petroglyph

Well-known Achaemenian rock reliefs, such as those of the royal tombs at Naqsh-e Rostam, near Persepolis, and the relief with a famous inscription of Darius I at Bīsitūn (historically Behistun), on the road to Hamadan, are primarily of archaeological interest. Of greater artistic importance are the many…

…formal monumentality of the Assyrian rock reliefs, secular or religious devices carved on vertical rock faces in localities such as Bavian and Maltai to commemorate historical events that took place there.

The Olowalu petroglyphs, 5 miles (8 km) east, are rock carvings (some thought to be more than 300 years old) that depict occupations of the early Hawaiians.

…Hattusa itself and, second, from rock sculptures, including those decorating the remarkable shrine called Yazılıkaya, some distance outside the town. Here, deep clefts in the limestone, open to the sky, form a setting for the cult; the reliefs are carved on the vertical faces of the rock. One of the…

…the country, at Mount Al-Ṭubayq, rock carvings date from several prehistoric periods, the earliest of which have been attributed to the Paleolithic-Mesolithic era. The site at Tulaylāt al-Ghassūl in the Jordan Valley of a well-built village with painted plaster walls may represent transitional developments from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic…

Rock reliefs at Tang-e Sarwak, Bīsitūn, and elsewhere reveal one salient characteristic of Parthian design—that is, the preference for “frontality” or, as one scholar describes it, “the tendency for the figures to ignore one another and to face the spectator with an unblinking stare.” Frontality…

…some 25,000 prehistoric and historic petroglyphs (rock carvings), central New Mexico, U.S. It is situated on the west side of Albuquerque, near the Rio Grande. In addition to the petroglyphs, there are hundreds of archaeological sites (including the Piedras Marcadas Pueblo Ruin), five volcanic cones, and two detached parcels of…

Prehistoric rock carvings have been found in the southern foothills of the Atlas Mountains south of Oran and in the Ahaggar and Tibesti ranges. While some are relatively recent, the great majority appear to be of the Neolithic-of-Capsian tradition. Some show animals now locally or even…

…includes pictographs (drawings or paintings), petroglyphs (carvings or inscriptions), engravings (incised motifs), petroforms (rocks laid out in patterns), and geoglyphs (ground drawings). The ancient animals, tools, and human activities depicted often help shed light on daily life in the distant past, though the images are frequently symbolic rather than representative.…

…of Sāsānian sculpture are the rock reliefs scattered over the territory of the empire; there are more than 30 in Iran alone. Their style and content reveal a facet of art history that can do much to clarify the interaction of Eastern and Western ideas at this time. The scenes…

…for a majority of the petroglyphs, and polishing and grinding the rock surface with small hard rocks. Most of the engravings show animals, typically in profile, giraffes accounting for 40 percent of all petroglyphs. Rhinoceros, zebra, oryx, ostrich, and cattle images also appear in abundance, but human figures are few…