![Petroglifos de Las Labradas 08](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Petroglifos_de_Las_Labradas_08.jpg)
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
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 of the technique to refer to such images. Petroglyphs are found worldwide, and are often associated with
prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
prefix , from meaning "stone", and meaning "carve", and was originally coined in French as .
Another form of petroglyph, normally found in literate cultures, a
rock relief
A rock relief or rock-cut relief is a 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 with, ...
or rock-cut relief is a
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
sculpture carved on "living rock" such as a cliff, rather than a detached piece of stone. While these relief carvings are a category of rock art, sometimes found in conjunction with
rock-cut architecture
Rock-cut architecture is the creation of structures, buildings, and sculptures by excavating solid rock where it naturally occurs. Intensely laborious when using ancient tools and methods, rock-cut architecture was presumably combined with quarry ...
, they tend to be omitted in most works on rock art, which concentrate on engravings and paintings by prehistoric or nonliterate cultures. Some of these reliefs exploit the rock's natural properties to define an image. Rock reliefs have been made in many cultures, especially in the
ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...
. Rock reliefs are generally fairly large, as they need to be to make an impact in the open air. Most have figures that are larger than life-size.
Stylistically, a culture's rock relief carvings relate to other types of sculpture from the period concerned. Except for Hittite and Persian examples, they are generally discussed as part of the culture's sculptural practice. The vertical relief is most common, but reliefs on essentially horizontal surfaces are also found. The term ''relief'' typically excludes relief carvings inside natural or human-made caves, that are common in India. Natural rock formations made into statues or other sculpture in the round, most famously at the
Great Sphinx of Giza, 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 described as
stele 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 ...
s.
In scholarly texts, a ''petroglyph'' is a rock engraving, whereas a ''petrograph'' is a rock painting. In common usage, the two words are synonymous. Both types of image belong to the wider and more general category of rock art or
parietal 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 m ...
.
Petroforms
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 ...
, or patterns and shapes made by many large rocks and boulders over the ground, are also quite different.
Inuksuit
An inuksuk (plural inuksuit) or inukshuk (from the iu, ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃ, plural ; alternatively in Inuinnaqtun, in Iñupiaq, in Greenlandic) is a type of stone landmark or cairn built by, and for the use of, Inuit, Iñupiat, Kalaallit, Yu ...
are also not petroglyphs, they are human-made rock forms found only in the Arctic region.
History
![Haljesta](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Haljesta.jpg)
Petroglyphs have been found in all parts of the globe except
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
, with highest concentrations in parts of Africa, Scandinavia and Siberia, many examples of petroglyphs found globally are dated to approximately the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
and late
Upper Paleolithic
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 coin ...
boundary (roughly 10,000 to 12,000 years ago).
Around 7,000 to 9,000 years ago, following the introduction of a number of precursors of
writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable fo ...
s, the existence and creation of petroglyphs began to suffer and tail off, with different forms of art, such as
pictograph
A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and g ...
s and
ideogram
An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek "idea" and "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by famili ...
s, taking their place. However, petroglyphs continued to be created and remained somewhat common, with various cultures continuing to use them for differing lengths of time, including cultures who continued to create them until contact with
Western culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
was made in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Interpretation
Many hypotheses exist as to the purpose of petroglyphs, depending on their location, age, and subject matter. Some petroglyph images most likely held a deep cultural and religious significance for the societies that created them. Many petroglyphs are thought to represent a type of symbolic or ritualistic language or communication style that remains not fully understood. Others, such as
geocontourglyphs, more clearly depict or represent a landform or the surrounding terrain, such as rivers and other geographic features.
Some petroglyph maps, depicting trails, as well as containing symbols communicating the time and distances travelled along those trails, exist; other petroglyph maps act as astronomical markers. As well as holding geographic and astronomical importance, other petroglyphs may also have been a by-product of various rituals: sites in India, for example, have seen some petroglyphs identified as musical instruments or "
rock gong
A rock gong is a slab of rock that is hit like a drum, and is an example of a lithophone. Examples have been found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Regional names for the rock gong include ''kungering'', ''kwerent dutse'', ''gwangalan'', ''kungereng'' ...
s".
Some petroglyphs likely formed types of symbolic communication, such as types of
proto-writing
Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BC in Eastern Europe and China. They used ideograp ...
. Later glyphs from the
Nordic Bronze Age
The Nordic Bronze Age (also Northern Bronze Age, or Scandinavian Bronze Age) is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from c. 2000/1750–500 BC.
The Nordic Bronze Age culture emerged about 1750 BC as a continuation of the Battle Axe culture (th ...
in Scandinavia seem to refer to some form of territorial boundary between
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...
s, in addition to holding possible religious meanings. Petroglyph styles have been recognised as having local or regional "dialects" from similar or neighboring peoples.
Siberian inscriptions loosely resemble an early form of
runes
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...
, although no direct relationship has been established.
Petroglyphs from different continents show similarities. While people would be inspired by their direct surroundings, it is harder to explain the common styles. This could be mere coincidence, an indication that certain groups of people
migrated widely from some initial common area, or indication of a common origin. In 1853,
George Tate presented a paper to the Berwick Naturalists' Club, at which a
John Collingwood Bruce agreed that the carvings had "... a common origin, and indicate a symbolic meaning, representing some popular thought." In his cataloguing of Scottish rock art, Ronald Morris summarized 104 different theories on their interpretation.
More controversial explanations of similarities are grounded in
Jungian psychology
Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" ...
and the views of
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religiou ...
. According to these theories it is possible that the similarity of petroglyphs (and other
atavistic or
archetypal
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that o ...
symbols) from different cultures and continents is a result of the
genetically
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar working i ...
inherited structure of the human brain.
Other theories suggest that petroglyphs were carved by spiritual leaders, such as
shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...
s, in an
altered state of consciousness
An altered state of consciousness (ASC), also called altered state of mind or mind alteration, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking state. By 1892, the expression was in use in relation to hypnosis, though there ...
, perhaps induced by the use of natural
hallucinogens
Hallucinogens are a large, diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorize ...
. Many of the
geometric pattern
A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated li ...
s (known as
form constants) which recur in petroglyphs and
cave paintings
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 origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 y ...
have been shown by David Lewis-Williams to be hardwired into the human brain. They frequently occur in visual disturbances and hallucinations brought on by drugs,
migraine, and other stimuli.
Recent analysis of surveyed and GPS-logged petroglyphs around the world has identified commonalities indicating pre-historic (7,000–3,000 BCE) intense
aurora
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
s, or natural light display in the sky, observable across the continents.
The Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) of the
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...
studies present-day links between religion and rock art among the
San people
The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia ...
of the
Kalahari Desert
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa.
It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal d ...
. Though the San people's artworks are predominantly paintings, the beliefs behind them can perhaps be used as a basis for understanding other types of rock art, including petroglyphs. To quote from the RARI website:
Using knowledge of San beliefs, researchers have shown that the art played a fundamental part in the religious lives of its painters. The art captured things from the San's world behind the rock-face: the other world inhabited by spirit creatures, to which dancers could travel in animal form, and where people of ecstasy could draw power and bring it back for healing, rain-making and capturing the game.
List of petroglyph sites
Africa
Algeria
*
Tassili n'Ajjer
Tassili n'Ajjer ( Berber: ''Tassili n Ajjer'', ar, طاسيلي ناجر; "Plateau of rivers") is a national park in the Sahara desert, located on a vast plateau in southeastern Algeria. Having one of the most important groupings of prehistoric ...
Cameroon
*
Bidzar
Central African Republic
* Bambari,
Lengo and Bangassou in the south; Bwale in the west
* Toulou
* Djebel Mela
* Koumbala
Chad
*
Niola Doa
Republic of the Congo
* The
Niari Valley The Niari valley is a fertile region in the Niari Department in the south west of the Republic of the Congo. The soil in the area is good and this state is an important agricultural and industrial region.
Geography
The Mayombé Escarpment in the ...
, 250 km south west of Brazzaville
Egypt
*
Wadi Hammamat
Wadi Hammamat ( en, Valley of Many Baths, ''India way; gateway to India'') is a dry river bed in Egypt's Eastern Desert, about halfway between Al-Qusayr and Qena. It was a major mining region and trade route east from the Nile Valley in ancie ...
in
Qift
Qift ( arz, قفط ; cop, Ⲕⲉϥⲧ, link=no ''Keft'' or ''Kebto''; Egyptian Gebtu; grc, Κόπτος, link=no ''Coptos'' / ''Koptos''; Roman Justinianopolis) is a small town in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about north of Luxor, situated un ...
, many carvings and inscriptions dating from before the earliest Egyptian Dynasties to the modern era, including the only painted petroglyph known from the Eastern Desert and drawings of Egyptian
reed boat
Reed boats and rafts, along with dugout canoes and other rafts, are among the oldest known types of boats. Often used as traditional fishing boats, they are still used in a few places around the world, though they have generally been replaced with ...
s dated to 4000 BCE
* Inscription Rock in South
Sinai
Sinai commonly refers to:
* Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God
Sinai may also refer to:
* Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...
, is a large rock with carvings and writings ranging from Nabatean to Latin, Ancient Greek and Crusader eras located a few miles from the Ain Hudra Oasis. A second rock sites approximately 1 km from the main rock near the Nabatean tombs of Nawamis with carvings of animals including Camels, Gazelles and others. The original archaeologists who investigated these in the 1800s have also left their names carved on this rock.
* Giraffe petroglyphs found in the region of
Gebel el-Silsila
Gebel el-Silsila or Gebel Silsileh ( ar, جبل السلسلة - Jabal al-Silsila or Ǧabal as-Silsila – "Chain of Mountains" or "Series of Mountains"; Egyptian: ẖny, Khenyt,Kitchen (1983). Kheny or Khenu – "The Place of Rowing"; German: ...
. The rock faces have been used for extensive quarrying of materials for temple building especially during the period specified as the
New Kingdom. The Giraffe depictions are located near a
stela
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), wh ...
of the king
Amenhotep IV
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...
. The images are not dated, but they are probably dated from the Predynastic periods.
Ethiopia
*
Tiya
Gabon
* Ogooue River Valley
* Epona
* Elarmekora
* Kongo Boumba
* Lindili
* Kaya Kaya
Libya
*
Akakus
*
Jebel Uweinat
Morocco
* The
Draa River valley
Namibia
*
Twyfelfontein
Niger
* Life-size
giraffe carvings on
Dabous Rock, Aïr Mountains
South Africa
*
Driekops Eiland Driekops Eiland (also called Driekopseiland) is a rock engraving or petroglyph site in the bed of the Riet River close to the town of Plooysburg, near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa.
The engravings
There are more than 3500 individual en ...
near
Kimberley
*
ǀXam and ǂKhomani heartland in the
Karoo,
Northern Cape
*
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 the N ...
near
Kimberley, Northern Cape
*
Keiskie near
Calvinia
Calvinia is a regional town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa named after the French religious reformer Jean Calvin. The town falls under the Hantam Local Municipality which forms part of the Namakwa District Municipality. The Calvin ...
,
Northern Cape
Tunisia
*
Ouesslat Mountain, Ain Kanfous and Zamla
*
Tameghza
* The
Tataouine
Tataouine ( ber, Tiṭṭawin; ar, تطاوين) is a city in southern Tunisia. It is the capital of the Tataouine Governorate. The below-ground "cave dwellings" of the native Berber population, designed for coolness and protection, render the c ...
Region, in particular
Ghomrassen and Smar
Zambia
*
Nyambwezi Falls in the north-west province.
Asia
Armenia
![Petrogliph-Ughtasar-Armenia2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Petrogliph-Ughtasar-Armenia2.jpg)
*
Ughtasar
*
Urtsadzor
Urtsadzor ( hy, Ուրցաձոր) is a village in the Ararat Province of Armenia containing the former village of Chimankend. The village was previously the administrative capital of the Gharabaghlar District which existed in 1937–1951 in Soviet ...
*
Aragats
* See also
Armenian Eternity sign
The Armenian eternity sign ( hy, Յաւերժութեան Նշան, haverzhut’yan nshan) or Arevakhach (, "Sun Cross") is an ancient Armenian national symbol and a symbol of the national identity of the Armenian people. It is one of the most co ...
Azerbaijan
*
Gobustan State Reserve
Gobustan State Historical and Cultural Reserve ( az, Qobustan dövlət tarixi-bədii qoruğu) is located west of the settlement of Gobustan, about southwest of the centre of Baku. It was established in 1966, when the area was declared a national ...
*
Gemigaya
*
Kalbajar
Kalbajar ( az, Kəlbəcər , ) is a city and the capital of the Kalbajar District of Azerbaijan. Located on the Tartar river valley, it is away from the capital Baku.
The city had a population of 7,246 before its capture by Armenian forces on ...
*
Northern Absheron
China
*
Helan Mountains
The Helan Mountains, frequently called Alashan Mountains in older sources, are an isolated desert mountain range forming the border of Inner Mongolia's Alxa League and Ningxia. They run north-south parallel to the north-flowing Yellow River in t ...
in
Yinchuan
Yinchuan (, ; ) is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, and was the capital of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty. It has an area of and a total population of 2,859,074 according to the 2020 Chinese census, and its buil ...
* Hua'an Engravings
* Kangjia shimenzi in
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
[
* Lianyungan Rock Engravings
* Petroglyphs in Zhuhai
* ]Yin Mountains
The Yin Mountains, also known by several other names, are a mountain range stretching across about of northern China. They form the southeastern border of the Gobi Desert and cross the Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia and Hebei. Among othe ...
in Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
[
]
Georgia
* Trialeti petroglyphs
Trialeti petroglyphs ( ka, თრიალეთის პეტროგლიფები, tr) is prehistoric rock art in the Trialeti area, in the Tsalka Municipality, engraved over a number of periods from the Mesolithic to the Middle Bronze ...
Hong Kong
Eight sites in Hong Kong:
* Tung Lung Island
Tung Lung Chau, previously known as Nam Tong Island or Nam Fat Tong is an island located off the tip of the Clear Water Bay Peninsula in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It is also referred by Hong Kong people as Tung Lung To or Tung Lung Islan ...
* Kau Sai Chau
Kau Sai Chau is an island located off the coast of Sai Kung Peninsula, Hong Kong, with an area of 6.70km², making it the 6th largest island of Hong Kong. It is under the administration of Sai Kung District.
The island was formerly known ...
* Po Toi Island
Po Toi (commonly , originally ) is the main island of the Po Toi Islands and the southernmost island of Hong Kong, with an area of 3.69 km².
Name
It is said that the island used to produce dried seaweeds (), which were shaped like the ca ...
* Cheung Chau
Cheung Chau (lit. "Long Island") is an island southwest of Hong Kong Island. It is nicknamed the 'dumbbell island (啞鈴島)' due to its shape. It has been inhabited for longer than most other places in Hong Kong, and had a population of ...
* Shek Pik
Shek Pik () is an area located along the southwestern coast of Lantau Island, Hong Kong. When the Shek Pik Reservoir was built, villages at Shek Pik were demolished and the villagers were relocated to other parts of Lantau Island and to Tsue ...
on Lantau Island
* Wong Chuk Hang
Wong Chuk Hang () is a neighbourhood in the Southern District of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong.
History
Neolithic artifacts have been unearthed in a region called Chung Hom Wan, which is not far from Wong Chuk Hang. In 1550 the Hong Kong Vill ...
and Big Wave Bay on Hong Kong Island
* Lung Ha Wan in Sai Kung
Sai Kung may refer to:
* Sai Kung Town, or just Sai Kung, a town and administrative area in the Sai Kung District, Hong Kong
* Sai Kung Peninsula, a peninsula in Hong Kong
* Sai Kung District, an administrative district in Hong Kong, which does no ...
India
* 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 Stone Age star ...
, Raisen District
Raisen District is a district of Madhya Pradesh state of India. The town of Raisen is the district headquarters. The district is part of Bhopal Division. Sanchi University of Buddhist-Indic Studies is the first international university located ...
, Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
, India.
* Kupgal petroglyphs on Dolerite Dyke, near Bellary
Bellary, officially Ballari, in the eponymous Bellary district, is a city in the state of Karnataka, India.
History
Bellary was a part of Rayalaseema (Ceded Districts) which was part of Madras Presidency till 1 November 1956.
The Ballari ...
, Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
, India.
* Kudopi, Sindhudurg District
Sindhudurg district (Marathi pronunciation: in̪d̪ʱud̪uɾɡ is an administrative district of the Konkan division in India, which was carved out of the erstwhile Ratnagiri district. The district headquarters are located at Oros and the di ...
, Maharashtra, India.
* Hiwale, Sindhudurg District
Sindhudurg district (Marathi pronunciation: in̪d̪ʱud̪uɾɡ is an administrative district of the Konkan division in India, which was carved out of the erstwhile Ratnagiri district. The district headquarters are located at Oros and the di ...
, Maharashtra, India.
* Barsu, Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra, India.
* Devihasol, Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra, India
* Edakkal Caves, Wayanad
Wayanad () is a district in the north-east of Indian state Kerala with administrative headquarters at the municipality of Kalpetta. It is the only plateau in Kerala. The Wayanad Plateau forms a continuation of the Mysore Plateau, the southern ...
District, Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a 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 regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
, India.
* Kollur, Triukoilur 35 km from Villupuram
Viluppuram, Villupuram, or Vizhuppuram () is a Municipality and the administrative headquarters of Viluppuram district.
Located south west of a Tiruvannamalai and north west of Cuddalore null The town serves as a major railway junction, ...
in Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
. A large dolmen with four petroglyphs that portray men with trident
A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm.
The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other mari ...
and a wheel with spokes has been found. The discovery was made by K.T. Gandhirajan. This is the second instance when a dolmen with petrographs has been found in Tamil Nadu, India. In October 2018, petroglyphs were discovered in the Ratnagiri and Rajapur areas in the Konkan
The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland ...
region of western Maharashtra. Those rock carvings which might date back to 10,000 BC, depict animals like hippopotamuses
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
and rhinoceroses
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...
which aren't found in that region of India. Some carving depicts, what appears to be Pisces
Pisces may refer to:
* Pisces, an obsolete (because of land vertebrates) taxonomic superclass including all fish
* Pisces (astrology), an astrological sign
* Pisces (constellation), a constellation
**Pisces Overdensity, an overdensity of stars in ...
constellation.* Perumukkal
Perumukkal is a small village in the Tindivanam municipality of the Villuppuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The major occupation of its residents is agriculture. In 2011 it had a population of 3,000.
Etymology
During the Cho ...
, Tindivanam
Tindivanam is a town and a municipality in Viluppuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the second largest town in Villupuram District after the headquarters town Villupuram. Important roads from north to south (NH 45) Tami ...
District, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
, India.
* Kollur, Villupuram
Viluppuram, Villupuram, or Vizhuppuram () is a Municipality and the administrative headquarters of Viluppuram district.
Located south west of a Tiruvannamalai and north west of Cuddalore null The town serves as a major railway junction, ...
, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
.
* Unakoti
Unkoti Hill is a sculptural emblem and ancient Shaivite place that hosts approx ''ninety-nine lakh ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine'' rock carvings figures and images of gods and goddesses. It is a place of worship with huge ...
near Kailashahar
Kailashahar (or Kôilāśohôr) is the fourth largest urban area in the north eastern state of India, Tripura, located near northwest Bangladesh border. It is a Municipal council and the administrative center of the Unakoti district, this city ...
in North Tripura
North Tripura is an administrative district in the state of Tripura in India. The district headquarters are located at Dharmanagar. The district occupies an area of 1422.19 km² and has a population of 693,947 (as of 2011).
History
The t ...
District, Tripura
Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the ea ...
, India.
* Usgalimal rock engravings, Kushavati
Kushavati was a city in Kosala Kingdom as per epic Ramayana. The king of Kosala Lord Rama installed his son Lava at Sravasti on the northern part of the kingdom and Kusha at Kushavati in the south. It was located on the slopes of the Vindhya Ra ...
river banks, in Goa
* Ladakhi rock art in Ladakh
Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu ...
, NW Indian Himalaya.
* Ratnagiri Maharashtra 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 ...
, An eight ftlong petroglyph in Devache Gothane village in Rajapur district, Maharashtra.
.
Kethaiyurumpu, Tamil Nadu. Situated 28 km north west of Dindigal, Tamil Nadu nearby Idaiyakottai and six km south west of Oddanchartam has revealed several petroglyphs mostly represent abstract symbols on two rocks, which looks like a temporary rock shelter were noticed adjacent to a Murugan temple which is in ruins on top of the Kothaiyurumbu hill.
Iran
During recent years a large number of rock carvings has been identified in different parts of Iran. The vast majority depict the ibex
An ibex (plural ibex, ibexes or ibices) is any of several species of wild goat (genus ''Capra''), distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa and East Africa ...
. Rock drawings were found in December 2016 near Golpayegan
Golpayegan ( fa, گلپایگان, Golpāyegān; also known as Shahr-e Golpāyegān meaning "City of Golpayegan") is a city and capital of Golpayegan County, Isfahan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 217,849, in 44,263 fam ...
, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, which may be the oldest drawings discovered, with one cluster possibly 40,000 years old. Accurate estimations were unavailable due to US sanctions.
Petroglyphs are the most ancient works of art left by humankind that provide an opening to the past eras of life and help us to discover different aspects of prehistoric lives. Tools to create petroglyphs can be classified by the age and the historical era; they could be flint, thighbone of hunted quarries, or metallic tools. The oldest pictographs in Iran are seen in Yafteh cave in Lorestan that date back 40,000 and the oldest petroglyph discovered belongs to Timareh dating back to 40,800 years ago.
Iran provides demonstrations of script formation from pictogram, ideogram, linear (2300 BC) or proto Elamite, geometric old Elamite script, Pahlevi script, Arabic script (906 years ago), Kufi script, and Farsi script back to at least 250 years ago. More than 50000 petroglyphs have been discovered, extended over all Iran's states.
Israel
* Kibbutz Ginosar
Ginosar ( he, גִּנּוֹסַר) is a kibbutz in the Plain of Ginosar on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. Located north of Tiberias on Highway 90, it falls under the jurisdiction of Emek HaYarden Regional Council. In it ha ...
* Har Karkom
Har Karkom ( "Mountain of Saffron", also called Jabal Ideid) is a mountain in the southwest Negev desert in Israel, half way between Petra and Kadesh Barnea. On the basis that the Israelites travelled across the Sinai peninsula towards Petra in ...
* Negev
The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its sout ...
Japan
* Awashima shrine ( Kitakyūshū city)[Nobuhiro, Yoshida (1994) ''The Handbook For Petrograph Fieldwork'', Chou Art Publishing, , p. 57]
* Fugoppe Cave, Hokkaido
* Hikoshima
(also called in Nihon Shoki) is an island on the south-west tip of Honshu, Japan.
Geography
The island is irregularly shaped and hilly. The strait, as narrow as , separates the island form the main island of Honshu. The parts of sprawling city ...
( Shimonoseki city)
* Miyajima may refer to:
Places
* Miyajima, another name for the Japanese island Itsukushima
* Miyajima, Hiroshima, a former town on this island, merged into Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima
is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The name derives from a ...
* Temiya cave ( Otaru city)
Jordan
* Wadi Rum
Wadi Rum ( ar, وادي رم ''Wādī Ramm'', also ''Wādī al-Ramm''), known also as the Valley of the Moon ( ar, وادي القمر ''Wādī al-Qamar''), is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan, about to the east ...
* Wadi Faynan
Kazakhstan
* Koksu River, in Almaty Province
Almaty Region ( kk, Алматы облысы, Almaty oblysy; russian: Алматинская область, Almatinskaya oblast) is a region in Kazakhstan, located in the southeastern part of the country. Its capital, from 1997 to 2022 was the ...
* Chumysh River
The Chumysh () is a river in Russia, a right branch of the Ob River. It enters the Ob downriver from Barnaul. The Chumysh begins at the confluence of the Kara-Chumysh and the Tom-Chumysh rivers in Kemerovo Oblast. The Chumysh is long, and it dra ...
basin,
* Tamgaly Tas on the Ili River
* Tamgaly – a World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
nearly of Almaty
Laos
* Plain of Jars
The Plain of Jars ( Lao: ທົ່ງໄຫຫິນ ''Thong Hai Hin'', ) is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. It consists of thousands of stone jars scattered around the upland valleys and the lower foothills of the central plain of ...
South Korea
* Bangudae Petroglyphs
Korea's National Treasure No. 285, the Bangudae Petroglyphs, are located mainly on flat vertical rock faces around 8m wide and around 5m high on steep cliffs on the riverside of the Daegokcheon stream, a branch of the Taehwa River, which runs ea ...
Kyrgyzstan
* Several sites in the Tien Shan
The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...
mountains: Cholpon-Ata
Cholpon-Ata ( ky, Чолпон-Ата, ''Çolpon-Ata'', چولپون-اتا, pronounced , literally "Venus-father", the name of a mythological protecting spirit) is a resort town on the northern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan with a popul ...
, the Talas valley, Saimaluu Tash
Saymaluu-Tash ( ky, Саймалуу-Таш, meaning 'embroidered' or 'patterned stones' in Kyrgyz) is a petroglyph site and a national park in Jalal-Abad Region, Kyrgyzstan, south of Kazarman. Over 10,000 carved pictures—and perhaps as many ...
, and on the rock outcrop called Suleiman's Throne in Osh
Osh (Kyrgyz: Ош, romanised Osh; uz, O‘sh/Ўш) is the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". It is the oldest city in the country (e ...
in the Fergana valley
The Fergana Valley (; ; ) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan.
Divided into three republics of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse and in the ...
Macau
* Coloane
Coloane (Cantonese: Lou Wan) is a former island in Macau that is united with the island of Taipa by an area of reclaimed land known as Cotai. It is located at the southern part of Macau. Administratively, the boundaries of the traditional civil pa ...
Malaysia
* Lumuyu Petroglyphs
Mongolia
* Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai, UNESCO World Heritage site, 2011
Pakistan
* Ancient Rock Carvings of Sindh
The Ancient Rock Carvings of Sindh have been explored in Kirthar Mountains Range, Sindh, Pakistan. The Kirthar Mountains Range covers a distance of 190 miles (300 Kilometers) in boundaries of Jacobabad District, Qambar Shahdadkot District, Dadu ...
* Rock art and petroglyphs in Northern Areas,
Philippines
* Angono Petroglyphs
The Angono Petroglyphs are petroglyphs carved into a rock wall in Binangonan, Rizal, Philippines. It consists of 127 human and animal figures engraved on the rockwall probably carved during the late Neolithic, or before 2000 BC. They are the oldes ...
of Rizal, Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
Saudi Arabia
File:وادي قرن.jpg, Petroglyphs at Wadi Qarn.
File:Madain Saleh (6720062703).jpg, Petroglyphs at Mada'in Salih.
File:Inscriptions of musical instruments in Hejaz.jpg, Petroglyphs of musical instruments.
File:جبال حرة.jpg, Petroglyphs of animals, Tabuk
Tabuk may refer to:
*Tabuk, Kalinga, the capital city of Kalinga province of the Philippines
*Tabuk Province, a province of Saudi Arabia
**Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
Tabuk ( ar, تَبُوْك '), also spelled ''Tabouk'', is the capital city of the Tab ...
.
File:جيال الزيدانية النقش الهيروغليفي.jpg, Hieroglyphic inscriptions, Tabuk.
File:نقوش جبل كويفر الاسلامية.jpg, Islamic inscriptions, Qasim Qasim, Qasem or Casim may refer to:
* Qasim (name), a given name of Arabic origin and the name of several people
* Port Qasim, port in Karachi, Pakistan
* ''Kasım'' and ''Casim'', respectively the Ottoman Turkish and Romanian names for General To ...
.
File:جبل دويدة.jpg, Thamudic
Thamudic is a name that refers to ancient Arabic Thamudic tribe language found by nineteenth-century scholars for large numbers of inscriptions in Ancient North Arabian (ANA) alphabets which have not yet been properly studied. These texts are foun ...
inscriptions.
* "Graffiti Rocks", about 110 km SW of Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...
off the Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...
highway
* Arwa, west of Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...
* al Jawf, near al Jawf
* Jubbah, Umm Samnan, north of Hail
* Janin Cave, south of Hail
* Yatib, south of Hail
* Milihiya, south of Hail
* Jebel al Lawz, north of Tabuk
Tabuk may refer to:
*Tabuk, Kalinga, the capital city of Kalinga province of the Philippines
*Tabuk Province, a province of Saudi Arabia
**Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
Tabuk ( ar, تَبُوْك '), also spelled ''Tabouk'', is the capital city of the Tab ...
* Wadi Damm, near Tabuk
* Wadi Abu Oud, near al Ula
* Shuwaymis, north of Madina
Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the second-holiest city in Islam, and the capital of the ...
* Jebel al Manjour & Ratt, north of Madina
* Hanakiya, north of Madina
* Shimli
* Bir Hima, north of Najran
* Tathleeth, north of Najran
* Al-Magar
Al-Magar was an advanced prehistoric civilization of the Neolithic whose epicenter lied in modern-day southwestern Najd in Saudi Arabia. Al-Magar is possibly the first civilizations in the world where widespread domestication of animals occurred ...
, in Najd
Taiwan
* The Wanshan Rock Carvings Archeological Site Wanshan may refer to:
*Wanshan Archipelago, in Guangdong, China
*Wanshan District, in Guizhou, China
* Wanshan Special Vehicle Wanshan Special Vehicle, officially Hubei Sanjiang Space Wanshan Special Vehicle Co., Ltd (Ch:湖北三江航天万山特 ...
near Maolin District, Kaohsiung, were discovered between 1978 and 2002.
Thailand
* Pha Taem National Park
Vietnam
* Rock engravings in Sapa, Sa Pa, Lào Cai Province
* Rock engravings in Namdan, Xín Mần District, Hà Giang Province
File:Cheung Chau Rock Carving 1.jpg, Rock carving on Cheung Chau
Cheung Chau (lit. "Long Island") is an island southwest of Hong Kong Island. It is nicknamed the 'dumbbell island (啞鈴島)' due to its shape. It has been inhabited for longer than most other places in Hong Kong, and had a population of ...
Island, Hong Kong. This 3000-year-old rock carving was reported by geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...
s in 1970
File:KyrgyzPetroglyphs.jpg, Petroglyphs at Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...
File:Tanbaly.jpg, Tamgaly petroglyphs in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
File:Buddhas at ili.jpg, Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
carvings at Ili River in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
File:Angono Petroglyphs1.jpg, Petroglyphs on a rock wall found in the Sierra Madre
Sierra Madre (Spanish, 'mother mountain range') may refer to:
Places and mountains Mexico
*Sierra Madre Occidental, a mountain range in northwestern Mexico and southern Arizona
*Sierra Madre Oriental, a mountain range in northeastern Mexico
*S ...
mountain range, Rizal, Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
File:Petoro.JPG, Petroglyph found in Awashima shrine (Japan)
Europe
File:Sweden-Brastad-Petroglyph Skomakaren-Aug 2003.jpg, Carving "The Shoemaker", Brastad, Sweden
File:Petroglifo bentayga.jpg, Petroglyph in Roque Bentayga, Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).
File:DalgarvenMillCup&Ring.jpg, Petroglyph at Dalgarven Mill
The tiny village of Dalgarven in North Ayrshire, Scotland is located just north of Kilwinning on the road to Dalry.
History
In 1881 some two hundred people lived in the village, the mill being at its heart, with a Sunday school, smithy, join ...
, Ayrshire, Scotland.
File:Petroglifos do Castrinho de Conxo.jpg, Bronze Age petroglyphs depicting weapons, Castriño de Conxo, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...
, Galicia.
File:Labirinto do Outeiro do Cribo.JPG, Labyrinth, Meis
Meis is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra
Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the '' Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the ...
, Galicia.
File:Laxe das Rodas 01.jpg, Cup-and-ring mark, Louro, Muros
Muros may refer to:
*Muros, A Coruña, a municipality in the province of A Coruña in the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain
* Muros, Sardinia, a comune in the province of Sassari in the region Sardini, Italy
* Muros (comarca), a comarca in the ...
, Galicia.
File:Touron petr.JPG, Deer and cup-and-ring motifs, Tourón, Ponte Caldelas
Ponte Caldelas is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra. It takes its name from an ancient bridge over the Río Caldelas.
Etymology
The town is more than likely named after the old bridge over the river Verdugo, combined ...
, Galicia.
File:Petroglyphs in Zalavruga, Belomorsk, Karelia, Russia 03.jpg, Petroglyphs in Zalavruga, Belomorsk, Karelia, Russia
England
* Boscawen-un
Boscawen-Ûn () is a Bronze Age stone circle close to St Buryan in Cornwall, UK. It consists of nineteen upright stones in an ellipse with another, leaning, middle stone just south of the centre. There is a west-facing gap in the circle, which ...
, St Buryan
St Buryan ( kw, Pluwveryan) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of St Buryan, Lamorna and Paul in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
The village of St Buryan is situated approximately west of Penzance along the B3283 to ...
* Cup and ring marked rocks in:
** Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land ...
,
** County Durham,
** Ilkley Moor
Ilkley Moor is part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England. The moor, which rises to 402 m (1,319 ft) above sea level, is well known as the inspiration for the Yorkshire "county anthem ...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
,
** Gardom's Edge
Gardom's Edge is a rocky outcrop near Baslow in Derbyshire, England.
The shelf between Gardom's Edge and Birchen Edge is now moorland used for grazing sheep, but was inhabited and arably farmed during
the Bronze Age.
Cup and ring stone
The are ...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
,
** 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 ...
, Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
Finland
* Hauensuoli, Hanko Hanko may refer to
People
*August Hanko (military personnel), August Hanko, German First World War flying ace
Places
*Hanko, Finland, town and municipality
*Hanko Peninsula, Finland
*Hankø, an island in the Oslo Fjord in Norway
*The asteroid ...
, Finland
France
* Vallée des Merveilles Vallée is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* André Vallée (1930–2015), Canadian Roman Catholic bishop
* Anne Vallée (born 1958), Canadian biologist
* Bernard Vallée (born 1945), French fencer
*Brigitte Vallée (born ...
, Mercantour National Park
Mercantour National Park (french: Parc national du Mercantour) a French national park located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Alpes-Maritimes departments. Since it was created in 1979, the park has proven popular, with 800,000 visitors annual ...
, France
File:Vallée des Merveilles 103.jpg, The sorcerer, Vallée des Merveilles, France
File:Vallée des Merveilles 101.jpg, The tribe master, Vallée des Merveilles, France
Ireland
* Newgrange
Newgrange ( ga, Sí an Bhrú) is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, located on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, west of Drogheda. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3200 B ...
* Knowth
Knowth (; ga, Cnóbha) is a Neolithic passage grave and an ancient monument of the World Heritage Site of Brú na Bóinne located 8.4 km west of Drogheda in Ireland's valley of the River Boyne. It is the largest passage grave of the Brú ...
* Dowth
Dowth ( ga, Dubhadh) is a Neolithic passage tomb located in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland. It is one of the three principal tombs of the ''Brú na Bóinne'' World Heritage Sitea landscape of prehistoric monuments including the large ...
* Loughcrew
Loughcrew or Lough Crew () is an area of historical importance near Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland. It is home to a group of ancient tombs from the 4th millennium BC, some decorated with rare megalithic art, which sit on top of a range of hil ...
* Tara
* Clonfinlough Stone
* Boheh Stone
The Boheh Stone, also called St. Patrick's Chair. is a piece of rock art a and National Monument located in County Mayo, Ireland.
Location
The Boheh Stone lies 6.4 km (4 mi) SSW of Westport.
History
The stone is believed to hav ...
Italy
* Rock Drawings in Valcamonica – World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
, Italy (biggest European site, over 350,000)
* Bagnolo stele
The Bagnolo steles are two stone boulders found in Ceresolo-Bagnolo, Malegno commune, Brescia province, Lombardia, Northern Italy, at the base of Monte Mignone, at an altitude of ca. 700 m. Bagnolo 1 was discovered in 1963, bearing depictions o ...
, Valcamonica
Val Camonica (also ''Valcamonica'' or Camonica Valley, Eastern Lombard: ''Al Camònega'') is one of the largest valleys of the central Alps, in eastern Lombardy, Italy. It extends about from the Tonale Pass to Corna Trentapassi, in the ...
, Italy
* Grotta del Genovese, Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
, Italy
* Grotta dell'Addaura
The Addaura cave (Italian: Grotta dell'Addaura) is a complex of three natural grottoes located on the northeast side of Mount Pellegrino in Palermo, Sicily, Southern Italy. The importance of the complex is due to the presence of cave-wall engravin ...
, Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
, Italy
* Rock Engravings in Grosio (in Valtellina
Valtellina or the Valtelline (occasionally spelled as two words in English: Val Telline; rm, Vuclina (); lmo, Valtelina or ; german: Veltlin; it, Valtellina) is a valley in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, bordering Switzerland. Toda ...
), Italy
File:Parco Grosio La Rupe Magna.jpg, Grosio - Rupe Magna
File:Parco Grosio Rupe Magna 5.jpg, Grosio - Rupe Magna
File:Parco Grosio Rupe Magna 3.jpg, Grosio - Rupe Magna
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
* Knockmany
Knockmany passage tomb, or Anya's Cove, is an ancient burial monument on the summit of Knockmany Hill, near the village of Augher in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the remains of a Neolithic passage tomb and its stones are decorated with ...
File:Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland left.jpg, Leftmost of three central stones, Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
File:Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland centre.jpg, Central of three central stones, Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
File:Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland right.JPG, A stone on the right of the passage, Knockmany Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Sess Kilgreen
The Singapore Management University (SMU) is a public autonomous university in Singapore. The university is the only city campus in Singapore. It ranks third in Asia as a specialist university, behind Hong Kong University of Science and Techn ...
File:Sess kilgreen 1.jpg, Sess Kilgreen Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
File:Sess kilgreen 2.jpg, Sess Kilgreen Chambered Tomb, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Norway
* Rock carvings at Alta
The Rock art of Alta (''Helleristningene i Alta'') are located in and around the municipality of Alta in the county of Finnmark in northern Norway. Since the first carvings were discovered in 1973, more than 6000 carvings have been found on sev ...
, World Heritage Site (1985)
* Rock carvings in Central Norway Central Norway is a region in Norway, comprising Trøndelag as well as parts of the Nordland and Møre og Romsdal counties.
This region of Norway contains approximately 300 rock carving and rock painting sites from the Stone Age and Bronze Age. ...
* Rock carvings at Møllerstufossen
The Rock carvings at Møllerstufossen in Nord-Sinni in Nordre Land municipality in Oppland county of Norway comprise several carvings of moose and one other animal. The site covers about 20 m². The largest figure measures about 90 cm across. ...
* Rock carvings at Tennes
Portugal
* Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Valley, Portugal
File:Rock Art Foz Coa 01.jpg, Carvings of various zoomorphic creatures, including in particular, a horse
File:Rock Art Foz Coa 03.jpg, Paleolithic rock engravings breaking the natural rock formation
File:Prehistoric Rock-Art Site of the Côa Valley - Penascosa - Bull @ 2011-08-06.jpg, Various zoomorphic creatures, including in particular, a Bull
Scotland
* Museum of Ayrshire Country Life and Costume
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
, North Ayrshire
* Burghead Bull
The Burghead Bulls are a group of carved Pictish stones from the site of Burghead Fort in Moray, Scotland, each featuring an incised image of a bull. Up to 30 were discovered during the demolition of the fort to create the town of Burghead in the 1 ...
, Burghead
Burghead ( sco, Burgheid or ''The Broch'', gd, Am Broch) is a small town in Moray, Scotland, about north-west of Elgin. The town is mainly built on a peninsula that projects north-westward into the Moray Firth, surrounding it by water on t ...
* Townhead
Townhead ( gd, Ceann a' Bhaile, sco, Tounheid) is an area of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated immediately north-east of Glasgow city centre and contains a residential sector (redeveloped from an older neighbourhood in the mid 20th ...
, Galloway
Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway.
A native or ...
* Ballochmyle cup and ring marks
The Ballochmyle cup and ring marks were first recorded at Ballochmyle (NS 5107 2552), Mauchline, East Ayrshire, Scotland in 1986, very unusually carved on a vertical red sandstone cliff face, forming one of the most extensive areas of such carving ...
Spain
* Petroglyphs from Galicia
* Petroglyphs from the Canary Islands (Spain)
Russia
* White Sea petroglyphs, Republic of Karelia, Russia
* Petroglyph Park near Petrozavodsk
Petrozavodsk (russian: Петрозаводск, p=pʲɪtrəzɐˈvotsk; Karelian, Vepsian and fi, Petroskoi) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population ...
–Lake Onega
Lake Onega (; also known as Onego, rus, Оне́жское о́зеро, r=Onezhskoe ozero, p=ɐˈnʲɛʂskəɪ ˈozʲɪrə; fi, Ääninen, Äänisjärvi; vep, Änine, Änižjärv) is a lake in northwestern Russia, on the territory of the Repu ...
, Russia
* Tomskaya Pisanitsa
* Kanozero Petroglyphs
* Sikachi-Alyan, Khabarovsk Krai
* Kapova cave
, image = Капова пещера.jpg
, image_size = 240
, alt =Kapova cave
, caption = Kapova cave entrance
, map_type = Russia
, map_alt = Kapova cave
, map_caption = Location in Russia
, map_size = 240
, altitude_m =
, altitude_ ...
, Bashkortostan
The Republic of Bashkortostan or Bashkortostan ( ba, Башҡортостан Республикаһы, Bashqortostan Respublikahy; russian: Республика Башкортостан, Respublika Bashkortostan),; russian: Респу́блик ...
* Sunduki Petroglyphs, Khakassia
Sweden
* Tanumshede
Tanumshede is a locality and the seat of Tanum Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is th ...
( Bohuslän); World Heritage Site (1994)
* Himmelstalund (by Norrköping in Östergötland)
* Enköping
Enköping is a locality and the seat of Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 30,000 inhabitants in 2018.
Geography
Enköping is situated near Lake Mälaren, about 78 km west of Stockholm.
A comparably large number of S ...
(Uppland
Uppland () is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. On the small uninhab ...
)
* Southwest Skåne (Götaland
Götaland (; also '' Geatland'', '' Gothia'', ''Gothland'', ''Gothenland'' or ''Gautland'') is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises ten provinces. Geographically it is located in the south of Sweden, bounded to the north by Svealand, wit ...
)
* Alvhem ( Västra Götaland)
* Torhamn (Blekinge
Blekinge (, old da, Bleking) is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's secon ...
)
* Nämforsen (Ångermanland
Ångermanland ( or ) is a historical province (''landskap'') in the northern part of Sweden. It is bordered (clockwise from the north) by Swedish Lapland, Västerbotten, the Gulf of Bothnia, Medelpad and Jämtland.
The name is derived from ...
)
* Häljesta (Västmanland
Västmanland ( or ), is a historical Swedish province, or ''landskap'', in middle Sweden. It borders Södermanland, Närke, Värmland, Dalarna and Uppland.
Västmanland means "(The) Land of the Western Men", where the "western men" (''väst ...
)
* Slagsta (Södermanland
Södermanland ( or ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latin form ''Sudermannia'' or ''Sudermania'', is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västman ...
)
* Glösa
Glösa is a locality in Alsen in the historical province Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. Glösa is situated in Krokom Municipality, 50 kilometres northwest of Östersund, the capital of Jämtland. Glösa is a village in an agricultural area ...
( Jämtland)
* Gärde
Gärde is a locality in the north of Offerdal in the historical province Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. Gärde is situated in Krokom Municipality, 70 kilometres northwest of Östersund, the capital of Jämtland. Gärde is a traditional vil ...
( Jämtland)
* Flatruet (Härjedalen
Härjedalen (; no, Herjådalen or ) is a historical province (''landskap'') in the centre of Sweden. It borders the Norwegian county of Trøndelag as well as the provinces of Dalarna, Hälsingland, Medelpad, and Jämtland. The province origi ...
)
* Grannberget (Härjedalen
Härjedalen (; no, Herjådalen or ) is a historical province (''landskap'') in the centre of Sweden. It borders the Norwegian county of Trøndelag as well as the provinces of Dalarna, Hälsingland, Medelpad, and Jämtland. The province origi ...
)
* The King's Grave
The King's Grave (''Kungagraven i Kivik, Kiviksgraven'') is an archaeological site. It is situated near Kivik in the southeastern portion of Scania, Sweden. The site is what remains of an unusually grand Nordic Bronze Age double burial dating f ...
at Kivik
* Rock carvings at Norrfors, Umeå
* Släbro rock carvings in Nyköping
Nyköping () is a locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,759 inhabitants as of 2017. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County.
Including Arnö, the locality on the southern shore of th ...
(Södermanland
Södermanland ( or ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latin form ''Sudermannia'' or ''Sudermania'', is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Östergötland, Närke, Västman ...
)
Turkey
* Kagizman, Kars
* Cunni Cave, Erzurum
Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010.
The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...
* Esatli, Ordu
Ordu () or Altınordu is a port city on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, historically also known as Cotyora or Kotyora ( pnt, Κοτύωρα), and the capital of Ordu Province with a population of 229,214 in the city center.
Name
Kotyora, the ori ...
* Gevaruk Valley, Hakkâri
* Hakkari Trisin, Hakkâri
* Latmos / Beşparmak
* Güdül, Ankara
Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
Ukraine
* Kamyana Mohyla
Kamyana Mohyla ( uk, Кам'яна Могила; literally: "stone grave") is an archaeological site in the Molochna River (literally: "Milk river") valley, about a mile from the village of Terpinnia, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. Petroglyph ...
, Zaporizhzhia Oblast
Zaporizhzhia Oblast ( uk, Запорі́зька о́бласть, translit=Zaporizka oblast), also referred to as Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запорі́жжя, links=no), is an oblast (province) of southeast Ukraine. Its capital is Zaporizhzhia. The ...
* Stone stelae of the Ukraine
Wales
* Garn Turne, Pembrokeshire
Central and South America and the Caribbean
Argentina
* 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 ste ...
, Santa Cruz
* Talampaya National Park
Talampaya National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Talampaya) is a national park located in the east/centre of La Rioja Province, Argentina. It was designated a provincial reserve in 1975, a national park in 1997, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2 ...
, La Rioja
La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, an ...
* Lihué Calel National Park
Lihué Calel National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Lihué Calel) ( Mapudungun Lihue = "life" and Calel "mountainous area", "mountains of life") is a national park in Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no ...
, La Pampa
La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it ...
File:Talampaya petroglyphs (1).jpg, Talampaya National Park
Talampaya National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Talampaya) is a national park located in the east/centre of La Rioja Province, Argentina. It was designated a provincial reserve in 1975, a national park in 1997, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2 ...
, La Rioja Province, Argentina
File:Petroglifo001.jpg, Petroglyph on Tunduqueral hill at Uspallata
Uspallata is a village and administrative district in Argentina, in a scenic location on the road that crosses the Andes between Mendoza and Santiago in Chile. It is located west of Mendoza and was once served by the now disused Transandine R ...
, Argentina
Aruba
* Arikok National Park
The Arikok National Park takes up approximately 18 percent of the island of Aruba and includes three primary geological formations: the Aruba lava formation, a quartz diorite formation, and a limestone formation that extends inward from the coast. ...
* Quadiriki Caves
* Ayo and Casabari Rock Formations
The interjection Ayo! is a common variation of the word Yo!.
Ayo, Ayọ, Ayọ̀ and AYO may also refer to:
People
Ayọ is a common Yoruba given name, it can be given to a female and a male. ''Ayọ'' in Yoruba means ''Joy''.
* Ayo Akinola, A ...
Brazil
The oldest reliably dated rock art in the Americas is known as the "Horny Little Man." It is petroglyph depicting a stick figure with an oversized phallus and carved in Lapa do Santo
Lapa do Santo is an archaeological site located in the northern part of the Lagoa Santa karst, in the state of Minas Gerais in east-central Brazil. It documents human presence since ca. 12000 years ago presenting three discrete occupation phase ...
, a cave in central-eastern Brazil and dates from 12,000 to 9,000 years ago.
* Serra da Capivara National Park
Serra da Capivara National Park (Portuguese: ''Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara'', , locally ) 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 p ...
, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
, Piauí
* 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 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...
* Ingá Stone, Paraíba
* Costao do Santinho, Santa Catarina
* Lagoa Santa (Holy Lake), Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
* Ivolandia, Goiás
Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goi ...
File:Serra da Capivara - Painting 7.JPG, Capivara National Park, Piauí, Brazil
File:Ivolandia Rupestres 11.JPG, Ivolandia, Goiás, Brazil
File:Figuras rupestres, Costão do Santinho, Florianópolis 2.JPG, Costao do Santinho, SC, Brazil
Chile
* Rincón las Chilcas, Combarbalá
* Easter Island petroglyphs
File:Settlers at La Silla.jpg, Numerous rocks boasting thousand-year-old carvings.
File:The Ascent of Man.jpg, Modern science and the spectre of ancient man coexist in this thought-provoking image of a petroglyph.
File:Llamas at La Silla.jpg, Llamas at La Silla
File:Motu Nui.jpg, Petroglyphs at Orongo
Orongo is a stone village and ceremonial center at the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). It consists of a collection of low, sod-covered, windowless, round-walled buildings with even lower doors positioned on the high south-westerly t ...
, Rapa Nui
Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearly ...
(Easter Island). A Makemake
Makemake (minor-planet designation 136472 Makemake) is a dwarf planet and – depending on how they are defined – the second-largest Kuiper belt object in the classical population, with a diameter approximately 60% that of Pluto. It h ...
at the base and two birdmen higher up
Colombia
* El Abra
El Abra is the name given to an extensive archeological site, located in the valley of the same name. El Abra is situated in the east of the municipality Zipaquirá extending to the westernmost part of Tocancipá in the department of Cundinamar ...
, Cundinamarca
* Chiribiquete Natural National Park
Chiribiquete National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Serranía de Chiribiquete) is the largest national park in Colombia and the largest tropical rainforest national park in the world. It was established on 21 September 1989 and ...
File:Alb.jpg, El Abra
El Abra is the name given to an extensive archeological site, located in the valley of the same name. El Abra is situated in the east of the municipality Zipaquirá extending to the westernmost part of Tocancipá in the department of Cundinamar ...
archaeological site, Cundinamarca
File:Chiribiquete petroglyph 1.jpg, Petroglyph in the Chiribiquete Natural National Park
Chiribiquete National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Serranía de Chiribiquete) is the largest national park in Colombia and the largest tropical rainforest national park in the world. It was established on 21 September 1989 and ...
. (Possible equine
Equinae is a subfamily of the family Equidae, which have lived worldwide (except Indonesia and Australia) from the Hemingfordian stage of the Early Miocene (16 million years ago) onwards. They are thought to be a monophyletic grouping.B. J. Ma ...
)
File:Chiribiquete petroglyph 2.jpg, Petroglyph in the Chiribiquete Natural National Park
Chiribiquete National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Serranía de Chiribiquete) is the largest national park in Colombia and the largest tropical rainforest national park in the world. It was established on 21 September 1989 and ...
. Aboriginal
File:Chiribiquete petroglyph 3.jpg, Petroglyph in the Chiribiquete Natural National Park
Chiribiquete National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Serranía de Chiribiquete) is the largest national park in Colombia and the largest tropical rainforest national park in the world. It was established on 21 September 1989 and ...
. (Possible mammal).
File:Chiribiquete AJ11calabazos.JPG, Petroglyphs in the Chiribiquete Natural National Park
Chiribiquete National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Serranía de Chiribiquete) is the largest national park in Colombia and the largest tropical rainforest national park in the world. It was established on 21 September 1989 and ...
.
Costa Rica
* Rincon de la Vieja, Guanacaste
Dominican Republic
* Cueva de las Maravillas, San Pedro de Macorís
San Pedro de Macorís is a city and municipality (''municipio'') in the Dominican Republic and the capital of the San Pedro de Macorís province in the east region of the country; it is among the 10 largest cities of the Dominican Republic. The ...
* Las Caritas
Las Caritas ("The faces") is a collection of Indian inscriptions in a rock formation looking out over Lake Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic. The place is also called the Trono de Enriquillo ("Enriquillo's throne") because it is said the Taíno ...
, near Lake Enriquillo
Lake Enriquillo ( es, Lago Enriquillo) is a hypersaline lake in the Dominican Republic located in the southwestern region of the country. Its waters are shared between the provinces of Bahoruco and Independencia, the latter of which borders Hait ...
* Los Tres Ojos, Santo Domingo
, total_type = Total
, population_density_km2 = auto
, timezone = AST (UTC −4)
, area_code_type = Area codes
, area_code = 809, 829, 849
, postal_code_type = Postal codes
, postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional)
, webs ...
Grenada
* Mt. Rich Petroglyphs
Montserrat
* Soldier Ghaut petroglyphs
Nicaragua
* El Ceibo Petroglyphs, Ometepe
Ometepe is an island formed by two volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicaragua in the Republic of Nicaragua. Its name derives from the Nahuatl words ''ome'' (two) and ''tepetl'' (mountain), meaning "two mountains". It is the largest island in Lake Nic ...
, Rivas
* Ometepe Petroglyphs, Ometepe
Ometepe is an island formed by two volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicaragua in the Republic of Nicaragua. Its name derives from the Nahuatl words ''ome'' (two) and ''tepetl'' (mountain), meaning "two mountains". It is the largest island in Lake Nic ...
, Rivas
Paraguay
* Amambay Department
Peru
* Cumbe Mayo
Cumbemayo or Cumbe Mayo is an archaeological site located 20 kilometers southwest of the city of Cajamarca in Peru at 3,500 meters of elevation. Built around 1500 B.C.E, it comprises aqueducts, a grotto and petroglyphs; all within an area of ro ...
, Cajamarca
Cajamarca (), also known by the Quechua name, ''Kashamarka'', is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the northern highlands of Peru ...
* Petroglyphs of Pusharo, Manú National Park
Manú National Park ( es, Parque Nacional del Manú) is a national park and biosphere reserve located in the regions of Madre de Dios and Cusco in Peru. It protects a diverse number of ecosystems including lowland rainforests, cloud forests and ...
, Madre de Dios region
Madre de Dios (, en, Mother of God) is a department and region in southeastern Peru, bordering Brazil, Bolivia and the Peruvian departments of Puno, Cusco and Ucayali, in the Amazon Basin. Its capital is the city of Puerto Maldonado. It is als ...
* Petroglyphs of Quiaca, Puno Region
Puno () is a department and region in southeastern Peru. It is the fifth largest department in Peru, after Cuzco, Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto. It is bordered by Bolivia on the east, the departments of Madre de Dios on the north, Cusco ...
* Petroglyphs of Jinkiori, Cusco Region
Saint Kitts and Nevis
* Carib Petroglyphs, Wingfield Manor Estate, Saint Kitts
Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...
Suriname
* Corantijn Basin
The Wonotobo Falls (Dutch: ''Wonotobovallen'') are a series of waterfalls in the Courantyne River in Sipaliwini District, Suriname near the border with Guyana. The waterfalls are not navigable. A pre-Columbian petroglyph site is located near the ...
Trinidad and Tobago
* Caurita
Venezuela
* Caicara del Orinoco
Caicara del Orinoco is a town in, and the administrative seat of, Cedeño Municipality, Bolívar State, Venezuela.
Currently the Venezuelan government is building a bridge across the Orinoco at Caicara. When completed the bridge will be 2.4& ...
, Bolívar
* Morrocoy National Park, Falcón
)
, anthem =
, image_map = Falcon in Venezuela.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location within Venezuela
, pushpin_map =
, pushpin_map_alt =
, pushpin_mapsiz ...
* Piedra Pintada Archeological Park within San Esteban National Park, Guaraca, Carabobo
* Sardinata Beach, Amazonas
* Taima Taima, Falcón
)
, anthem =
, image_map = Falcon in Venezuela.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location within Venezuela
, pushpin_map =
, pushpin_map_alt =
, pushpin_mapsiz ...
North America
Canada
* Kejimkujik National Park
Kejimkujik National Park () is a National Park of Canada, covering in the southwest of Nova Scotia peninsula. Located within three municipalities, Annapolis, Queens, Digby, it consists of two separate land areas: an inland part, which is coinc ...
, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
* Petroglyph Provincial Park
Petroglyph Provincial Park is a provincial park located at the south end of the city of Nanaimo in British Columbia, Canada. The park was established on August 24, 1948 to protect a collection of petroglyphs found near the estuary of the Nanaimo ...
, Nanaimo, British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
* Petroglyphs Provincial Park, north of Peterborough, Ontario
Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...
* Agnes Lake, Quetico Provincial Park
Quetico Provincial Park is a large wilderness park in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, known for its excellent canoe camping, canoeing and fishing. The park shares its southern border with Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which ...
, Ontario
* Sproat Lake Provincial Park, near Port Alberni, British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
* Stuart Lake, British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
* St. Victor Provincial Park, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...
* 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 sy ...
, east of Milk River, Alberta
Milk River is a town in Alberta, Canada that is named after the Milk River which flows immediately to its south. This location results in Milk River being one of the few Canadian communities within the Mississippi River drainage system. It is s ...
* Gabriola Island
Gabriola Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia (BC), Canada. It is about east of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to which it is linked by a 20-minute ferry service. It has a land area of about and a res ...
, British Columbia
* East Sooke Regional Park, British Columbia
* Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre, Herschel Saskatchewan
* Lake Temagami
Lake Temagami, formerly spelled as Lake Timagami, is a lake in Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada, situated approximately 80 km north of North Bay. The lake's name comes from ''dimii-agamiing'' "tih-MEE-uh-guh-MEENG", which m ...
, Ontario
Mexico
* Boca de Potrerillos, Mina, Nuevo León
* Chiquihuitillos, Mina, Nuevo León
* Cuenca del Río Victoria, near Xichú
Xichú is a Mexican city (and municipality) located in the Northeast region of the state of Guanajuato. The municipality is entirely within the Sierra Gorda range and has an area of 912.20 square kilometres (3.0% of the surface of the state). It ...
, Guanajuato
* Coahuiltecan
The Coahuiltecan were various small, autonomous bands of Native Americans who inhabited the Rio Grande valley in what is now southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. The various Coahuiltecan groups were hunter-gatherers. First encountered by Europ ...
Cueva Ahumada, Nuevo León
* La Proveedora, Caborca
Caborca is the municipal seat of the Caborca Municipality in the Mexican state of Sonora. The city has a population of 67,604, while the municipal population was 89,122 as of 2020. Municipal boundaries are with Pima County, Arizona, in the United ...
, Sonora
* Samalayuca, Juarez, Chihuahua
* Las Labradas, near Mazatlán
Mazatlán () is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding '' municipio'', known as the Mazatlán Municipality. It is located at on the Pacific coast, across from the southernmost tip ...
, Sinaloa
United States
* Arches National Park
Arches National Park is a national park in eastern Utah, United States. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, north of Moab, Utah. More than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, including the well-known Delicate Arch, ...
, Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
* Bandelier National Monument
Bandelier National Monument is a United States National Monument near Los Alamos in Sandoval and Los Alamos counties, New Mexico. The monument preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest. Most ...
, New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
* Barnesville Petroglyph, Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
* Bloomington Petroglyph Park, Utah
* Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately long on its northsouth axis and just wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve of desert landscape and is open all ye ...
, Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
* Caguana Indian Park, Utuado, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
* Columbia Hills State Park, Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
* Corn Springs
Corn Springs is a palm oasis situated in the Chuckwalla Mountains of the Colorado Desert in Riverside County, California, United States, seventeen miles southeast of Desert Center. Native Americans relied on the springs, and they engraved m ...
, Colorado Desert, California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
* Coso Rock Art District
Coso Rock Art District is a rock art site containing over 100,000 Petroglyphs by Paleo-Indians and/or Native Americans. The district is located near the towns of China Lake and Ridgecrest, California. Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons were ...
, Coso Range
The Coso Range of eastern California is located immediately south of Owens Lake, east of the Sierra Nevada, and west of the Argus Range. The southern part of the range lies in the restricted Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and the northern pa ...
, northern Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
, California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
* Death Valley National Park, California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
* Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
and Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
* Dighton Rock
The Dighton Rock is a 40-ton boulder, originally located in the riverbed of the Taunton River at Berkley, Massachusetts (formerly part of the town of Dighton). The rock is noted for its petroglyphs ("primarily lines, geometric shapes, and schemati ...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
* Dominguez Canyon Wilderness
The Dominguez Canyon Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located southeast of Grand Junction in western Colorado. The wilderness area established in 2009, the largest BLM roadless area in the state of Colorado, includes two major canyon syst ...
, Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
* Fremont Indian State Park
Fremont Indian State Park and Museum is a state park of Utah, US, which interprets archaeological remains of the Fremont culture. The park is located in Sevier County, Utah in the Clear Creek Canyon.
The park directly adjoins Interstate 70 as ...
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
* Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park
Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park/Wanapum Recreational Area is a geologic preserve and public recreation area covering on the western shoreline of the Columbia River's Wanapum Reservoir at Vantage, Washington. Petrified wood was discovered in t ...
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
* Grand Traverse Bay
Grand Traverse Bay is a deep bay of Lake Michigan formed by the Leelanau Peninsula in the northwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bay is long, wide, and up to deep in spots. It is further divided into two east and west arms by the Ol ...
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
* Great Basin National Park
Great Basin National Park is an American national park located in White Pine County in east-central Nevada, near the Utah border, established in 1986. The park is most commonly entered by way of Nevada State Route 488, which is connected to U ...
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
* Grimes Point, Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
* Independence Slab, Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
* Inscription Rock (Kelleys Island, Ohio)
Inscription Rock is a large slab of limestone measuring approximately 32 by 21 feet located on the south shore of Kelleys Island in Lake Erie in Erie County, Ohio. It is situated near the intersections of E Lakeshore Drive and Addison Rd under a ...
, Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
* Jeffers Petroglyphs
The Jeffers Petroglyphs site is an outcrop in southwestern Minnesota with pre-contact Native American petroglyphs. The petroglyphs are pecked into rock of the Red Rock Ridge, a -long Sioux quartzite outcrop that extends from Watonwan County, Min ...
, Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
* Judaculla Rock
Judaculla Rock is a curvilinear-shaped outcrop of soapstone known for its ancient carvings and petroglyphs. The archaeological site is located on a 0.85-acre rectangular-shaped property, now owned by Jackson County. It is approximately 60 meters e ...
, North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
* Kanopolis State Park
Kanopolis State Park contains a reservoir, desert plants such as yucca, a prairie dog town, and scenic sandstone canyons. It is located in the Smoky Hills region of the U.S. state of Kansas. The park is located southwest of the city of Salina ...
, Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...
* La Cueva del Indio
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...
(Indians Cave), Arecibo
Arecibo (; ) is a city and municipality on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, located north of Utuado and Ciales; east of Hatillo; and west of Barceloneta and Florida. It is about west of San Juan, th ...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
* La Piedra Escrita (The Written Rock), Jayuya, Puerto Rico
Jayuya (, ) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the mountainous center region of the island, north of Ponce; east of Utuado; and west of Ciales. Jayuya is spread over 10 barrios and Jayuya Pueblo (the downtown and administr ...
* Lava Beds National Monument
Lava Beds National Monument is located in northeastern California, in Siskiyou and Modoc counties. The monument lies on the northeastern flank of Medicine Lake Volcano and has the largest total area covered by a volcano in the Cascade Range.
...
, Tule Lake, California
* Legend Rock Petroglyph Site, Thermopolis, Wyoming
Thermopolis is the county seat and largest town in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town population was 2,725.
Thermopolis is Greek for "hot city." It is home to numerous natural hot springs, in which ...
* Lemonweir Glyphs, Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
* Leo Petroglyph
The Leo Petroglyph is a sandstone petroglyph containing 37 images of humans and other animals as well as footprints of each. The petroglyph is located near the small village of Leo, Ohio (in Jackson County, Ohio) and is thought to have been cr ...
, Leo, Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
* Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde National Park is an American national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States.
Established ...
, Colorado
* Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument
Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument is a Utah state monument featuring a rock panel carved with one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs. It is located in San Juan County, along Utah State Route 211, northwest of Monticello and ...
, Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
* Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the State of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier ...
, Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
* Paintlick Mountain, Tazewell, Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
* Petit Jean State Park
Petit Jean State Park is a park in Conway County, Arkansas managed by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. It is located atop Petit Jean Mountain adjacent to the Arkansas River in the area between the Ouachita Mountains and Ozarks, Ozark ...
, Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
* Petrified Forest National Park Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
* Petroglyph National Monument
Petroglyph National Monument stretches along Albuquerque, New Mexico's West Mesa, a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city's western horizon. Authorized June 27, 1990, the 7,236 acre (29.28 km2) monument is cooperatively man ...
, New Mexico
* Picacho Mountain, Picacho Arizona Picacho may refer to:
;Mexico
* Villa de Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí
*Picacho del Diablo, Baja California
;Panama
* Picacho Mountain
;United States
* Picacho, California
**Picacho State Recreation Area
* Little Picacho Wilderness, California
*Picac ...
* Picture Canyon, Flagstaff, Arizona
* Picture Rocks, Picture Rocks, Arizona
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...
* Puye Cliff Dwellings
The Puye Cliff Dwellings are the ruins of an abandoned pueblo, located in Santa Clara Canyon on Santa Clara Pueblo land near Española, New Mexico. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
Ancient pueblo dwellings
Between 900 ...
, New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
* Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
The Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Clark County, Nevada, is an area managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of its National Landscape Conservation System, and protected as a National Conservation Area. It is about west ...
, Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
* Rochester Rock Art Panel, Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
* Ring Mountain, Marin County, California
* Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint John ( da, Sankt Jan) is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Saint John () is the smallest of the thre ...
* Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park
Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Michigan. The park, also known as ezhibiigadek asin (Ojibwe for "written on stone") consists of in Greenleaf Township, Sanilac County, in Michigan's Thumb. It contain ...
, Sanilac County, Michigan
Sanilac County ( ) is a county located in the Thumb region of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 40,611. The county seat is Sandusky. The county was created on September 10, 1822, and was fully organized on D ...
* Sedona
Sedona is a city that straddles the county line between Coconino and Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 census, its population was 10,031. It is within the Coconino National Fo ...
, Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
* Seminole Canyon, Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
* Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area
Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area is a National Conservation Area (NCA) administered by the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM). It includes the Sloan Petroglyph Site which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on ...
, Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
* South Mountain Park
South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona is the largest municipal park in the United States, and one of the largest urban parks in North America and in the world. It has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride.
Geography and ecology
South ...
, Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
* The Cove Palisades State Park, Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
* Three Rivers Petroglyphs, New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
Three Rivers Petroglyph Site
. Nm.blm.gov (2012-09-13). Retrieved on 2013-02-12.
* Tibes Indian Park, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.
Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...
* Valley of Fire State Park
Valley of Fire State Park is a public recreation and nature preservation area covering nearly located south of Overton, Nevada. The state park derives its name from red sandstone formations, the Aztec Sandstone, which formed from shifting s ...
, Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
* Washington State Park
Washington State Park is a public recreation area covering in Washington County in the central eastern part of the state of Missouri. It is located on Highway 21 about northeast of Potosi or southwest of DeSoto on the eastern edge of the O ...
, Washington County, Missouri
Washington County is located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 23,514. The county seat and largest city is Potosi. The county was officially organized on August ...
* West Virginia glyphs
Howard Barraclough Fell (June 6, 1917 – April 21, 1994), better known as Barry Fell, was a professor of invertebrate zoology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. While his primary professional research included starfish and sea urch ...
* White Mountain (Wyoming)
The central portion of the mountain, from Rock Springs, Wyoming
White Mountain is a long mountain located in central Sweetwater County, Wyoming, near the cities of Rock Springs and Green River. The mountain is part of the Green River Formation, ...
, Rock Springs, Wyoming
Rock Springs is a city in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 23,036 at the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state of Wyoming, and the most populous city in Sweetwater County. Rock Springs is ...
* White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell, Arizona
Waddell is an unincorporated community in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, northwest of the city of Phoenix. Waddell is named after Donald Ware Waddell, a native of Ohio, who was a partner in the New York City investment firm of Brando ...
* Winnemucca Lake
Winnemucca Lake is a dry lake bed in northwest Nevada that features the oldest known petroglyphs in North America. Located astride the border between Washoe and Pershing counties, it was a shallow lake until the 1930s, but was dried when a d ...
, Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
* Writing Rock State Historical Site
Writing Rock State Historical Site, located twelve miles (19 km) northeast of Grenora, North Dakota in Divide County near the Montana border, is the site of two large granite boulders, carved with petroglyphs featuring thunderbirds, myt ...
, North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...
* Monolyth at Caguas & El Yunque, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
* Track Rock
Track Rock is located in the Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area (9Un367) in the Brasstown Ranger District of the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. This area contains preserved petroglyphs of ancient Indigenous peopl ...
, Union County Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
* Forsyth Petroglyph Originally discovered, locates and documented near Cumming, Georgia
Cumming is a city in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States, and the sole incorporated area in the county. It is a suburban city, and part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In the 2020 census, the population is 7,318, up from 5,430 in 2010. Su ...
in Forsyth County but has been relocated to the campus of the University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
in Athens, Georgia
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...
File:Petroglyphs on a Bishop Tuff tableland-750px.jpg, Petroglyphs on a Bishop Tuff tableland, eastern California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
File:Petroglyph 2 tds.jpg, Southern Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
File:Petroglyphs tds.jpg, Southern Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
File:Petroglyphs in Bryce Canyon.jpg, Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
File:Ute Petroglyphs in Arches National Park.jpg, Arches National Park
Arches National Park is a national park in eastern Utah, United States. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, north of Moab, Utah. More than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, including the well-known Delicate Arch, ...
File:Tracks at Barnesville Petroglyph.JPG, Animal print carvings outside of Barnesville, Ohio
Barnesville is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is located in the central portion of Warren Township in Belmont County and is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,193 at the ...
File:Petroglyph in Arizona 2007-01-20.jpg, Arizona
File:Picacho Petroglyph.jpg, Picacho Mountain Petroglyphs
File:Petroglyphs in the Columbia River Gorge.jpg, Columbia River Gorge
The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to deep, the canyon stretches for over as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the st ...
, Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
File:Upside down.jpg, Upside-down man in Western Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
File:RochesterPanel 01 2008.JPG, Rochester Rock Art Panel in the San Rafael Swell
The San Rafael Swell is a large geologic feature located in south-central Utah, United States about west of Green River. The San Rafael Swell, measuring approximately , consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limesto ...
in Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
File:Spiderweb petroglyph on the Waterfall Trail in the White Tank Mountains, Arizonia.jpg, Web-like petroglyph on the White Tank Mountain Regional Park Waterfall Trail, Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
File:Chipping petroglyph on Waterfall Trail in the White Tank Mountains.jpg, Chipping petroglyph on the White Tank Mountain Regional Park Waterfall Trail, Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
File:Arizona petroglyph 1117.JPG, Sample of petroglyphs at Painted Rock near Gila Bend, Arizona off Interstate 8.
File:Puye 1.jpg, Puye Cliff Dwellings
The Puye Cliff Dwellings are the ruins of an abandoned pueblo, located in Santa Clara Canyon on Santa Clara Pueblo land near Española, New Mexico. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
Ancient pueblo dwellings
Between 900 ...
, New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
File:ThunderBird Rock Carved Petroglyph at Twin Buffs.jpg, ThunderBird Rock Carved Petroglyph in West Central Wisconsin
File:Sanilac Petroglyphs - Archer.jpg, Detail of a carved archer-like figure, Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park
Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Michigan. The park, also known as ezhibiigadek asin (Ojibwe for "written on stone") consists of in Greenleaf Township, Sanilac County, in Michigan's Thumb. It contain ...
, Sanilac County, Michigan
File:Sky Rock.jpg, Sky Rock Petroglyphs, Bishop, California.
File:Sky Rock paint.jpg, Sky Rock Petroglyphs, Bishop, California.
Oceania
Australia
* Arnhem Land / 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 liv ...
, Northern Australia
* Gosford Glyphs
The Gosford Glyphs, also known as Kariong Hieroglyphs, are a group of approximately 300 Egyptian-style hieroglyphs located in Kariong, New South Wales, Australia. They are found in an area known for its Aboriginal petroglyphs, just between Go ...
in Central Coast, NSW (widely regarded as archaeological forgery
Archaeological forgery is the manufacture of supposedly ancient items that are sold to the antiquities market and may even end up in the collections of museums. It is related to art forgery.
A string of archaeological forgeries have usually fo ...
)
* Murujuga
Murujuga, formerly known as Dampier Island and today usually known as the Burrup Peninsula, is in the Dampier Archipelago, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, containing the town of Dampier. The Dampier Rock Art Precinct, which covers ...
, 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 ...
– world heritage assessed
* Sydney Rock Engravings
Sydney rock engravings, or Sydney rock art, are a form of Australian Aboriginal rock art in the sandstone around Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that consist of carefully drawn images of people, animals, or symbols. Many thousands of such en ...
, New South Wales
File:Ku-ring-gai Chase - petroglyph.jpg, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, sout ...
, New South Wales
File:Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park 20 metre long petroglyph.JPG, Part of a 20-metre-long petroglyph at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, sout ...
, New South Wales
File:Petroglyph - well endowed.JPG, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, sout ...
, New South Wales
File:Mutawintji National Park Petroglyph.JPG, Mutawintji National Park
The Mutawintji National Park, formerly the Mootwingee National Park, is a protected national park that is located in the Far West region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The national park is situated approximately west of Sydney and ab ...
, New South Wales
File:Burrup rock art.JPG, Burrup Peninsula
Murujuga, formerly known as Dampier Island and today usually known as the Burrup Peninsula, is in the Dampier Archipelago, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, containing the town of Dampier. The Dampier Rock Art Precinct, which covers ...
, Western Australia
See also
* Geoglyph
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 alignmen ...
* History of communication
The history of communication technologies (media and appropriate inscription tools) have evolved in tandem with shifts in political and economic systems, and by extension, systems of power. Communication can range from very subtle processes of exc ...
* List of Stone Age art
This is a descriptive list of Stone Age art, the period of prehistory characterised by the widespread use of stone tools. This article contains, by sheer volume of the artwork discovered, a very incomplete list of the works of the painters, sculpt ...
* Megalithic art
Megalithic art refers to art either painted or carved onto megaliths in prehistoric Europe.
Elizabeth Shee Twohig has coined the term Megalithic art in her study of The Megalithic Art of Western Europe. Her original definition of Megalithic a ...
* Pecked curvilinear nucleated
* 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 ...
* Runestone
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones d ...
and image stone
A picture stone, image stone or figure stone is an ornate slab of stone, usually limestone, which was raised in Germanic Iron Age or Viking Age Scandinavia, and in the greatest number on Gotland.The article ''Bildstenar'' in ''Nationalencykloped ...
* Water glyphs
Water glyphs are a recurring type of petroglyph found across the American southwest, but primarily in southern Utah, northern Arizona, and Nevada. The symbols are thought to be of ancient origin (perhaps created by the Ancestral Puebloans) and h ...
References
* 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,
* 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
Further reading
* Beckensall, Stan and Laurie, Tim, ''Prehistoric Rock Art of County Durham, Swaledale and Wensleydale'', County Durham Books, 1998
* Beckensall, Stan, ''Prehistoric Rock Art in Northumberland'', Tempus Publishing, 2001
External links
Rock Art Studies: A Bibliographic Database
Bancroft Library's citations to rock art literature.
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Rock art