rock art

Ancient or prehistoric drawing, painting, or similar work on or of stone. Rock art 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. Sometimes a single site may have art that dates from several centuries. Rock art may have played a role in prehistoric religion, possibly in connection with ancient myths or the activities of shamans. Important sites occur in southern Africa, Europe, North America, and Australia.

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