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Rock art

Adapted from Wikipedia · Discoverer experience

Statues of the Buddha from the historic site of Gal Viharaya in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.

Rock art is a special kind of old artwork made by people long ago. It consists of markings and pictures created on natural stone surfaces, often on the walls and roofs of caves or under rock overhangs. These artworks are found all around the world, in many different places and cultures, showing how important they have been throughout history.

There are several ways people made rock art. Some painted pictures on the walls, known as cave paintings or pictographs. Others carved or scratched designs right into the stone, called petroglyphs. There are also large carved scenes called rock reliefs and huge shapes made on the ground known as geoglyphs.

Fremont Petroglyph, in Dinosaur National Monument, attributed to Classic Vernal Style, Fremont archaeological culture, eastern Utah, United States

The oldest rock art we know of comes from a very old time called the Upper Palaeolithic period. It has been discovered in Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. Experts think these ancient pictures might have had special meanings related to beliefs and ceremonies. Even today, many indigenous communities consider rock art very important, seeing it as sacred and a key part of their history. These sites sometimes attract many visitors and are often featured in books, movies, and art because of how beautiful they are.

magico-religious cave painting rock shelters cave art petroglyphs rock reliefs geoglyphs human history art of the Upper Palaeolithic indigenous peoples sacred cultural tourism archaeology art rock Rock Art (album)

Etymology

The word "rock art" started being used in books as far back as the 1940s. People have called it many names, like "rock carvings," "rock drawings," "rock engravings," "rock inscriptions," "rock paintings," "rock pictures," "rock records," "rock sculptures," cave art, and parietal art.

Background

Parietal art is a special kind of art found inside caves and under cliff overhangs, called rock shelters. People often call this "cave art." It is usually painted or drawn on the walls, but can also be on ceilings or floors. Artists have used many different ways to create this art.

Rock art is special because it is made directly on natural rock surfaces, like cave walls or cliff faces. You can find it all around the world, and new examples are still being discovered. Some people think even simple pits or grooves in rocks can be a type of rock art.

For many indigenous peoples, this art is very important to their history and culture. It also helps bring visitors to certain areas, which can be good for local economies.

Types

Paintings

Main article: Cave painting

Most paintings that have lasted a long time are found in places like caves or under rock overhangs. These are often called "cave paintings," but some are also on cliff faces. Long ago, people liked these spots because they gave shelter from the weather and let in light. Many more paintings might have existed in open areas, but they have disappeared over time. These paintings, called pictographs, are made using natural things like minerals. The main colors used are red, black, and white. Red comes from a type of earth called ochre, black often comes from charcoal, and white is made from chalk or clay. The paint was mixed with liquids like water or egg and then put on the rock using fingers, brushes, or even a stamp. In some cultures, the paint had special meaning.

Aboriginal rock painting of Mimi spirits in the Anbangbang gallery at Nourlangie Rock in Kakadu National Park.

One common type of painting is the hand print. There are three ways to make them: covering a hand in paint and pressing it on the rock, painting a design on the hand and then pressing it, or placing the hand on the rock and blowing paint onto it. This makes a negative print of the hand, sometimes called a stencil.

Petroglyphs

Main article: Petroglyph

Petroglyphs are pictures carved or scratched into rock surfaces. They are made using tools like a hard stone, called a hammerstone, that is hit against the rock. Sometimes, another stone is used as a chisel. A rarer way is to scratch fine lines into the rock with a small stone piece or a metal blade. These lines are often hard to see.

Bidzar Petroglyphs in Cameroon

Rock reliefs

Main article: Rock relief

Rock reliefs are large carvings made directly into cliffs or big rocks. They are often found in cultures that could write and are usually very big to be seen from far away. These carvings often look like other sculptures from the same time and place. They are mostly vertical, but can also be on flat surfaces. They are not usually found inside caves.

Earth figures

Further information: Geoglyphs

See also: Land art

Earth figures are big designs made on the ground. Some are made by scraping away small stones to show a picture on the rock below, like the Nazca Lines in Peru. Others are made by piling up rocks to create a design.

Motifs and panels

In rock art, single markings are called motifs, and groups of these markings are known as panels. These panels are often found together at special places called archaeological sites. But this way of organizing rock art might not have meant much to the people who made it long ago.

Rock art appears in many different places and times, among many cultures. It might have been used to show ownership, to tell stories from the past, or to help with special rituals. Some pictures look like real things that happened, while others are just shapes without a clear meaning.

The pictures and designs from long ago had deep meanings that we may not fully understand today.

Interpretation and use

Religious interpretations

Often, making rock art was a special ceremony or ritual. People created these drawings and carvings as part of their spiritual practices and beliefs.

Regional variations

Europe

In Europe during the Upper Palaeolithic, rock art was created inside caves by hunter-gatherer peoples. The oldest known example is the Chauvet Cave in France, with others found in Lascaux in France, Alta Mira in Spain, Creswell Crags in Britain, and Grotta del Genovese in Sicily.

The late prehistoric rock art of Europe is divided into three regions. In Atlantic Europe, along the western coast stretching from Iberia through France to the British Isles, many rock arts were made from the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. Another area with significant rock art is Alpine Europe, especially in south-eastern France and northern Italy.

Africa

Balma dei Cervi post-palaeolithic rock paintings (Italian western Alps): anthropomorphic figures and dottings (DStretch enhanced)

North Africa

Western Africa

East Africa

Southern Africa

Cave paintings are found in most parts of Southern Africa that have rock overhangs with smooth surfaces. Among these sites are the cave sandstone of Natal, Orange Free State and North-Eastern Cape, the granite and Waterberg sandstone of the Northern Transvaal, and the Table Mountain sandstone of the Southern and Western Cape.

Americas

The oldest reliably dated rock art in the Americas is known as the "Horny Little Man". It is a petroglyph depicting a stick figure with an oversized phallus and carved in Lapa do Santo, a cave in central-eastern Brazil. The most important site is Serra da Capivara National Park at Piauí state. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the largest collection in the American continent and one of the most studied.

A moose in the rock paintings of Saraakallio in Laukaa, Finland

A site including eight miles of paintings or pictographs that is under study in Colombia, South America at Serranía de la Lindosa was revealed in November 2020. Their age is suggested as being 12,500 years old (c. 10,480 B.C.) by the anthropologists working on the site because of extinct fauna depicted.

Rock paintings or pictographs are located in many areas across Canada. There are over 400 sites attributed to the Ojibway from northern Saskatchewan to the Ottawa River.

However, cave art is not the only type of rock art. While cave art provides the two-dimensional view on a rocky surface, figurines made of a rock material can provide a three-dimensional view that gives insight on indigenous views towards their visual arts. Many sites along and off the California coastline, such as the Channel Islands and Malibu, have both realistic and abstract styles of zoomorphic effigy figurines. From archaeological studies at these sites, archaeologists and other researchers discovered many figurines and performed a composition analysis, finding most were made of steatite, though other materials were also used.

These figurines provided context about spheres of interaction between tribal groups, demonstrate economic significance, and may have held a ritual function. Archaeologists Richard T Fitzgerald and Christopher Corey dated the oldest figurines to the Middle Holocene, suggesting two socioeconomic interactive spheres (one in the northern and one in the southern Channel Islands) and linguistic similarities between Takic-speaking Gabrileno and Chumash neighbors. These figurines share similar styles, suggesting a history of intertribal contact.

California

Little Lake is a complex of rock art located in Rose Valley, Inyo County. Rose Valley is located in the boundaries of the cultural Great Basin and the territory of the Timbisha Shoshone. This site is important to understanding the symbolism and value of North American rock art because it is one of the largest collections of rock art unrelated to the Coso (an indigenous tribe/people of the Mojave Desert). Its importance to territorial and anthropological studies helps many understand the in-depth descriptions and stylistic analyses of large rock art concentrations, which are valued by archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, and even art enthusiasts. Referring back to these sites help social scientists understand and record the values that were important to the creators; it shows economic values or settlement patterns that were once a daily part of life. As a result, it is crucial to focus on the variable resources to understand how cultures were abiding with their environment. However, rock art sites at Little Rock cannot be accurately dated.

Asia

Central Asia

Figure of a woman at the Tassili n'Ajjer mountain range

East Asia

Further information: Gongshi, Suseok, and Suiseki

  • Bangudae Petroglyphs, in South Korea
  • Cheonjeon-ri in South Korea
  • Daegok-ri in South Korea
  • Fugoppe Cave petroglyphs on Hokkaido, Japan
  • Helankou in Yinchuan, China
  • Kangjia shimenzi in Xinjiang, China
  • Oponoho (Wanshan) petroglyphs in Taiwan
  • Temiya Cave on Hokkaido, Japan
  • Yinshan petroglyphs in the Yin Mountains, China
  • Zuo River Huashan rock art in Guangxi, China
  • Chifeng Petroglyphs in Inner Mongolia
  • Above 4000 meters above sea level high Tibetan plateau: possibly the oldest rock art, likely dating back to ~169–226,000 years ago, much older than what was previously thought to be the earliest known drawing, made ~73,000 years ago. According to the study, children likely intentionally placed a series of hands and feet in mud. The findings could also be the earliest evidence of Hominins on the high Tibetan plateau.

Southeast Asia

Further information: Austronesian peoples § Rock art

South Asia

Western Asia

  • Rock Art in the Ha'il Region in Saudi Arabia
  • Iranian rock art sites are mostly found in the Zagros Mountain range. But there are many other sites in Central Iran, Sistan and Baluchistan, and Azarbaijan. Most of these rock arts date back to the late prehistory and historic period. Among which the well-known sites of Houmian at Kuhdasht, Khomein, and Teimareh in Central Iran are outstanding.
  • Large carvings of camels that were discovered in 2018 in Saudi Arabia are estimated to be 7,000 to 8,000 years old. This Neolithic dating would make the carvings significantly older than Stonehenge (5,000 years old) and the Egyptian pyramids at Giza (4,500 years old).

Australasia

Australia

Long-horned cattle and other rock art in the Laas Geel complex

Further information: Indigenous Australian art § Rock art

Australian Indigenous art represents the oldest unbroken tradition of art in the world. There are more than 100,000 recorded rock art sites in Australia.

The oldest firmly dated rock art painting in Australia is a charcoal drawing on a rock fragment found during the excavation of the Nawarla Gabarnmang rock shelter in southwestern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Dated at 28,000 BP, it is one of the oldest known pieces of rock art on Earth with a confirmed date. Nawarla Gabarnmang has one of the most extensive collections of rock art in the world and predates both Lascaux and Chauvet cave art - the earliest known art in Europe - by at least 10,000 years.

In 2008 rock art depicting what is thought to be a Thylacoleo was discovered[by whom?] on the north-western coast of the Kimberley. As the Thylacoleo is believed to have become extinct 45000–46000 years ago (Roberts et al. 2001) (Gillespie 2004). This suggests a similar age for the associated Gwion Gwion rock paintings. Archaeologist Kim Akerman however believes that the megafauna may have persisted later in refugia (wetter areas of the continent) as suggested by Wells (1985: 228). Akerman has posited that the paintings are in fact much younger. Pigments from the Gwion Gwion of the Kimberley are so old they have become part of the rock itself, making carbon dating impossible. Some experts suggest that these paintings are in the vicinity of 50,000 years old and may even pre-date Aboriginal settlement.

Miniature rock art of the stencilled variety at a rock shelter known as Yilbilinji, in the Limmen National Park in the Northern Territory, is one of only three known examples of such art. Usually stencilled art is life-size, using body parts as the stencil, but the 17 images of designs of human figures, boomerangs, animals such as crabs and long-necked turtles, wavy lines and geometric shapes are very rare. Found in 2017 by archaeologists, the only other recorded examples are at Nielson's Creek in New South Wales and at Kisar Island in Indonesia. It is thought that the designs may have been created by stencils fashioned out of beeswax.

  • Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory has a large collection of ochre paintings. Ochre is a not an organic material, so carbon dating of these pictures is impossible. Sometimes the approximate date, or at least an epoch, can be guessed from the content.
  • The Sydney region has important rock engravings.
  • Mount Grenfell Historic Site near Cobar, western New South Wales has important ancient rock-drawings.
  • The Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) area of Western Australia near Karratha is estimated[by whom?] to be home to between 500,000 and 1 million individual engravings.
  • Kimberley region of Western Australia. Amateur archaeologist Grahame Walsh, who researched Gwion Gwion rock paintings in the region from 1977 until his death in 2007, produced a photographic database of 1.5 million Gwion Gwion rock paintings. Many of the Gwion rock paintings maintain vivid colours because they have been colonised by bacteria and fungi, such as the black fungus, Chaetothyriales. The pigments originally applied may have initiated an ongoing, symbiotic relationship between black fungi and red bacteria.
  • The Grampians-Gariwerd region is Victoria is one of the richest Aboriginal rock art sites in south-eastern Australia. Some of the more well-known and easily accessible sites are the Ngamadjidj Shelter (Cave of Ghosts), Gulgurn Manja (Flat Rock), Billimina (Glenisla Shelter) and Manja (Cave of Hands); one of the most significant sites in south-eastern Australia is Bunjil's Shelter, near Stawell, which is the only known rock art depiction of Bunjil, the creator-being in Aboriginal Australian mythology.
  • The Maliwawa Figures in Arnhem Land, a series of 571 paintings and a drawing, created between 6,000 and 9,400 years ago, show a style nor recognised by researchers in the field before new research was done in 2016–2018 and published in September 2020 by Paul Taçon and his team.
  • The Turramurra site in western Queensland is opening in 2020. Cliffs on the property, for some time known as Grace Vale Station, are covered with ancient rock art, including paintings and etchings of megafauna, emu symbols and the traditional songline of the Seven Sisters. Planning for an educational centre created from local rock is under way.

The first European discovery of aboriginal rock paintings took place on 14 January 1803. While on a surveying expedition along the shores and islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, British navigator and explorer Matthew Flinders made landfall on rugged Chasm Island off Groote Eylandt.

Within the island's rock shelters, Flinders discovered an array of painted and stenciled patterns. To record these images, he enlisted the ship's artist, William Westall. Westall's two watercolour sketches are the earliest known documentation of Australian rock art. In his journal, Flinders not only detailed the location and the artworks but also authored the inaugural site report:

In the deep sides of the chasms were deep holes or caverns undermining the cliffs; upon the walls of which I found rude drawings, made with charcoal and something like red paint upon the white ground of the rock. These drawings represented porpoises, turtle, kanguroos [sic], and a human hand; and Mr. Westall, who went afterwards to see them, found the representation of a kanguroo [sic], with a file of thirty-two persons following after it. The third person of the band was twice the height of the others, and held in his hand something resembling the whaddie, or wooden sword of the natives of Port Jackson; and was probably intended to represent a chief. They could not, as with us, indicate superiority by clothing or ornament, since they wore none of any kind; and therefore, with the addition of a weapon, similar to the ancients, they seem to have made superiority of person the principal emblem of superior power, of which, indeed, power is usually a consequence in the very early stages of society.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, North Otago and South Canterbury have a rich range of early Māori rock art.

Studies

Rock art studies is a special area of archaeology that looks at markings made on natural rocks. Experts like David S. Whitley say that studying rock art needs a mix of different skills and ideas from many parts of archaeology.

For a long time, many archaeologists, especially those who spoke English, did not pay much attention to rock art. But in the 1980s and 1990s, more and more archaeologists started to study it. They found that rock art could help us learn about old beliefs, how people lived together, and how cultures changed over time. One important person in this field was David Lewis-Williams, who studied rock art from southern Africa and shared many new ideas about its meaning.

People around the world are also working on projects to help share information about rock art. In 2011, a group from UNESCO met to talk about creating a big archive for rock art. Even though nothing big has been made yet, many projects are trying to make rock art easier to learn about and protect.

Images

Ancient rock painting telling stories of the indigenous people of Canada.
Ancient rock paintings from the Cederberg Wilderness Area in South Africa, showcasing early human art.
Ancient rock paintings from the Chongoni Rock-Art Area in Malawi, showcasing beautiful historical art.
Ancient rock paintings from the Adi Alauti Cave, showing early human art from around 2500 BC.
Ancient rock paintings on a cave ceiling in Wyoming, showing early human art and history.
Ancient cave paintings from Bhimbetka showing early human life and animals, dating back to 1500-2000 BC.

Related articles

Cave painting
Indigenous peoples
Archaeology
World Heritage Site
Egypt
Petroglyph

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Rock art, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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