Petroglyphs (290,000 - 4,000 BCE)

Contents

• What Are Petroglyphs? Definition, Characteristics
• What is the Difference Between Petroglyphs and Rock Art?
• What Are the Oldest Petroglyths?
• What Type of Petroglyphs Are Cupules?
• What Was the Purpose, Function or Idea Behind Petroglyphs?
• What Are the Most Famous Petroglyphs?

What Are Petroglyphs? - Definition, Characteristics

In prehistoric art, the term "petroglyphs" (derived from the Greek word "petra" meaning stone, and "glyphein" meaning to carve) is used to describe any image created on a rock surface by scouring, scratching, engraving, chiseling, carving or any similar method. Note, however, that painted or drawn images on rocks are not classified as petroglyphs: instead, they are defined as pictographs. Rock engravings are the most ubiquitous type of Stone Age art, having been found in all parts of the prehistoric world, with the greatest density in parts of Saharan Africa, South Africa, Scandinavia, Siberia, and Australia. Typical of this form of ancient art are the Wonderwerk Cave Engravings, discovered in Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Consisting of geometric designs, ideomorphs as well as representations of Animals, they date from the Neolithic period, about 8,200 BCE. (To see how this type of ancient stonework fits into the development of visual art during the period of prehistory, see: Prehistoric Art Timeline.)

What is the Difference Between Petroglyphs and Rock Art?

Whereas a petroglyph is a narrow type of stonework, the term "rock art" is a much wider term which embraces three types of parietal art: (1) Petroglyphs; (2) Cave Painting or any other form of pictograph; and (3) Megalithic Art, or petroforms, involving the arrangement of stones (eg. Stonehenge stone circle, Salisbury Plain, England).

Neither Venus figurines nor other types of prehistoric sculpture, like the Lion Man of Hohlenstein Stadel, or the animal ivory carvings of the Swabian Jura, are classified as petroglyphs, because they are portable rather than parietal (fixed to a rock surface).

What Are the Oldest Petroglyths?

The oldest art in this particular category of prehistoric rock carving are the Bhimbetka Petroglyphs in the Auditorium cave situated at Bhimbetka in India. Excavations at a sister site (Daraki-Chattan) have confirmed that the petroglyphs were created between 290,000 and 700,000 BCE, during the Acheulian period of the Lower Paleolithic.

What Are Cupules?

Cupules are non-functional cup-shaped depressions found on a rock surface which are created by a number of human blows. The rock surface at cupule-sites usually shows microscopic signs of percussion, such as particles of crushed material, surface bruising, and occasionally signs of tool marks. They are most common type of petroglyph in the world.

What Was the Purpose, Function or Idea Behind Petroglyphs?

It is impossible to generalize. A cupule, for instance, is a fundamentally different type of rock marking from (say) a relief sculpture or an animal engraving. As yet, no archeologist has provided a coherent explanation for the creation of cupules, while other types of rock engraving may serve as territorial maps or markers (geocontourglyph), or ritualistic, religious, totemic or linguistic markings. A recent study of the rock carvings produced by the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert, was conducted by the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) of the University of the Witwatersrand. It discovered a number of connections between this tribal art on the one hand, and San culture and religion (including healing and rain-making) on the other. For more about the cultural background to Stone Age carvings, and other parietal rock art, see: Paleolithic Art and Culture. Other important petroglyphs were the carvings and engravings found on megaliths at Gobekli Tepe, Newgrange and Stonehenge.

What Are the Most Famous Petroglyphs?

The best known rock engravings include:

Bhimbetka Petroglyphs, at (290,000-700,000 BCE)
Cupules carved on quartzite rock at Auditorium Cave, Madhya Pradesh, Central India.

Daraki-Chattan Petroglyphs (290,000-700,000 BCE)
Rock engravings at Indragarh Hill, Madhya Pradesh, Central India.

Blombos Cave Engravings (c.70,000 BCE)
Abstract engravings on ochre rock, 200 miles east of Capetown, South Africa.

La Ferrassie Cupules (c.70,000-40,000 BCE)
Cupules on a Neanderthal tomb at Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France.
See: Ferrassie Cave, Neanderthal Cupule Art.

Salmon of Abri du Poisson Cave (c.23,000 BCE)
Bas-relief sculpture in limestone rock at Les Eyzies de Tayac, Perigord, Dordogne, France. For other French rock art, see: Lascaux Cave Paintings.

Addaura Cave Engravings (c.11,000 BCE)
Limestone petroglyphs in Addaura Cave, Monte Pellegrino, Italy.

Murujuga Rock Carvings (c.10,000 BCE)
World's largest collection of petroglyphs, Pilbara, Western Australia.
See also: Aboriginal Rock Art, Australia.

Wonderwerk Cave Engravings (c.8,200 BCE)
Animal and abstract designs in Northern Cape Province, South Africa.
See also: African Art.

Tassili-n-Ajjer Rock Art (c.8,000 BCE)
Archaic-style engravings at Tassili-n-Ajjer, Algeria, North Africa.

Coldstream Burial Stone (c.6,000 BCE)
Coloured engravings on quartzite in Western Cape Province, South Africa.

Sydney Rock Engravings (c.5000 BCE)
"Simple figurative" images of people, animals and ideomorphs - carved in the sandstone around Sydney, NSW.

Dabous Giraffe Engravings (c.4,000 BCE)
Taureg culture rock engravings at Agadez, Niger, Africa.

Newgrange Megalithic Passage Tomb (c.3,300 BCE)
Neolithic spiral engravings near the main entrance.
See: Newgrange Megalithic Passage Tomb.

Knowth Megalithic Passage Tomb (c.2500 BCE)
Neolithic geometric carvings, lunar maps and sun-dial on mound kerbstones.
See: Knowth Megalithic Passage Tomb.

More Information

For more about the origins and evolution of the visual arts, see History of Art. For the chronology of dates and events, see: History of Art Timeline.

• For more about the cultural influence of early artworks, see: Primitive Art.
• For information about painting and sculpture, see: Art Encyclopedia.