistan

  • Rock art and petroglyphs in Northern Areas,

Philippines

  • Angono Petroglyphs1.jpg

    Petroglyphs on a rock wall found in the Sierra Madre mountain range, Rizal, Philippines

  • Angono Petroglyphs of Rizal,

Pacific

  • Petroglyph on western coast of Hawaii

  • Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

  • Petroglyphs at Orongo, Rapa Nui (Easter Island). A Make-make at the base and two birdmen higher up

South America

North America

  • Petroglyphs on a Bishop Tuff tableland, eastern California, USA

  • Pictograph 2 tds.jpg

    Southern Utah, USA

  • Southern Utah, USA

  • Arches National Park

  • Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

  • Arizona, USA

  • Columbia River Gorge, Washington, USA

  • Upside-down man in Western Colorado, USA

[4]

  • Mina, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
  • Olympic National Park, Washington
  • Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas
  • Petrified Forest National Park
  • Petroglyph National Monument
  • Petroglyphs Provincial Park, north of Peterborough, Ontario
  • Petroglyph Provincial Park, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada [5]
  • Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park. Michigan
  • Sedona, Arizona
  • Seminole Canyon, Texas
  • Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada
  • Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada
  • Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
  • South Mountain Park, Arizona
  • St John, USVI
  • Stuart Lake, British Columbia
  • Three Rivers Petroglyphs, New Mexico [6]
  • West Virginia glyphs
  • Writing Rock State Historical Site, North Dakota
  • Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, East of Milk River, Alberta
  • White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell, Arizona

Dominican Republic

  • Cueva de las Maravillas
  • Los 3 Ojos

Europe

  • Engravers from Val Camonica, Italy

  • Rock Carving in Tanum, Sweden

  • Carving "The Shoemaker," Brastad, Sweden

  • Petroglyph in Roque Bentayga, Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).

England

  • Cup and ring marked rocks in Northumberland, County Durham and North Yorkshire, England

France

  • Mercantour National Park, France

Ireland

Italy

  • Val Camonica, Italy (biggest european site, over 350,000)
  • Bagnolo stele, Italy

Norway

  • Rock carvings at Alta, World Heritage Site (1985)
  • Rock carvings in Central Norway
  • Rock carvings at Møllerstufossen
  • Rock carvings at Tennes

Portugal

Russia

  • Petroglyph Park near Petrozavodsk-Lake Onega, Russia
  • Tomskaya Pisanitsa

Sweden

  • Tanumshede (Bohuslän); World Heritage Site (1994)
  • Himmelstalund (by Norrköping in Östergötland)
  • Enköping (Uppland)
  • Southwest Skåne (Götaland)
  • Alvhem (Västra Götaland)
  • Torhamn (Blekinge)
  • Nämforsen (Ångermanland)
  • Häljesta (Västmanland)
  • Slagsta (Södermanland)
  • Glösa (Jämtland)

Ukraine

  • Kamyana Mohyla, Ukraine
  • Stone stelae of the Ukraine

Middle East

  • Wadi Rum, Jordan
  • Wadi Faynan, Jordan
  • "Graffiti Rocks," about 110 km SW of Riyadh off the Mecca highway

Notes

  1. ↑ Ancient Indians made 'rock music', BBC News Friday, 19 March, 2004
  2. ↑ J. Collingwood Bruce (1868; cited in Beckensall, S., Northumberland's Prehistoric Rock Carvings: A Mystery Explained. Pendulum Publications, Rothbury, Northumberland. 1983:19)
  3. ↑ Ronald Morris, The Prehistoric Rock Art of Galloway and The Isle of Man (ISBN 978-0-7137-0974-2 , Blandford Press 1979
  4. ↑ [see Lewis-Williams, D. 2002. A Cosmos in Stone: Interpreting Religion and Society through Rock Art. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, Ca.]
  5. ↑ Keyser, James D. (July 1992). Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau. University of Washington Press, 139pp.. ISBN 978-0295971605. 


References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • 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

External links


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