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Petroglyphs :: Petroglyph_National_Monument
 

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Petroglyphs are images incised in rock, usually by prehistoric, especially Neolithic, peoples. They were an important form of pre-writing symbols, used in communication from approximately 10,000 B.C.E. to modern times, depending on culture and location. The word comes from the Greek words petros meaning "stone" and glyphein meaning "to carve" (it was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe). The term 'petroglyph' should not be confused with pictograph, which is an image drawn or painted on a rock face, both of which contribute to the wider and more general category of rock art. Petroforms, or patterns and shapes made by many large rocks and boulders in rows over the ground, are also quite different.

History

The oldest petroglyphs are dated to approximately the Neolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Around 7,000 to 9,000 years ago, other writing systems such as pictographs and ideograms began to appear. Petroglyphs were still common though, and some less advanced societies continued using them much longer, even until contact with Western culture was made in the 20th century. Petroglyphs have been found in all parts of the globe except Antarctica with highest concentrations in parts of Africa, Scandinavia, Siberia, southwestern North America and Australia.

Interpretation

These images probably had deep cultural and religious significance for the societies that created them; in many cases this significance remains for their descendants. Many petroglyphs are thought to represent some kind of not-yet-fully understood symbolic or ritual language. Later glyphs from the Nordic Bronze Age in Scandinavia seem to refer to some form of territorial boundary between tribes, in addition to possible religious meanings. It also appears that local or regional dialects from similar or neighboring peoples exist. The Siberian inscriptions almost look like some early form of runes, although there is not thought to be any relationship between them. They are not yet well understood.

Some researchers have noticed the resemblance of different styles of petroglyphs across different continents; while it is expected that all people would be inspired by their 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 read a paper to the Berwick Naturalists' Club at which a Mr John Collingwood Bruce agreed that the carvings had '.. a common origin, and indicate a symbolic meaning, representing some popular thought.'History of Rock Art study In his cataloguing of Scottish rock art, Ronald Morris summarised 104 different theories on their interpretation, Ronald Morris, "The Prehistoric Rock Art of Galloway and The Isle of Man" (ISBN 0 7173 0975 8, Blandford Press 1979

Other, more controversial, explanations are mostly grounded in Jungian psychology and the views of Mircea Eliade. According to these theories it is possible that the similarity of petroglyphs (and other atavistic or archetypal symbols) from different cultures and continents is a result of the genetically inherited structure of the human brain.

Other theories suggest that petroglyphs were made by shamans in an altered state of consciousness, perhaps induced by the use of natural hallucinogens. Many of the geometric patterns (known as form constants) which recur in petroglyphs and cave paintings have been shown to be "hard-wired" into the human brain; they frequently occur in visual disturbances and hallucinations brought on by drugs, migraine and other stimuli.

Present-day links between shamanism and rock-art amongst the San people of the Kalahari desert have been studied by the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) of the University of the Witwatersrand *. 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 San 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.

The West Virginia controversy

The West Virginia glyphs are worth noting for the controversy that erupted over them in the 1980s. Barry Fell, a retired professor of marine biology at Harvard University, published an article in 1983, describing how he had deciphered petroglyphs in several places in southern West Virginia to have been written in Ogam, an Irish Celtic script dating back to the 6th to 8th century AD, and that they were in fact a detailed description of the nativity of Christ. * Fell is noted as promoting a theory of North America as having been visited by Irish, Iberian, Libyan, and Egyptian explorers "some 2,000 to 2,500 years ago".

In fact, Fell's methods involved an almost arbitrary grouping of markings, an interpretation of them as the only consonants of Ogam, and the addition of vowels and horizontal stem lines where he saw fit. This allowed him to decide which of three consonants each glyph should represent. Fell's work was subsequently debunked by linguists and archaeologists from several countries *, to which Fell responded by accusing them of being "too damn lazy" to read his writings, and of being "ignorant".

Even those who agreed with Fell's interpretation of the marks as being Ogam disagree with his translation. Edo Nyland believed the "inscription" at Horse Creek to be in Basque and translated it very differently, as a description of a bison hunt. For instance, the section which Fell translates as "A happy season is Christmas, a time of joy and goodwill to all people." is given by Nyland (1996) as "Club blows in abundant measure (were needed) because many which had fallen into the ravine resisted with obviously broken legs. Brothers, come and help the slaughterer to finish them off." * Any interpretation which leads to such radically different interpretations should be treated with caution. Unfortunately, Fell's dubious Ogam theory has influenced many subsequent interpretations of carvings and paintings all over America.

Petrified National Forest

On December 8, 1906 The Petrified National Forest became a national monument. It was not until 1962 that the site earned the upgraded status as a National Park. The origins of this natural wonder reach far back into the Triassic Period when the Arizona area was located at the equator. Volcanic activity to the west released tons of ash into the atmosphere, much of it falling upon the decomposing remains of this forest as great trees in the distant past had been hit by flooding. The dissolution of silica from the residue of volcanic ash entered into the cell walls of these ancient trees, eventually crystalizing to quartz crystal within these interstitial spaces.

The general area has a history that spans 2,000 years. What is known about the ancient people who occupied the area at different times is known primarily through the cave and rock wall art they left in the form of petroglyphs. The site has proven valuable to archeology in discerning aspects of the people who occupied the area. These people left evidence of their occupation though potsherds, rubble, remains of ancient fire sites, and the markings they left upon cave and rock walls.

*

For more information see: Robert Sherwood. The Petrified Forest. Dramatists Play Service Inc., 1998.

List of petroglyph sites

Africa

Asia-Pacific

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Petroglyph".

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