Petroglyphs
Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are pictogram and logogram
images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking,
carving, and abrading. 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 world-wide, and are often
associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek
words pert meaning stone, and glyphic meaning to carve, and was originally coined in French as petroglyphe.
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 over the ground, are
natural formations vs. those created by human design. Inukshuks are also unique, and found only in the Arctic (except for reproductions and imitations built in more southerly latitudes).
Creation
Most Petroglyphs, Pictographs, Cave Paintings, and Geoglyphs tell the
story of creation using the same iconographic motifs no matter where
they are fund on the planet. From ancient times to modern times human
appear to be encoded with the same archetypes to explain their journey
here from beginning to end.
Petroglyphs are sometimes easily defined based on the culture, religious
beliefs, mythologies, and legends of an ancient civilization placed on
rock formations for their descendants. Many ancient petroglyphs are
thought to represent some kind of ritual language often depicting with
the same archetypal
symbols. It is interesting that the same symbols are found in different
parts of the planet created in timelines where the people could not
have possibly interacted with each other. Some believe 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.
Some theories suggest that petroglyphs were made by shamans in an
altered state of consciousness, 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. 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.
Petroglyphs - Rock Art
The word comes from the Greek words petros meaning "stone" and glyphein meaning "to carve" (it was originally coined in French as petroglyphe).
The term 'petroglyph' should not be confused with pictograph, which is an image drawn or painted on a rock face, both of which contribute 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.
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 writing systems such as pictographs and ideograms began to appear. Petroglyphs were still common though, and some less advanced societies 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.
Ancient rock art's colors come from microbes BBC - December 28, 2010
A particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colors because it is alive, researchers have found. While some rock art fades in hundreds of years, the "Bradshaw art" remains colorful after at least 40,000 years. Jack Pettigrew of the University of Queensland in Australia has shown that the paintings have been colonized by colorful bacteria and fungi. These "biofilms" may explain previous difficulties in dating such rock art.
North America
At the Ancient Ruins in West Central Idaho along the Snake River, the story of beings that came from the Stars and a Galactic War was recorded according to Indian Legend well over 30,000 years ago. The petroglyphs depict the beings that came, their interaction with the inhabitants of the ancient city, and the war and destruction that ensued. We are shown their ships which are curiously triangular in shape. Similar to those that have been recently sighted over Colorado, Arizona and California. We are also shown the portal through which the interdimensional beings came.
Star Beings emerging from triangular shaped ships
Possible triangular craft with retroflares
Figure inside - Beings Below
Left of the ship 4 entities - Hopi Petroglyphs
Possible Star Beings - Portal or UFO
Kokopelli
Kiva
Mythology: Hopi Ant People, Snake People, Blue Kachina, Star Gods
Two Males - Ascending Spirit - Two Females
South America
Call this ancient rock carving 'little horny man' MSNBC - February 22, 2012
A stick figure man with a giant phallus dubbed "the little horny man" by
its discoverers is the oldest rock carving found yet in the Americas,
researchers say. These findings might shed new light on when the New
World was first settled, scientists added. The time frame during which
humans first reached the Americas remains hotly debated. One key to
settling this controversy would involve uncovering early examples of
human artifacts, such as art.
Scientists discovered one ancient sample of such art in a cave named
Lapa do Santo in central-eastern Brazil. The region is home to Luzia,
the oldest human skeleton found to date in South America. Lapa do Santo
is one of the largest rock shelters excavated yet in the region, a
limestone cave covering an area of about 14,000 square feet (1,300
square meters). Here, researchers have found buried human remains, tools
made of stone and bone, ash from hearths, and leftovers from meals of
fruit and small game.
'Little Horny Man': Rock Carving of Giant Phallus Discovered Live Science - February 22, 2012
A stick figure man with a giant phallus dubbed "the little horny man" by
its discoverers is the oldest rock carving found yet in the Americas,
researchers say. These findings might shed new light on when the New
World was first settled, scientists added. The time frame during which
humans first reached the Americas remains hotly debated. One key to
settling this controversy would involve uncovering early examples of
human artifacts, such as art. Scientists discovered one ancient sample
of such art in a cave named Lapa do Santo in central-eastern Brazil. The
region is home to Luzia, the oldest human skeleton found to date in
South America.
Snake Motif
The activity of painting or engraving rocks in Colombia may have begun
before the formative period. The scarce references seem to refer to
activities which occurred much sooner than just a few years before the
appearance of Spanish conquistadors. The differences in rock art themes,
the variety of zones, the diversity
of picture forms and engravings, seem to indicate that there existed
long periods of rock art activity from the Paleoindian to the classic
Muisca times. More than 700 pictograph and petroglyph zones have been
discovered. Some rural traditions and beliefs have developed from some
of the rock art design.
Australia
Wondjina People who look like Gray Aliens and Other Cave Paintings
Ancient Egypt Link with Australia
Cave Painting Depicts Extinct Marsupial Lion
Live Science - May 11, 2009
Unusual Rock Art Trove Found in Australia
National Geographic - October 22, 2008
Europe
Europe is laced with megalithic monuments, cave art, andpetroglyphs, some of which has not been discovered or recorded.
United Kingdom
Experts put date to UK rock art - 12,800 years
BBC - April 25, 2005
Gobustan
Stone Age petroglyphs Gobustan, Azerbaijan were not discovered by an
archeological expedition. Their revelation came about quite by accident.
In the 1930s, work was going on there in a stone quarry. The area is
full of huge boulders and rock formations. One of the quarry workers
noticed some unusual carvings on the rocks. The more the rocks were cut
out, the more the paintings could be seen. (Before they had been hidden
from view inside a huge pile of boulders.) Even more paintings were
found inside what appeared to be man-made caves. Work at the quarry soon
stopped so that the paintings could be examined more carefully.
In 1939, archeologist Isaak Jafarzade began the first archeological
investigation of the petroglyphs at Gobustan. Between 1940 to 1965,
teams identified and documented approximately 3,500 individual rock
paintings on 750 rocks. The most ancient petroglyphs have been
identified as belonging to the 12-8th century B.C. However, it is
assumed that life existed here even earlier and that Gobustan was one of
the cradles of civilization. This research was published in a book
entitled "Gobustan" in 1978.
Pictograms - Pictographs
Pictographs are images painted on a rock face. Paints were generally
made from pulverized minerals. Red, white, and black were the most
common colors.
A pictogram or pictograph is a symbol representing an object or concept
by illustration. Pictography is a form of writing whereby ideas are
transmitted through drawing. It is the basis of cuneiform and
hieroglyphs.
Early written symbols were based on pictograms, pictures which resemble
what they signify, and ideograms, pictures which represent ideas; it is
commonly believed that pictograms appeared before ideograms. They were
used by various ancient cultures all over the world since around 9000 BC
and began to develop into logographic writing systems around 5000 BC.
Pictograms are still in use as the main medium of written communication
in some non-literate cultures in Africa, The Americas, and Oceania, and
are often used as simple symbols by most contemporary cultures.
The earliest uses of pictograms in Mesopotamia predated the famous
Sumerian cuneiforms (oldest of which date to around 3400 BC). As far as
around 9000 BC tokens marked with simple pictures began to be used to
label basic farm produce, and around 6000 BC, with the rise of cities
and spread of basic craftsmanship more complex pictographic tokens were
devised to label manufactured goods. Eventually, the tokens were
replaced by clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed
called a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped,
thus giving rise to the name cuneiform, wedge-writing.
Though written Chinese is often thought of consisting of pictograms,
less than 1% of all characters ever created have their direct origins in
pictograms. The letters of the Roman alphabet, however, do have their
origins in pictograms. For example, the letter A represented the head of
an ox, and if it is turned upside down, a bovine head with horns can be
seen.
Pictograms remain in common use today, serving as signs or instructions.
Because of their graphical nature and fairly realistic style, they are
widely used to indicate public toilets, or places such as airports and
train stations. However, even these symbols are highly culture-specific.
For example, in some cultures men commonly wear dress-like clothing, so
even restroom signage is not universal. Pictographic writing as a
modernist poetic technique is credited to Ezra Pound though French
surrealists accurately credit the Pacific Northwest American Indians of
Alaska who introduced writing, via totem poles, to North America (Reed
2003,p.XIX).
A standard set of pictograms was defined in the international standard
ISO 7001: Public Information Symbols. Another common set of pictograms
are the laundry symbols used on clothing tags and chemical hazard
labels.In countries or regions where two or more languages are used, the
typical traffic sign is very often a symbol with no writing on it. This
is the case for much of Europe and several parts of Canada. Many of
these signs, however, offer an abstract symbol instead of a picture, and
they cannot be considered true pictograms.
Cave Paintings
Cave or rock paintings are paintings painted on cave or rock walls and
ceilings, usually dating to prehistoric times. Rock paintings are made
since the Upper Paleolithic, 40,000 years ago. It is widely believed
that the paintings are the work of respected elders or shamans.
When Europeans first encountered the Magdalenian paintings of the
Altamira cave, Cantabria, Spain in 1879, they were considered to be
hoaxes by academics. The new Darwinian thinking on evolution was
interpreted as meaning that early humans could not have been
sufficiently advanced to create art. Emile Cartailhac, one of the most
respected prehistorians of the late nineteenth century believed they had
been thought up by Creationists to support their ideas and ridicule
Darwin's. Recent reappraisals and increasing numbers of discoveries have
illustrated their authenticity and indicated the high levels of
artistry of Upper Palaeolithic humans who used only basic tools. Cave
paintings can also give valuable clues as to the culture and beliefs of
that era.
The age of the paintings in many sites remains a contentious issue,
since methods like radiocarbon dating can be easily misled by
contaminated samples of older or newer material, and caves and rocky
overhangs are typically littered with debris from many time periods. The
choice of subject matter can indicate date such as the reindeer at the
Spanish cave of Cueva de las Monedas which imply the art is from the
last ice age. The oldest cave is that of Chauvet, and is 32,000 years
old.
The most common themes in cave paintings are large wild animals, such as
bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, and tracings of human hands as well
as abstract patterns, called Macaroni by Breuil. Drawings of humans are
rare and are usually schematic rather than the more naturalistic animal
subjects. Cave art may have begun in the Aurignacian period (Hohle Fels,
Germany), but reached its apogee in the late Magdalenian (Lascaux,
France).
The paintings were drawn with red and yellow ochre, hematite, manganese
oxide and charcoal. Sometimes the silhouette of the animal was incised
in the rock first. Stone lamps provided some light. Abbe Breuil
interpreted the paintings as being hunting magic, meant to increase the
number of animals. As there are some clay sculptures that seem to have
been the targets of spears, this may partly be true, but does not
explain the pictures of beasts of prey such as the lion or the bear. An
alternative and more modern theory, based on studies of more modern
hunter-gatherer societies, is that the paintings were made by Cro-Magnon
shaman.
The shaman would retreat into the darkness of the caves, enter into a
trance state and then paint images of their visions, perhaps with some
notion of drawing power out of the cave walls themselves. This goes some
way towards explaining the remoteness of some of the paintings (which
often occur in deep or small caves) and the variety of subject matter
(from prey animals to predators and human hand-prints). However, as with
all prehistory, it is impossible to be certain due to the relative lack
of material evidence and the many pitfalls associated with trying to
understand the prehistoric mindset with a modern mind.
Lascaux is a complex
of caves in southwestern France famous for its cave paintings. The
original caves, located near the village of Montignac. They contain some
of the earliest known art, dating back to somewhere between 13,000 and
15,000 BCE, or as far back as 25,000 BCE.
Spain
Red dot becomes 'oldest cave art' BBC - June 14, 2012
Watch the Video
The El Castillo Cave in Spain -- The refined dating shows these paintings to be far older than anyone thought. Red dots, hand stencils and animal figures represent the oldest examples yet found of cave art in Europe. The symbols on the walls at 11 Spanish locations, including the World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo and Tito Bustillo have long been recognized for their antiquity. But researchers have now used refined dating techniques to get a more accurate determination of their ages. One motif - a faint red dot - is said to be more than 40,000 years old.
New dating method shows cave art is older: Did Neanderthals do it? MSNBC - June 14, 2012
When archaeologists tried out a new technique to determine the age of Spain's most famous Paleolithic cave paintings, they were surprised to discover that the paintings were thousands of years older than previously thought - so old that it's conceivable they were painted by Neanderthals. The technique just might change the way we think about the paintings, and the way we think about our long-extinct, long-maligned Neanderthal cousins as well.
Hand stencils and the outlines of animals dominate "The Panel of Hands" in Spain's El Castillo cave. One of the stencils has been dated to earlier than 37,300 years ago, and a red disk goes back at least 40,800 years, making them the oldest cave paintings in Europe.
The "Corredor de los Puntos" lies within Spain's El Castillo cave. Red disks here have been dated to between 34,000 and 36,000 years ago, and elsewhere in the cave to 40,800 years ago, making them examples of Europe's earliest cave art.
Africa
Tassili n'Ajjer, Sahara Desert, North Africa
Sahara rock art
is a significant area of archaeological study focusing on the precious
treasures carved or painted on the natural rocks found in the central
Sahara desert. There are over three thousand sites discovered that have
information about Saharan rock art. From the Tibesti massif to the
Ahaggar Mountains, the Sahara is an impressive open-air museum
containing numerous archaeological sites.
Tassili n'Ajjer
(meaning "Plateau of the Rivers") is noted for its prehistoric rock
art and other ancient archaeological sites, dating from Neolithic times
when the local climate was much moister, with savannah rather than
desert. The art depicts herds of cattle, large wild animals including
crocodiles, and human activities such as hunting and dancing. The art
has strong stylistic links to the pre-Nguni Art of South Africa and the
region, executed in caves by the San Peoples before the year 1200 BCE.
The range's exceptional density of rock art paintings-pictograms and
engravings-petroglyphs, and the presence of many prehistoric vestiges,
are remarkable testimonies to Neolithic prehistory. From 10,000 BCE to
the first centuries CE, successive peoples left many archaeological
remains, habitations, burial mounds and enclosures which have yielded
abundant lithic and ceramic material. However, it is the rock art
(engravings and paintings) that have made Tassili world famous as from
1933, the date of its discovery. 15,000 petroglyphs have been identified
to date.
Google Images
Earliest Oil Paintings Found in Famed Afghan Caves
National Geographic - February 7, 2008
New light shed on South African cave art
BBC - February 7, 2004
Hand Stencils Through Time National Geographic - June 26, 2009
Clusters of hand stencils dating back 2,500 years cover the walls of
Argentina's Cueva de las Manos -- Cave of the Hands in Patagonia.
Prehistoric European Cave Artists Were Female
National Geographic - June 26, 2009
Inside France's 25,000-year-old Pech Merle cave,
hand stencils surround the famed "Spotted Horses" mural.
Pech Merle Cave Paintings - Images
Geoglyphs
Google Earth 2012
Some of the most famous geoglyphs are the Nazca Lines in Peru. Other areas with geoglyphs include Western Australia. Hill figures, turf mazes and the stone-lined labyrinths of Scandinavia, Iceland, Lappland and the former Soviet Union are types of geoglyph. The largest geoglyph is the Marree Man in South Australia.
Marree Man in South Australia
Nazca Lines of Peru
Atacama Giant of Chile
Uffington White Horse
Ancient Aircraft - Art and Design 
UFOs and Extraterrestrials in Art History
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