A geoglyph is a large design or

motif Motif may refer to: General concepts * Motif (chess composition), an element of a move in the consideration of its purpose * Motif (folkloristics), a recurring element that creates recognizable patterns in folklore and folk-art traditions * Moti ...

(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 Petroforms in North America were originally made by various Native A ...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

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 ...

s. Geoglyphs are generally a type of

land art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...

, and sometimes

rock art In archaeology, rock art is 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 shelters; this type also ...

. A hill figure is created on a slope, so that it can be seen from a distance.

Ancient

Perhaps the most famous geoglyphs are the Nazca lines in Peru. 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, "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

Lignes de Nazca Décembre 2006 - Colibri 2

Since the 1970s, numerous geoglyphs have been discovered on deforested land in the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

, Brazil, leading to claims about Pre-Columbian civilizations. Ondemar Dias is accredited with first discovering the geoglyphs in 1977 and Alceu Ranzi with furthering their discovery after flying over

Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

. Other areas with geoglyphs include Megaliths in the Urals, South Australia ( Marree Man, which is not ancient, but rather a modern work of art, with mysterious origins), Western Australia and parts of the Great Basin Desert in the southwestern United States. Hill figures, turf mazes and the stone-lined labyrinths of Scandinavia, Iceland, 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 hillsides. Examples include the Uffington White Horse,

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 outline ...

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 The Long Man of Wilmington or Wilmington Giant is a hill figure on the steep slopes of Windover Hill near Wilmington, East Sussex, England. It is northwest of Eastbourne and south of Wilmington. Locally, the figure was once often called the ...

. Some are ancient, others from the last few centuries. More than 50 geoglyphs are found in Kazakhstan.

Contemporary

Not all geoglyphs are ancient. The

Land Art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...

movement created many new geoglyphs as well as other structures; perhaps the most famous example is '' Spiral Jetty'' by Robert Smithson. Many towns and cities in the Western United States use hillside letters (also known as "mountain monograms") on the hills above their locations. Contemporary Australian sculptor 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 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 nation ...

, 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. Chinggis Khan hillside portrait

Geoglyphic texts and images are common in Central and Inner Asia 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 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, Fovant Badges,

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 ...

In 2008–2009 Alfie Dennen 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 co ...

, 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's marine chronometer H5 was created. People have used the Strava 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

References

External links

The Blythe Intaglios, A Photo Gallery
{{Authority control Archaeological features -01 Methods in archaeology Prehistoric inscriptions Rock art

Ancient

Contemporary

Geoglyphs in the world

See also

References

Further reading

External links