First off, I apologize for my brief hiatus from the blog. I was moving cross country, and it was this trip that inspired today's blog post, which focuses on rock art. There are several types of rock art in existence, with three primary types being petrographs, petroglyphs, and petroforms.
Petrographs are paintings on rock. They are also sometimes referred to as pictographs or cave paintings. The most famous and commonly known petrographs come from the Upper Paleolithic Period (approximately 40 to 10 thousand years ago), particularly the Altamira Cave Paintings from Spain (see below). These paintings were created with natural products, such as ocher, iron oxides, and manganese dioxide, which were ground into a powder and mixed with either grease, marrow, saliva, or blood. The paint was then placed on the wall with fingers or rudimentary paint brushes. Petrographs were not just consigned to ancient groups. Many North American hunter-gatherer groups practiced petrographs.
 |
| Altamira Cave Painting |
Petroglyphs are carvings etched into the surface of rocks. The art of petroglyphs are associated with prehistoric groups with the earliest petroglyphs being associated with the Neolithic and Upper Paleolithic Periods (approximately 10 to 12 thousand years ago). These petroglyphs have been found throughout the Old World (i.e. Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia), but the practice was not just associated to these areas. The most recognizable petroglyphs are the Nasca Lines, which are ancient petro/geoplyphs found along the desert floor in southern Peru., but they are common throughout South America.
 |
| Monkey depicted in the Nasca Lines |
And petroforms are made by placing rocks and boulders together into specific shapes and patterns. The most common is the Inukshuks, which are common in the Artic.
 |
| Inukshuks of Canada. |
|
|
The motivations behind creating these earthen works are not completely known, but scholars have put forward several different hypotheses:
- Some believe that they were merely art
- Some believe they were markers of trade routes or water sources
- Some believe they were the products of hallucinogenic episodes (yes, ancient groups got high)
- Some believe they were early education tools, enabling experienced individuals to teach less experienced individuals how to hunt, butcher animals, and more
Today, rock art formations continue, which leads to the inspiration of this post. While in the desert of Utah, I found several modern renditions of rock art. Here is a sampling of these works that I encountered:
19 comments:
Petroforms are amazing. I wonder how they got to be this way. Some petroforms are so large that it makes me think that there was no possible way for the people to get them like that. I watched a documentary about two months back about these kinds of things. It was more aimed toward the "extraterrestrial" point of these. Because how could people on the ground make those petroglyphs so large and know what they are drawing? It is like crop circles in a way. It also amazes me that the colors in the petrographs are so vivid. They made some very amazing bright colors. And some of those colors are still almost that bright today.
As with your previous reviewer, I have often wondered how the ancient people could effectively create such large Petroglyphs without some knowledge of geometry or advanced algebra. To make symbols like the monkey pictured in your article large enough to be seen by the sky but not on the ground is a feat that takes math into account. So how did the ancient populations learn such advanced math? What was the purpose of creating such large symbols that they themselves could not see? Or could they see them?
We know many ancient cultures and societies were far more advanced than we, modern people, give them credit for, so it is not far fetched that the ancient Nasca and others also had a firm grasp on mathematics. As for why they were creating specific petroglyphs we are not completely sure, hence why the studies of them are ongoing.
This article really grabbed me since there are so many cave paintings near my tribe in Hedley, BC, Canada. Its interesting to see different depictions of animals in different cultures. The rock formations are very cool. Reminds me of Stonehenge and how they were able to get those massive boulders stacked. I still don't understand Stonehenge's construction.
Zachary Forrester
anthro 101 3001 summer
Petroforms are becoming incredibly popular today. Along the shores of Lake Tahoe as well as other lakes and even some oceans. This form of rock staking is supposed to be a peaceful form of art and from what I've heard it can be very difficult to get the rocks to stack just perfect. I couldn't imagine making a structure out of them though. It must have been very difficult.
We have some amazing petroglyphs in the United States. In Arizona near the Grand Canyon you can get a permit to visit Dawa Park which has over 15,000 drawings and is believed to be the second largest collection in the USA.
I'm glad to have stumbled upon this one, because I have always been fascinated by the Nasca Lines and I also used to live near ancient petroglyphs out by Grimes Point, 60 miles east of Reno. They really are a mirror through time, and I always wondered why the Nasca Lines were created.
Art is a very neat topic to always look at and talk about. In my hometown of Rolla, Mo the university there does alot of art with engineering by building objects with the littlest things from solar panels and using computer aided drafting to put them into bigger designs its neat on how far art has come. Id be interested in seeing if any caves in Missouri have some history inside them with art?
When I read "These paintings were created with natural products, such as ocher, iron oxides, and manganese dioxide, which were ground into a powder and mixed with either grease, marrow, saliva, or blood." That just amazed me because I was not expecting to read or I wasn't thinking that back then they were this creative. The older I get the more interested I am in the work of art they done back in the day heck let alone the art they do today with all the tools they can use today. Its just very interesting to me.
This was an interesting post. Do you think we will ever figure out for sure the the reasoning behind works of art in early times?
I wonder how they were actually able to create these pieces? If you think about it there was no kind of technology back then and they had such creative imaginations. I wonder how they were able to develope those thoughts, let alone actually making their thoughts come to life without being taught how to write or draw.
Jovie Black
Is carving into wet cement considered the same thing as this? I can't tell if the word Melissa is in the sand of a beach or concrete.
Interesting Article .
What I find to be so interesting about cave drawing and art that can only be seen from the air, is that how did they know what they were making and/or writing if it can only be seen clearly from the sky? Also, how we have cave drawings, where the drawings are really good but we never had art class back then to learn how to draw, so how did they know how to do that?
--Kimberly Wilbers
Much like how we do things they may have completed the aerial pieces through scale (i.e. using mathematics to blow up a smaller picture to a larger one). And art comes from trial and error, so they may have practiced prior to painting on the walls. :)
Petroglyphs are very cool and have been common all over the world for centuries. I like how this is something that is continued and is appreciated for more than just cave drawings because these drawings have told stories. They have knocked down communication barriers that would not have been able to be understood before. A picture is easier to understand than language and these pictures are able to be passed on throughout centuries. They are so common but each style represents other culture and different perspectives from all over the world.
Things like this is interesting to me because its like kind a mystery to what the meanings behind the carvings are,and its cool to see humans were kinda smart back then to figure out a way to make the pantings. very interesting.
I was not expecting to read or I wasn't thinking that back then they were this creative. It's honestly interesting because someone that you would "think" is different are the same as others. - Alexis Buford
This make me wonder what does the carving mean? what made them think of carving the images?
-Lavonza Marshall
I wonder out of all 3 of these which one can hold up the most over time. Knowing painting on rock using blood or other materials might last long. But you have to think of the people who might try to destroy it because of what it might have on it. It might tell a story that many might not want told. But I believe the petroforms would not last long because of how the world works. It might be tornadoes or earthquakes that can ruin those types of things with no problem.
Post a Comment