archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed

rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long or wide, rock shelters are alm ...

s; this type also may be called

cave art In archaeology, cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric art, prehistoric origin. These paintings were often c ...

or parietal art. A global phenomenon, rock art is found in many culturally diverse regions of the world. It has been produced in many contexts throughout human history. In terms of technique, the four main groups are: *

cave painting In archaeology, cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric art, prehistoric origin. These paintings were often c ...

s, *

petroglyphs 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 ...

, which are carved or scratched into the rock surface, * sculpted

rock relief A rock relief or rock-cut relief is a relief, relief sculpture carved on solid or "living rock" such as a cliff, rather than a detached piece of stone. They are a category of rock art, and sometimes found as part of, or in conjunction ...

s, and *

geoglyphs A geoglyph is a large design or motif – generally longer than – produced on the ground by durable elements of the landscape, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth. A positive geoglyph is formed by the arrangement and alignment ...

, which are formed on the ground. The oldest known rock art dates from the

Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...

period, having been found in Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. Anthropologists studying these artworks believe that they likely had

magico-religious People who believe in magic can be found in all societies, regardless of whether they have organized religious hierarchies, including formal clergy, or more informal systems. Such concepts tend to appear more frequently in cultures based in ...

significance. The archaeological sub-discipline of rock art studies first developed in the late-19th century among Francophone scholars studying the rock

art of the Upper Palaeolithic The art of the Upper Paleolithic represents the oldest form of prehistoric art. Figurative art is present in prehistoric Europe, Europe and Prehistoric Indonesia, Southeast Asia, beginning around 50,000 years ago. Non-figurative cave paintings, c ...

found in the cave systems of parts of Western Europe. Rock art continues to be of importance to

indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

in various parts of the world, who view them as both

sacred Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...

items and significant components of their cultural heritage. Such archaeological sites may become significant sources of

cultural tourism Cultural tourism is a type of tourism in which the visitor's essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the cultural attractions and products offered by a tourist destination. These attractions and products relate to the ...

and have been used in popular culture for their aesthetic qualities. Whitley 2005, pp. 1–2. Buddhas at ili

Etymology

The term ''rock art'' appears in the published literature as early as the 1940s. It has also been described as "rock carvings", "rock drawings", "rock engravings", "rock inscriptions", "rock paintings", "rock pictures", "rock records", and "rock sculptures".

Background

Parietal art is a term for art in

caves Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground (such as rock ...

; this definition usually extended to art in

s under cliff overhangs. Popularly, it is called "cave art", and is a subset of the wider term, rock art. It is mostly on rock walls, but may be on ceilings and floors. A wide variety of techniques have been used in its creation. The term usually is applied only to

prehistoric art In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, Prehistory, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other met ...

, but it may be used for art of any date. Sheltered parietal art has had a far better chance of surviving for very long periods, and what now survives may represent only a very small proportion of what was created. Both parietal and cave art refer to

s, drawings, etchings, carvings, and pecked artwork on the interior of caves and rock shelters. Generally, these either are engraved (essentially meaning scratched) or painted, or, they are created using a combination of the two techniques. Parietal art is found very widely throughout the world, and in many places new examples are being discovered. The defining characteristic of rock art is that it is placed on natural rock surfaces; in this way, it is distinct from artworks placed on constructed walls or free-standing sculpture. As such, rock art is a form of landscape art, and includes designs that have been placed on boulder and cliff faces, cave walls, and ceilings, and on the ground surface. Whitley 2005, p. 3. Rock art is a global phenomenon, being found in many different regions of the world.Whitley 2005, p. 1. There are various forms of rock art. Some archaeologists also consider pits and grooves in the rock known as '' cupules'', or ''cups'' or ''rings'', as a form of rock art. Although there are exceptions, the majority of rock art whose creation was recorded by

ethnographers Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

had been produced during rituals. As such, the study of rock art is a component of the archaeology of religion. Rock art serves multiple purposes in the contemporary world. In several regions, it remains spiritually important to

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

s, who view it as a significant component of their cultural heritage. It also serves as an important source of cultural tourism, and hence as economic revenue in certain parts of the world. As such, images taken from cave art have appeared on memorabilia and other artifacts sold as a part of the tourist industry.

Types

Paintings

In most climates, only paintings in sheltered sites, in particular caves, have survived for any length of time. Therefore, these are usually called "cave paintings", although many do survive in "rock-shelters" or cliff-faces under an overhang. In prehistoric times, these were often popular places for various human purposes, providing some shelter from the weather, as well as light. There may have been many more paintings in more exposed sites, that are now lost. Pictographs are paintings or drawings that have been placed onto the rock face. Such artworks have typically been made with mineral earths and other natural compounds found across much of the world. The predominantly used colours are red, black and white. Red paint is usually attained through the use of ground

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colou ...

, while black paint is typically composed of

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

, or sometimes from minerals such as

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

. White paint is usually created from natural chalk, kaolinite clay or diatomaceous earth. Once the pigments had been obtained, they would be ground and mixed with a liquid, such as water, blood, urine, or egg yolk, and then applied to the stone as paint using a brush, fingers, or a stamp. Alternately, the pigment could have been applied on dry, such as with a stick of charcoal. In some societies, the paint itself has symbolic and religious meaning; for instance, among hunter-gatherer groups in California, paint was only allowed to be traded by the group shamans, while in other parts of North America, the word for "paint" was the same as the word for "supernatural spirit". One common form of pictograph, found in many, although not all rock-art producing cultures, is the hand print. There are three forms of this; the first involves covering the hand in wet paint and then applying it to the rock. The second involves a design being painted onto the hand, which is then in turn added to the surface. The third involves the hand first being placed against the panel, with dry paint then being blown onto it through a tube, in a process that is akin to air-brush or spray-painting. The resulting image is a negative print of the hand, and is sometimes described as a "

stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object. The holes allow the pigment to reach only some parts of the surface creatin ...

" in Australian archaeology. Miniature stencilled art has been found at two locations in Australia and one in Indonesia.

Petroglyphs

Petroglyphs are

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

s or carvings into rock which is left ''

in situ is a Latin phrase meaning 'in place' or 'on site', derived from ' ('in') and ' ( ablative of ''situs'', ). The term typically refers to the examination or occurrence of a process within its original context, without relocation. The term is use ...

''. They can be created with a range of scratching, engraving or carving techniques, often with the use of a hard

hammerstone In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the wo ...

, which is battered against the stone surface. In certain societies, the choice of hammerstone itself has religious significance.Whitley 2005, p. 11. In other instances, the rock art is pecked out through indirect percussion, as a second rock is used like a

chisel A chisel is a hand tool with a characteristic Wedge, wedge-shaped cutting edge on the end of its blade. A chisel is useful for carving or cutting a hard material such as woodworking, wood, lapidary, stone, or metalworking, metal. Using a chi ...

between the hammerstone and the panel. A third, rarer form of engraving rock art was through incision, or scratching, into the surface of the stone with a

lithic flake In archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock (geology), rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure,"Andrefsky, W. (2005) ''Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis''. 2d Ed. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press and ...

or metal blade. The motifs produced using this technique are fine-lined and often difficult to see.Whitley 2005, p. 13.

Rock reliefs

Normally found in literate cultures, a rock relief or rock-cut relief is a

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

sculpture carved on solid or "living rock" such as a cliff, rather than a detached piece of stone. They are a category of rock art, and sometimes found in conjunction with

rock-cut architecture Rock-cut architecture is the creation of structures, buildings, and sculptures by excavating solid Rock (geology), rock where it naturally occurs. Intensely laborious when using ancient tools and methods, rock-cut architecture was presumably combi ...

. However, they tend to be omitted in most works on rock art, which concentrate on engravings and paintings by prehistoric peoples. A few such works exploit the natural contours of the rock and use them to define an image, but they do not amount to man-made reliefs. Rock reliefs have been made in many cultures, and were especially important in the art of the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Nea ...

. Rock reliefs are generally fairly large, as they need to be to make an impact in the open air. Most have figures that are over life-size, and in many the figures are multiples of life-size. Stylistically they normally relate to other types of sculpture from the culture and period concerned, and except for Hittite and Persian examples they are generally discussed as part of that wider subject. The vertical relief is most common, but reliefs on essentially horizontal surfaces are also found. The term typically excludes relief carvings inside

, whether natural or themselves man-made, which are especially found in India. Natural rock formations made into statues or other sculpture in the round, most famously at the

Great Sphinx of Giza The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. Facing east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The original sh ...

, are also usually excluded. Reliefs on large boulders left in their natural location, like the Hittite

İmamkullu relief The Hittite İmamkullu relief (previously also ''İmamkulu'') is a rock relief near the town of İmamkullu in Tomarza district in Kayseri Province, Turkey. In Turkish it is known as ''Yazılı Kaya'' ("inscribed cliff") and ''Şimşekkaya'' (" ...

, are likely to be included, but smaller boulders may be called

stela A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

e or carved

orthostat This article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic (Stone Age) structures. Forecourt In archaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. Forecourts ...

Earth figures

Earth figures are large designs and motifs that are created on the stone ground surface. They can be classified through their method of manufacture.Whitley 2005, p. 14. ''Intaglios'' are created by scraping away the desert pavements (pebbles covering the ground) to reveal a negative image on the bedrock below. The best known example of such intaglio rock art is the Nazca Lines of

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. In contrast, ''geoglyphs'' are positive images, which are created by piling up rocks on the ground surface to resulting in a visible motif or design.

Motifs and panels

Traditionally, individual markings are called motifs and groups of motifs are known as ''panels''. Sequences of panels are treated as

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

s. This method of classifying rock art however has become less popular as the structure imposed is unlikely to have had any relevance to the art's creators. Even the word 'art' carries with it many modern prejudices about the purpose of the features. Rock art can be found across a wide geographical and temporal spread of

cultures Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

perhaps to mark territory, to record historical events or stories or to help enact

ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

s. Some art seems to depict real events whilst many other examples are apparently entirely abstract. Prehistoric rock depictions were not purely descriptive. Each motif and design had a "deep significance" that is not always understandable to modern scholars.

Interpretation and use

Religious interpretations

In many instances, the creation of rock art was itself a ritual act.

Regional variations

Europe

In the

of Europe, rock art was produced inside cave systems by the hunter-gatherer peoples who inhabited the continent. The oldest known example is the

Chauvet Cave The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave ( ) in the Ardèche department of southeastern France is a cave that contains some of the best-preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as other evidence of Upper Paleolithic life.Clottes (2003b), p. ...

in France, although others have been located, including

Lascaux Lascaux ( , ; , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, Dordogne, Montignac, in the Departments of France, department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 Parietal art, parietal cave painting, wall paintin ...

in France, Alta Mira in Spain and

Creswell Crags Creswell Crags is an enclosed limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England, near the villages of Creswell and Whitwell. The cliffs in the ravine contain several caves that were occupied during the last ice age ...

in Britain and Grotta del Genovese in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

The late prehistoric rock art of Europe has been divided into three regions by archaeologists. In

Atlantic Europe Atlantic Europe encompasses the western portion of Europe which borders the Atlantic Ocean. The term may refer to the idea of Atlantic Europe as a cultural unit and/or as a biogeographical region. It comprises the British Isles (Great Britain an ...

, the coastal seaboard on the west of the continent, which stretches from Iberia up through France and encompasses the British Isles, a variety of different rock arts were produced from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

through to the

Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. A second area of the continent to contain a significant rock art tradition was that of Alpine Europe, with the majority of artworks being clustered in the southern slopes of the mountainous region, in what is now south-eastern France and northern Italy. Laukaa - rock painting2

* Finnish Rock Art *

Knowth Knowth (; ) is a prehistoric tomb overlooking the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland. It comprises a large passage tomb surrounded by 17 smaller tombs, built during the Neolithic era around 3200 BC. It contains the largest assemblage of megali ...

* Loughcrew *

Newgrange Newgrange () is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, placed on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, west of the town of Drogheda. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3100 BC, makin ...

* Neolithic and Bronze Age rock art in the British Isles * Rock Drawings in Valcamonica (

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

)
Balma dei Cervi
at Crodo (Piedmont - Italian Alps) * Grotta dei Cervi at Porto Badisco
Apulia
- Italy) * Grotta del Genovese (

) *

List of rock carvings in Norway {{short description, None This article contains a list of rock carvings in Norway. Locations Rock carvings in the different counties of Norway: * Agder: ** Rock carvings at Jærberget, Farsund Municipality ** Rock carvings at Grobstranda (hunting) ...

Rock carvings at Alta The Rock art of Alta () are located in and around Alta Municipality in Finnmark county in northern Norway. Since the first carvings were discovered in 1973, more than 6,000 carvings have been found on several sites around Alta. The largest ...

(

) * Madara Rider (World Heritage Site) * Côa Valley Paleolithic Art (World Heritage Site) *

Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain The Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain () is a grouping of 18 caves of northern Spain, which together represent the apogee of Upper Paleolithic cave art in Europe between 35,000 and 11,000 years ago (Aurignacian, Grave ...

(World Heritage Site) * Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin (World Heritage Site) * Tanum (World Heritage Site) * , Rock Art Research Centre and World Heritage Archive, situated in Tanum, Sweden.

Africa

North Africa

* South Oran in Algeria. *

Saharan rock art Saharan rock art is a significant area of archaeological study focusing on artwork carved or painted on the natural rocks of the central Sahara desert. The rock art dates from numerous periods starting years ago, and is significant because it sh ...

Tadrart Acacus The Acacus Mountains or Tadrart Akakus ( / ALA-LC: ''Tadrārt Akākūs'') form a mountain range in the desert of the Ghat District in western Libya, part of the Sahara. They are situated east of the city of Ghat, Libya, and stretch north from th ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

– World Heritage Site. *

Tassili n'Ajjer Tassili n'Ajjer (Berber: ''Tassili n Ajjer'', ; "Plateau of rivers") is a mountain range in the Sahara desert, located in south-eastern Algeria. It holds one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world, and covers an ar ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

–

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

and World Heritage Site, known for its 10,000-year-old paintings. *

Cave of Swimmers The Cave of Swimmers is a rock shelter with ancient rock art in the mountainous Gilf Kebir plateau of the Libyan Desert section of the Sahara Desert. It is located in the New Valley Governorate of southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya. M ...

is a cave in southwest

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, near the border with Libya, along the western edge of the

Gilf Kebir Gilf Kebir () (var. Gilf al-Kebir, Jilf al Kabir, Gilf Kebir Plateau) is a plateau in the New Valley Governorate of the remote southwest corner of Egypt, and southeast Libya. Its name translates as "the Great Barrier". This sandstone plateau, ...

plateau in the central

Libyan Desert The Libyan Desert (not to be confused with the Libyan Sahara) is a geographical region filling the northeastern Sahara Desert, from eastern Libya to the Western Desert (Egypt), Western Desert of Egypt and far northwestern Sudan. On medieval m ...

(Eastern Sahara). It was discovered in October 1933 by the Hungarian explorer

László Almásy László Adolf Ede György Mária Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós (; ; 22 August/3 November 1895 – 22 March 1951) was a Hungarian Aristocracy (class), aristocrat, motorist, desert exploration, desert explorer, aviator, Scouting, ...

. The site contains rock paintings of human figures who appear to be swimming, which have been estimated to have been created at least 6,000 to 7000 years ago. The

Cave of Beasts The Cave of the Beasts (also named ''Foggini-Mestikawi Cave'' or ''Foggini Cave'' or ''Cave Wadi Sura II'') is a huge natural rock shelter in the Western Desert of Egypt featuring Neolithic rock paintings, more than 7,000 years old, with about ...

10 km westwards was discovered in 2002. * Jebel Uweinat, a large granite and sandstone mountain, as well as the adjacent smaller massifs of Jebel Arkenu and Jebel Kissu at the converging triple borders of

and

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

, harbors one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric rock art in the entire Sahara. The rock art here mainly consists of the Neolithic cattle pastoralist cultures, but also a number of older paintings from hunter-gatherer societies. * Sabu-Jaddi rock art site in Northern Sudan. * North Sİnai Archaeological Sites Zone − tentative World Heritage Site.

Limestone cave A solutional cave, solution cave, or karst cave is a cave usually formed in a soluble rock like limestone (Calcium carbonate, with chemical formula ''CaCO3''). It is the most frequently occurring type of cave. It can also form in other rocks, inc ...

decorated with scenes of animals such as

donkey The donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a separate species, ''Equus asinus''. It was domes ...

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

and

mountain goat The mountain goat (''Oreamnos americanus''), also known as the Rocky Mountain goat, is a cloven-footed mammal that is endemic to the remote and rugged mountainous areas of western North America. A subalpine to truly alpine species, it is a s ...

s was uncovered in the site in 2020. Rock art cave is 15 meters deep and 20 meters high. * Wadi Abu Dom

Western Africa

* Boucle du Baoulé National Park * Dabous Giraffes

East Africa

* Qohaito in

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

– 7,000 years old rock art near the ancient city Qohaito. * Dorra and

Balho Balho () is a town located in the Tadjourah Region, Tadjourah Regions of Djibouti, region of Djibouti. It is situated on the National Highway 11 (Djibouti), RN-11 highway. It is situated about 32 kilometres (20 miles) west of Dorra and 6 km (4 mi) ...

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

– Rock art sites with figures of what appear to be antelopes and a giraffe. * Kundudo in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

– Flat top mountain complex with rock art in a cave. * Laas Geel in

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

– A number of cave paintings and petroglyphs can be found at various sites across the country. Among the most prominent examples of this is the rock art in Laas Geel, Dhambalin, Gaanlibah and Karinhegane. * Nyero Rockpaintings, Uganda - World Heritage Site, pre-historic paintings was noticed before 1250 AD * Swaga Swaga Game Reserve in

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

– Archaeologists announced the discovery of ancient rock art with anthropomorphic figures in a good condition at the Amak’hee 4 rockshelter site. Paintings made with a reddish dye also contained buffalo heads, giraffe's head and neck, domesticated cattle dated back to about several hundred years ago. * Bahi rock paintings * Chabbé * Dhaymoole * Handoga * Kondoa Rock-Art Sites * Mfangano Island * Rock art of Uganda

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. * UKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

– The site has paintings dated to around 3,000 years old and which are thought to have been drawn by the

San people The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region. They are thought to have diverged from other humans 100,000 to 200 ...

and Khoisan people, who settled in the area some 8,000 years ago. The rock art depicts animals and humans and is thought to represent religious beliefs. *

Tsodilo Hills The Tsodilo Hills () are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), consisting of rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves in Botswana, Southern Africa. It gained its WHS listing in 2001 because of its unique religious and spiritual significance ...

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

– A World Heritage Site with rock art *

Brandberg Mountain The Brandberg ( Damara: ; ) is Namibia's highest mountain. Location and extent Brandberg Mountain is located in former Damaraland, now Erongo, in the northwestern Namib Desert, near the coast, and covers an area of approximately 650 ...

( Daureb) in

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

– It is one of the most important rock art localities on the African continent. Most visitors only see " The White Lady" shelter (which is neither white, nor a lady, the famous scene probably depicts a young boy in an initiation ceremony), however the upper reaches of the mountain is full of sites with prehistoric paintings, some of which rank among the finest artistic achievements of prehistory. * Bambata Cave, Zimbabwe- Animal paintings and human drawings are supposed to be age from 2.000 to 20.000 years old * Mwela and Adjacent Areas Rock Art Site, Zambia * Chongoni Rock Art Area * Driekops Eiland * Modderpoort Sacred Sites * Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements * Nyambwezi Falls * San rock art * Twyfelfontein *

Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre is a rock engraving site with visitor centre on land owned by the !Xun and Khwe San situated about 16 km from Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa. It is a declared Provincial Heritage Site managed by ...

Americas

The oldest reliably dated rock art in the Americas is known as the "Horny Little Man". It is

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 ...

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 Serra da Capivara National Park ( Portuguese: ''Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara'', ) is a national park in the Northeastern region of Brazil. The area has many prehistoric paintings. The name of the mountain range that defines the park, "Serr ...

Piauí Piauí ( ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piauí has the shortest coastline of any coas ...

state. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the largest collection in the American continent and one of the most studied. A site including eight miles of paintings or pictographs that is under study in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, South America at Serranía de la Lindosa was revealed in November 2020.Alberge, Dalya,
'Sistine Chapel of the ancients' rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest
',

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, Sunday, November 29, 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 The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

from northern

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

to the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (, ) is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word "to trade", as it was the major trade route of Eastern Canada at the time. For most of its length, it defines the border betw ...

. * Pomier Caves, Dominican Republic *

Naj Tunich Naj Tunich ( Mopan Maya: "stone house, cave") is a series of pre-Columbian era natural caves outside the village of La Compuerta, roughly 35 km east of Poptún in Guatemala. The site was a Maya ritual pilgrimage site during the Classic per ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Rock Paintings of Sierra de San Francisco The Rock Paintings of Sierra de San Francisco are prehistoric rock art pictographs found in the Sierra de San Francisco mountain range in Mulegé Municipality of the northern region of Baja California Sur state, in Mexico. History The pictog ...

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

, Mexico * Sierra de Guadalupe cave paintings,

, Mexico * Pictograph Cave Complex,

Billings, Montana Billings is the most populous Lists of populated places in the United States, city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, i ...

, United States * Cañon Pintado,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States *

Chaco Culture National Historical Park Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in the American Southwest hosting a large concentration of pre-Columbian indigenous ruins of pueblos. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, betwee ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, United States * Chumash rock art,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States * Coso Rock Art District,

, United States * Hulkhuku, California, United States - The site of Hulkhuku is located in the San Emigdio Hills in South Central California. Archaeologists found that the rock art at the site was meant to be viewed by the general public and was not reserved for the elites of the society or for private rituals. This is based on evidence that the rock art is located in areas that were used by the public for everyday activities. * Nine Mile Canyon,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States * Quail rock art panel,

, United States * Painted Rocks,

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, United States * Petroglyph National Monument,

, United States *

, Brazil * Vale do Catimbau National Park,

Pernambuco Pernambuco ( , , ) is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.5 million people as of 2024, it is the List of Brazilian states by population, ...

, Brazil. *

Localidad Rupestre de Chamangá The Chamangá Rock Art Place () is a concentration of rock painting located at Chamangá to the east of Trinidad, Uruguay. See also * Chamangá References External links Flores Department Historic preservation in Uruguay Ro ...

, Uruguay *

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park is located about southeast of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, or east of the community of Milk River, and straddles the Milk River itself. It is one of the largest areas of protected prairie in the Alberta park s ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada *

Cueva de las Manos Cueva de las Manos ( Spanish for Cave of the Hands or Cave of Hands) is a cave and complex of rock art sites in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, south of the town of Perito Moreno. It is named for the hundreds of paintings of hands s ...

Santa Cruz Province, Argentina Santa Cruz Province (, , "Holy Cross") is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut Province to the north, and Chile to the west and south, with the Atlantic Ocean ...

* Huerfano Butte,

, United States * Petroglyphs Provincial Park,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada * Serranía La Lindosa, Guaviare Department, Colombia * Little Lake, Rose Valley, California, United States 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 The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

and Malibu, have both realistic and abstract styles of zoomorphic effigy figurines. From archaeological studies at these sites, archaeologists and other researchers discovered many of these figurines and performed a composition analysis, which most of these figurines are made of

steatite Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium-rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in subdu ...

but there are still made of other materials. As a result from these archaeological studies, these figures provided context about spheres of interaction between tribal groups, demonstrate economical significance, and possibly hold a ritual function as well. Under one study by archaeologists Richard T Fitzgerald and Christopher Corey, they dated the earliest figurines to be around 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 between these tribes, providing a history of interactive contact.

California

Little Lake is a complex of rock art located in a specific point in time and space (in Rose Valley, Inyo County). Rose Valley is located in the boundaries of the cultural

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

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 The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

). 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, the rock art related sites at Little Rock can't be directly dated or analyzed.

Asia

Wenshan Malipo Dawang Yanya Neolithic Painting

Ancient rock art in Balichakra near Yadgir town

Central Asia

* Gobustan National Park in Azerbaijan * Petroglyphs of Arpa-Uzen, Kazakhstan * Siypantosh Rock Paintings in Uzbekistan * Zarautsoy Rock Paintings in Uzbekistan

East Asia

Bangudae Petroglyphs The Bangudae Petroglyphs () are pre-historic engravings on flat vertical rock faces. They are on rocks around 8m wide and around 5m high on steep cliffs on the riverside of the Daegokcheon stream, a branch of the Taehwa River,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 The Yin Mountains, also known by their Chinese name as the Yin Shan or Yinshan and by various romanizations as the Daqing Mountains, are mountains in the Eastern Gobi Desert steppe of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China. The Yellow Riv ...

, China * Zuo River Huashan rock art in Guangxi, China * Chifeng Petroglyphs in Inner Mongolia * Above 4000 meters above sea level high

Tibetan plateau The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or Qingzang Plateau, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central Asia, Central, South Asia, South, and East Asia. Geographically, it is located to the north of H ...

: 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

Hominin The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...

s on the high Tibetan plateau.

Southeast Asia

Angono Petroglyphs The Angono - Binangonan Petroglyphs are petroglyphs carved into a rock wall between the boundaries of Angono and Binangonan, Rizal (province), Rizal, Philippines. It consists of 127 human and animal figures engraved on the rockwall probably carve ...

, the Philippines * Bir Hima Rock Petroglyphs and Inscriptions * Pettakere cave,

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province in the South Peninsula, Sulawesi, southern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital and largest ci ...

, Indonesia – hand print paintings *

Pha Taem Pha Taem National Park (Thai:อุทยานแห่งชาติผาแต้ม) is a List of national parks of Thailand, national park on the Mekong River in Ubon Ratchathani Province, northeast Thailand. Phou Xieng Thong National Prot ...

in Thailand *

Tambun rock art Tambun rock art, is a series of Neolithic-era cave paintings at the Gunung Panjang limestone hill in Tambun, on the outskirts of Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. The paintings were discovered on a rocky overhang in 1959 by 2/Lt R. L. Rawlings of the 2nd Ba ...

, Malaysia

South Asia

Bhimbetka rock shelters The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in central India that spans the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, as well as the historic period. It exhibits the earliest traces of human life in India and evidence of the Stone Age star ...

(World Heritage Site), Madhya Pradesh, India with rock art ranging from the

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

(c.8,000 BC) to historical times * Edakkal Caves,

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

India * Gavali, Udupi * Hire Benakal, Karnataka * Balichakra, Yadgir town in Karnataka, India * Rock paintings of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, in India (several sites) *

Kaimur district Kaimur district is one of the 38 districts of Bihar, India. The district headquarters are at Bhabua. Before 1991, it was part of Rohtas District. Till 1764 the region (Kaimur district) was a part of Ghazipur District and was a part of Kamsaar ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

, India (several sites) * Rock paintings of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

, in India (several sites) *

Sonda, Karnataka Sode is a village near Sirsi, Karnataka, Sirsi in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka in India. Location Sodhe is a village in the Malenadu region, surrounded by thick forests. It is 22 km from Sirsi and 13 km from Hulekal. Pre ...

Western Asia

* Rock Art in the Ha'il Region in Saudi Arabia * Iranian rock art sites are mostly found in the

Zagros The Zagros Mountains are a mountain range in Iran, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey. The mountain range has a total length of . The Zagros range begins in northwestern Iran and roughly follows Iran's western border while covering much of s ...

Mountain range. But there are many other sites in

Central Iran Central Iran () consists of the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountains in the north, the Zagros Mountains in south, the Central Iranian Range, and the desert of Dasht-e Kavir. It includes the provinces of Esfahan, Yazd, Chahar Mahal and Bak ...

Sistan Sistān (), also known as Sakastān (, , current name: Zabol) and Sijistan (), is a historical region in south-eastern Iran and extending across the borders of present-day south-western Afghanistan, and south-western Pakistan. Mostly correspond ...

and

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region of de ...

, 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 A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide ...

that were discovered in 2018 in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

are estimated to be 7,000 to 8,000 years old. This

dating would make the carvings significantly older than Stonehenge (5,000 years old) and the Egyptian pyramids at

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...

(4,500 years old).

Australasia

Australia

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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. 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 south western

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. Dated at 28,000 years, 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

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 on the north-western coast of the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

. 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 The Gwion Gwion rock paintings, Gwion figures, Kiro Kiro or Kujon (also known as the Bradshaw rock paintings, Bradshaw rock art, Bradshaw figures and the Bradshaws) are one of the two major regional traditions of rock art found in the north-wes ...

. Archaeologist Kim Akerman however believes that the

megafauna In zoology, megafauna (from Ancient Greek, Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and Neo-Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") are large animals. The precise definition of the term varies widely, though a common threshold is approximately , this lower en ...

may have persisted later in refugia (wetter areas of the continent) as suggested by Wells (1985: 228) and has suggested a much younger age for the paintings. 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. Bradshaw rock paintings

Miniature rock art of the

led variety at a rock shelter known as Yilbilinji, in the Limmen National Park in the

, 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,

boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...

s, animals such as

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

s and long-necked turtles, wavy lines and geometric shapes are very rare. Found in 2017 by

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

s, the only other recorded examples are at Nielson's Creek in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and at Kisar Island in Indonesia. It is thought that the designs may have been created by stencils fashioned out of

beeswax Bee hive wax complex Beeswax (also known as cera alba) is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus ''Apis''. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in o ...

. *

Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded l ...

in the Northern Territory has a large collection of

paintings. Ochre is a not an

organic material Organic matter, organic material or natural organic matter is the large source of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come fro ...

, so

carbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was ...

of these pictures is impossible. Sometimes the approximate date, or at least an

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...

, can be guessed from the content. * The Sydney region has important rock engravings. * Mount Grenfell Historic Site near

Cobar Cobar is a town in Outback New South Wales, Australia, whose economy is based mainly upon base metals and gold mining. The town is by road northwest of the state capital, Sydney. It is at the crossroads of the Kidman Way and Barrier Highwa ...

, western

has important ancient rock-drawings. * The Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) area of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

near Karratha is estimated to be home to between 500,000 and 1 million individual engravings. * Kimberley region of Western Australia. Amateur archaeologist Grahame Walsh, who researched

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 Chaetothyriales are an order of ascomycetous fungi in the class Eurotiomycetes and within the subclass Chaetothyriomycetidae. The order was circumscribed in 1987 by mycologist Margaret Elizabeth Barr-Bigelow. Families and genera , Specie ...

''. The pigments originally applied may have initiated an ongoing,

symbiotic Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biolo ...

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 Bunjil, also spelt Bundjil, is a creator deity, culture hero and ancestral being, often depicted as a wedge-tailed eagle in Australian Aboriginal mythology of some of the Aboriginal peoples of Victoria. Creation stories In the Kulin nati ...

, 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

emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...

symbols and the traditional

songline A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal cultures of Australia. They mark the route followed by localised "crea ...

of the Seven Sisters. Planning for an educational centre created from local rock is under way. Westall Chasm Island art

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 The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

, British navigator and explorer

Matthew Flinders Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first littoral zone, inshore circumnavigate, circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then ...

made landfall on rugged Chasm Island off

Groote Eylandt Groote Eylandt ( Anindilyakwa: ''Ayangkidarrba''; meaning "island" ) is the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the fourth largest island in Australia. It was named by the explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 and is Dutch for "large island" ...

. 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 Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...

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 ic and a human hand; and Mr. Westall, who went afterwards to see them, found the representation of a kanguroo ic 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 Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...
; 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 North Otago is an area in New Zealand that covers the area of the Otago region between Shag Point and the Waitaki River, and extends inland to the west as far as the village of Omarama (which has experienced rapid growth as a developing centre f ...

and

South Canterbury South Canterbury is the area of the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand bounded by the Rangitata River in the north and the Waitaki River (the border with the Otago Region) to the south. The Pacific Ocean and ridge of the S ...

have a rich range of early

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

rock art. * The Takiroa Rock Art Shelter near Duntroon contains Māori artwork made from ochre and charcoal.

Studies

The archaeological sub-discipline devoted to the investigation of rock art is known as "rock art studies". Rock art specialist David S. Whitley noted that research in this area required an "integrated effort" that brings together

archaeological theory Archaeological theory refers to the various intellectual frameworks through which archaeology, archaeologists interpret archaeological data. Archaeological theory functions as the application of philosophy of science to archaeology, and is occasion ...

, method, fieldwork, analytical techniques and interpretation.

History

Although French archaeologists had undertaken much research into rock art, Anglophone archaeology had largely neglected the subject for decades. The discipline of rock art studies witnessed what Whitley called a "revolution" during the 1980s and 1990s, as increasing numbers of archaeologists in the Anglophone world and Latin America turned their attention to the subject. In doing so, they recognised that rock art could be used to understand symbolic and religious systems, gender relations, cultural boundaries, cultural change and the origins of art and belief. One of the most significant figures in this movement was the South African archaeologist David Lewis-Williams, who published his studies of San rock art from southern Africa, in which he combined ethnographic data to reveal the original purpose of the artworks. Lewis-Williams would come to be praised for elevating rock art studies to a "theoretically sophisticated research domain" by Whitley. However, the study of rock art worldwide is marked by considerable differences of opinion with respect to the appropriateness of various methods and the most relevant and defensible theoretical framework.

International databases and archives

The UNESCO World Rock Art Archive Working Group met in 2011 to discuss the base model for a World Rock Art Archive. While no official output has been generated to date, various projects around the world — such as The Global Rock Art Database — are looking at making rock art heritage information more accessible and more visible to assist with rock art awareness, conservation and preservation issues.

Notes

References

* * Bahn, Paul (ed), ''The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art'', 1998, Cambridge University Press, , 9780521454735
google books
* * Harmanşah, Ömür (ed) (2014), ''Of Rocks and Water: An Archaeology of Place'', 2014, Oxbow Books, , 9781782976745 * * Rawson, Jessica (ed). ''The British Museum Book of Chinese Art'', 2007 (2nd edn), British Museum Press, * Schaafsma, Polly, 1980, ''Indian Rock Art of the Southwest'', School of American Research, Santa Fe, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque NM, . Scholarly text with 349 references, 32 color plates, 283 black and white "figures", 11 maps, and 2 tables. * Sickman, Laurence, in: Sickman L., & Soper A., ''The Art and Architecture of China'', Pelican History of Art, 3rd ed 1971, Penguin (now Yale History of Art), LOC 70-125675 * *

External links

IFRAO
International Federation of Rock Art Organizations, comprising 60 academic rock art organizations of the world. Some of these are:
ARARA
American Rock Art Research Association.

Anisa, Verein für Alpine Forschung.
AURA
Australian Rock Art Research Association, Inc.
CARA
Cave Art Research Association.

Institutum Canarium.
CeSMAP
Centro Studi e Museo d'Arte Preistorica.

Centro Camuno do Studi Preistorici.
SCAO
Società Cooperativa Archeologica Le Orme dell'Uomo.

Association des Amis de l'art Rupestre Saharien.
SIARB
Bolivian Rock Art Research Society.
ANAR
Archivo Nacional de Arte Rupestre (Venezuela).
APAR
Asociación Peruana de Arte Rupestre.
AAV
Asociación Arqueológica Viguesa.
AEARC
Asociación de Estudios del Arte Rupestre de Cochabamba.
ABAR
Associação Brasileira de Arte Rupestre.
ASER
Association de Sauvegarde, d'Etude et de Recherche pour le patrimoine naturel et culturel du Centre-Var.
ESRARA
Eastern States Rock Art Research Association.

Groupe d'Études, de Recherches et de Sauvegarde de l'Art Rupestre.

Grupo Cubano de Investigaciones de Arte Rupestre.

Instituto de Investigación de Arqueología y Antropología 'Kuelap'.
NMMZ
National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

Nevada Rock Art Foundation.
NCRAT
Northern Cape Rock Art Trust.
SDRAA
San Diego Rock Art Association.
TARA
The Trust for African Rock Art.
Bradshaw Foundation
Extensive archive on rock art from all around the world.

A digital archive of the Rock Art of Alta, Norway
Global Rock Art Database (RADB)
rockartdatabase, Global Rock Art Database (RADB) search tool for international rock art archives
Maira Valley, Piedmont, Italy
Rock Art in Maira Valley, Piedmont, Italy

Database of European Prehistoric Art
England's Rock Art on the Web
Access to the ERA database containing over 1500 records of rock art panels with images and 3D models.
Tassili N'Ajjer
Rock Art of the central Tassili N'Ajjer (Tamrit, Sefar, Tin Tazarift, Jabbaren)

Rock Art of Jebel Uweinat and the Gilf Kebir plateau ("Cave of Swimmers")
Upper Brandberg
The rock paintings of the Upper Brandberg, Namibia

Rock Art of the Libyan Desert, and illustrated catalogue and bibliography of the prehistoric rock art of the central Libyan Desert
Rupestreweb.info
Latin American rock art. Articles, Zones, News, Rock art researchers directory
Tanums Hällristningsmuseum
Rock Art Research Centre and World Heritage Archive, situated in Tanum, Sweden.

– A Bibliographic database at the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...

containing over 18,000 citations to the world's rock art literature.
Bradshaw Foundation
– Rock Art archeology and research from the Negev Desert, Israel.

– Examples from the Côa Valley in Portugal and Magdalenian Rock Art.
The Rock Art Foundation
– Native American Rock Art in the Lower Pecos region of Southwest Texas
Beckensall Archive
Rock carvings made by Neolithic and Early Bronze Age people in Northumberland in the north east of England, between 6000 and 3500 years ago.
British Rock Art Collection
Over 16.000 photos of more than 1200 rock art sites in the UK with relevant information and links.
Broken Rock
Gallery and Petroglyph Designs.
Rupestre.net
A rock art site, mainly devoted to Valcamonica and Alpine Rock Art.
EuroPreArt
The database of European Prehistoric Art.
Rock Art of the Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) Western Australia

Rock Art in South Africa

UNESCO World Heritage: Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka

Bundelkhand Rock Paintings, India

''SpiralZoom.com''
an educational website about the science of pattern formation, spirals in nature, spirals in the mythic imagination & spiral rock art
Worldwide Rock Art Selection

Prehistoric Rock Art in Iran
* (In Persian)
Sydney Rock Art

Rock Art in Oregon

Rock Art Research Institute
University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Rock Art of the Lower Pecos

Texas Archive of the Moving Image The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 by film archivist and University of Texas at Austin professor Caroline Frick, PhD. TAMI's mission is to preserve, study, and exhibit Texas film ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rock Art Prehistoric art Visual arts media