![Fazenda Colorada](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Fazenda_Colorada.jpg)
A geoglyph is a large design or
motif (generally longer than 4 metres) 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 of materials on the ground in a manner akin to
petroform
Petroforms, also known as boulder outlines or boulder mosaics, are human-made shapes and patterns made by lining up large rocks on the open ground, often on quite level areas. Petroforms in North America were originally made by various Native A ...
s, while a negative geoglyph is formed by removing part of the natural ground surface to create differently coloured or textured ground in a manner akin to
petroglyphs.
Geoglyphs are generally a type of
land art, and sometimes
rock art. A
hill figure
A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and ...
is created on a slope, so that it can be seen from a distance.
Ancient
![Uffington-White-Horse-sat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Uffington-White-Horse-sat.jpg)
Perhaps the most famous geoglyphs are the
Nazca lines
The Nazca Lines are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created between 500 BCE and 500 CE by people making depressions or shallow incisions in the desert floor, removing pebbles and l ...
in
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
. The cultural significance of these geoglyphs for their creators remains unclear, despite many hypotheses. The "
Works of the Old Men
Desert kites () are dry stone wall structures found in Southwest Asia (Middle East, but also North Africa, Central Asia and Arabia), which were first discovered from the air during the 1920s. There are over 6,000 known desert kites with sizes ran ...
" in
Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...
, "stone-built structures that are far more numerous than (the) Nazca Lines, far more extensive in the area that they cover, and far older," have been described as geoglyphs by Amelia Sparavigna, a physics professor at Politecnico di Torino in Italy. The use of this term to describe these features is probably inaccurate, as recent research has shown that most were not constructed primarily as art, but were rather built to serve a range of purposes including burial sites and funerary customs, aiding in the trapping of migratory animals, and as cleared areas for camps, houses and animal enclosures.
![Lignes de Nazca Décembre 2006 - Colibri 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Lignes_de_Nazca_D%C3%A9cembre_2006_-_Colibri_2.jpg)
Since the 1970s, numerous geoglyphs have been discovered on deforested land in the
Amazon rainforest, Brazil, leading to claims about
Pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...
civilizations. Ondemar Dias is accredited with first discovering the geoglyphs in 1977 and Alceu Ranzi with furthering their discovery after flying over
Acre.
Other areas with geoglyphs include
Megaliths in the Urals
In recent years, many megaliths have been discovered in the Urals: dolmens, menhirs and a large megalithic cultic complex on Vera Island.
Dolmens of the Middle Urals
At present, more than 200 dolmens have been discovered in the Sverdlovsk Oblast. ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
(
Marree Man
The Marree Man, or Stuart's Giant, is a modern geoglyph discovered in 1998. It appears to depict an Indigenous Australian man hunting with a boomerang or stick. It lies on a plateau at Finnis Springs west of the township of Marree in centra ...
, which is not ancient, but rather a modern work of art, with mysterious origins),
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
and parts of the
Great Basin Desert
The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, a ...
in the southwestern United States.
Hill figure
A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and ...
s,
turf maze
Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls.
In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricultu ...
s and the stone-lined
labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by t ...
s of
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
,
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
,
Lappland and the former Soviet Union are types of geoglyphs.
The south of England has a number of equine and human figures cut into
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
hillsides. Examples include the
Uffington White Horse
The Uffington White Horse is a prehistoric hill figure, long, formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk. The figure is situated on the upper slopes of White Horse Hill in the English civil parish of Uffington (in the cer ...
,
Cerne Abbas Giant
The Cerne Abbas Giant is a hill figure near the village of Cerne Abbas in Dorset, England. high, it depicts a standing nude male with a prominent erection and wielding a large club in its right hand. Like many other hill figures it is outli ...
,
Westbury White Horse
Westbury or Bratton White Horse is a hill figure on the escarpment of Salisbury Plain, approximately east of Westbury in Wiltshire, England. Located on the edge of Bratton Downs and lying just below an Iron Age hill fort, it is the oldest ...
, and the
Long Man of Wilmington. Some are ancient, others from the last few centuries.
More than 50 geoglyphs are found in Kazakhstan.
[
]
Contemporary
![You Yangs Bunjil geoglyph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/You_Yangs_Bunjil_geoglyph.JPG)
Not all geoglyphs are ancient. The
Land Art movement created many new geoglyphs as well as other structures; perhaps the most famous example is ''
Spiral Jetty
''Spiral Jetty'' is an earthwork sculpture constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the most important work of American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a 32-minute color film also tit ...
'' by
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...
. Many towns and cities in the
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...
use
hillside letters
Hillside letters or mountain monograms are a form of geoglyph (more specifically hill figures) common in the Western United States, consisting of large single letters, abbreviations, or messages emblazoned on hillsides, typically created and ma ...
(also known as "mountain monograms") on the hills above their locations. Contemporary Australian
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
Andrew Rogers has created geoglyphs around the world called "The Rhythms of Life".
You Yangs Regional Park
The You Yangs Regional Park is a park in southern central Victoria, Australia. The park encompasses much of the southern areas of the You Yangs, a granite range that rises from the Werribee Plains, 60 km southwest of Melbourne. The park is o ...
is the home of a geoglyph constructed by Rogers in recognition of the indigenous people of the area. It depicts
Bunjil, a mythical creature in the culture of the local
Wautharong
The Wathaurong nation, also called the Wathaurung, Wadawurrung and Wadda Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin a ...
Aboriginal people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
.
![Chinggis Khan hillside portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Chinggis_Khan_hillside_portrait.JPG)
Geoglyphic texts and images are common in Central and
Inner Asia
Inner Asia refers to the northern and landlocked regions spanning North, Central and East Asia. It includes parts of western and northeast China, as well as southern Siberia. The area overlaps with some definitions of 'Central Asia', mostly the ...
but there has been little systematic study of their origins and spread.
More recent figures in the south of England created since the early 1800s have kept up the region's ancient tradition of
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
hillside figures. Examples of these are the
Litlington White Horse
The Litlington White Horse is a chalk hill figure depicting a horse, situated on Hindover Hill (known locally as High-and-Over) in the South Downs, looking over the River Cuckmere to the west of the village of Litlington and north of East Bla ...
,
Devizes White Horse
Devizes White Horse, officially known as the Devizes Millennium White Horse, is a chalk hill figure of a horse located on Bank Field, an escarpment at Roundway Hill, on the outskirts of the town of Devizes above the hamlet of Roundway, Wiltshir ...
,
Fovant Badges
The Fovant Badges are a set of regimental badges cut into a chalk hill, Fovant Down, near Fovant, in southwest Wiltshire, England. They are located between Salisbury and Shaftesbury on the A30 road in the Nadder valley; or approximately sout ...
,
Cherhill White Horse
Cherhill White Horse is a hill figure on Cherhill Down, 3.5 miles east of Calne in Wiltshire, England. Dating from the late 18th century, it is the third oldest of several such white horses in Great Britain, with only the Uffington White Horse ...
, and the
Marlborough White Horse
Marlborough White Horse, also called the Preshute White Horse, is a hill figure on Granham Hill, a fairly shallow slope of the downland above the hamlet of Preshute, southwest of Marlborough in the county of Wiltshire, England. Dating from 1804 ...
.
![Litlington White Horse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Litlington_White_Horse.jpg)
In 2008–2009
Alfie Dennen
Alfie Dennen is a British creative technologist, Artist, and founder of several prominent websites dedicated to social activism.
Projects
Dennen co-founded the mobile blogging platform Moblog, formerly MoblogUK, in November 2003. Commercial use ...
created
Britglyph Britglyph was a collaborative locative art and geoglyph project created by Alfie Dennen for ShoZu which took place in the United Kingdom between December 2008 and March 2009. Participants were instructed to travel to specific locations across the c ...
, a
locative art
Locative media or location-based media (LBM) are Electronic media, media of communication functionally bound to a location. The physical implementation of locative media, however, is not bound to the same location to which the content refers.
Loc ...
-focused geoglyph created by having participants across the United Kingdom leave rocks at highly specific locations and uploading media created at each location. When taken together and viewed on the main project website an image of a watch and chain inspired by
John Harrison
John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea.
Harrison's solution revol ...
's
marine chronometer
A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or in the modern ...
H5 was created.
People have used the
Strava
Strava is an American internet service for tracking physical exercise which incorporates social network features. It is mostly used for cycling and running using Global Positioning System data. Strava uses a freemium model with some features on ...
mobile app to create
Strava art
Strava is an American internet service for tracking physical exercise which incorporates social network features. It is mostly used for cycling and running using Global Positioning System data. Strava uses a freemium model with some features on ...
, virtual geoglyphs.
Geoglyphs in the world
See also
*
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 ...
*
Petrosomatoglyph
A petrosomatoglyph is a supposed image of parts of a human or animal body in rock. They occur all over the world, often functioning as an important form of symbolism, used in religious and secular ceremonies, such as the crowning of kings. Some a ...
*
Intaglio (burial mound)
In North American archaeology, intaglio () is a term from art applied to burial mounds that refers to a design cut into a hard surface. In this case, the burial mounds have designs cut into the ground, though ''intaglio'' broadly applies to burial ...
*
Battalion Park
Battalion Park is a geoglyph site in southwest Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is located on Signal Hill, overlooking the Tsuu T'ina Nation (formerly Sarcee Nation), as well as lands formerly known as Camp Sarcee and later Sarcee Training Area, a ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
The Blythe Intaglios, A Photo Gallery
{{Authority control
Archaeological features
-01
Methods in archaeology
Prehistoric inscriptions
Rock art