Rock Art

by Jon Burch Photography

Title

Rock Art

Artist

Jon Burch Photography

Medium

Photograph - Digital Capture

Description

While poking around northern Colorado, I happened to stumble upon this ancient rock art and decided to photograph it before the winds of time removed it forever from the face of the earth. I'm sure it was carved by some ancient peoples from tribes unknown in the west and forever forgotten. The pigments the elders used in their painting of the piece are starting to fade so time was of the essence. I was about to contact the Smithsonian to see if they could provide a research team to further examine the artifact and possibly determine its origin, but I didn't quite know how to describe it. Should I tell them that I've uncovered a valuable petroglyph or a petrograph. It appears to be combination of the two, any advice would be appreciated and will further the advancement of science (probably).

Petroglyphs or rock engravings, are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. 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 world-wide, and are often associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek words petro, theme of the word "petra" meaning "stone", and glyphein meaning "to carve", and was originally coined in French.

The term petroglyph should not be confused with petrograph, which is an image drawn or painted on a rock face. Both types of image belong to the wider and more general category of rock art or parietal art.

Image of this petroglyph/petrograph copyright 2014 Jon Burch Photography

Uploaded

July 3rd, 2014

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