Petroglyph

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For other uses, see Petroglyph (disambiguation).

Petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, southern Utah, USA

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).

The term petroglyph should not be confused with pictograph, 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. Petroforms, or patterns and shapes made by many large rocks and boulders in rows over the ground, are also quite different.

[edit] 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, USA; a common theme in glyphs from the desert southwest

Glyphs at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, India

The oldest petroglyphs are dated to approximately the Neolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. 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.

[edit] Interpretation

There are many theories to explain their purpose, depending on their location, age, and the type of image. Petroglyphs are often 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]

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.

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.

[edit] The West Virginia controversy

The West Virginia glyphs are worth noting for the controversy that erupted over them in the 1980s. Barry Fell, a retired professor of marine biology at Harvard University, published an article in 1983, describing how he had deciphered petroglyphs in several places in southern West Virginia to have been written in Ogam, an Irish Celtic script dating back to the 6th to 8th century AD, and that they were in fact a detailed description of the nativity of Christ. [2] Fell is noted as promoting a theory of North America as having been visited by Irish, Iberian, Libyan, and Egyptian explorers "some 2,000 to 2,500 years ago".

In fact, Fell's methods involved an almost arbitrary grouping of markings, an interpretation of them as the only consonants of Ogam, and the addition of vowels and horizontal stem lines where he saw fit. This allowed him to decide which of three consonants each glyph should represent. Fell's work was subsequently debunked by linguists and archaeologists from several countries [3], to which Fell responded by accusing them of being "too damn lazy" to read his writings, and of being "ignorant".

Even those who agreed with Fell's interpretation of the marks as being Ogam disagree with his translation. Edo Nyland believed the "inscription" at Horse Creek to be in Basque and translated it very differently, as a description of a bison hunt. For instance, the section which Fell translates as "A happy season is Christmas, a time of joy and goodwill to all people." is given by Nyland (1996) as "Club blows in abundant measure (were needed) because many which had fallen into the ravine resisted with obviously broken legs. Brothers, come and help the slaughterer to finish them off." [4] Any interpretation which leads to such radically different interpretations should be treated with caution. Unfortunately, Fell's dubious Ogam theory has influenced many subsequent interpretations of carvings and paintings all over America.

[edit] List of petroglyph sites

[edit] 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

[edit] Australia

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

[edit] Asia

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

Petroglyphs at Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan

[edit] 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

[edit] India

Petroglyphs at Edakkal Caves in Wayanad, Kerala. They date back to about 4000 BC

Bhimbetka rock painting

[edit] Kazakhstan

Chumysh River basin,
Tamgaly on the Ili River,

[edit] Korea

Bangudae Petroglyphs,

[edit] 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

[edit] Pakistan

Rock art and petroglyphs in Northern Areas,

[edit] Philippines

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

Angono Petroglyphs of Rizal,

[edit] Pacific

Petroglyph on western coast of Hawaii

Rongorongo on the Rapa Nui
Hawaii (particularly the Big Island).

[edit] South America

[edit] North America

Petroglyphs on a Bishop Tuff tableland, eastern California, USA	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

Arches National Park, Utah
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Death Valley National Park, California
Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado and Utah
Columbia Hills State Park, Washington
The Cove Palisades State Park, Oregon
Jeffers Petroglyphs, Minnesota
Kanopolis State Park, Kansas
Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia
Lava Beds National Monument, Tule Lake, California
Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, Utah
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]
Sedona, Arizona
Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada
South Mountain Park, Arizona
St John, USVI
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

[edit] Europe

Rock Carving in Tanum, Sweden

Carving "The Shoemaker", Brastad, Sweden

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

Cup and ring marked rocks in Northumberland, County Durham and North Yorkshire, England
Rock carvings in Tanumshede. World Heritage's site, Sweden
Rock carvings at Alta, Norway
Rock carvings at Møllerstufossen, Norway
Rock carvings in Central Norway
Mercantour National Park, France
Newgrange, Ireland
Bagnolo stele, Italy
Stone stelae of the Ukraine
Vale do Côa rock carvings, Portugal

[edit] Middle East

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

[edit] Notes

^ Ancient Indians made 'rock music', BBC News Friday, 19 March, 2004
^ J. Collingwood Bruce (1868; cited in Beckensall, S., Northumberland's Prehistoric Rock Carvings: A Mystery Explained. Pendulum Publications, Rothbury, Northumberland. 1983:19)
^ Ronald Morris, The Prehistoric Rock Art of Galloway and The Isle of Man (ISBN 978-0-7137-0974-2 , Blandford Press 1979
^ [see Lewis-Williams, D. 2002. A Cosmos in Stone: Interpreting Religion and Society through Rock Art. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, Ca.]

[edit] See also

[edit] 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

[edit] External links

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Petroglyphs

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Categories: Communication | Nordic Bronze Age | Pre-historic art | Stone Age | Rock art