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CategoriesRock art sites
Paintings and engravings from the deepest human past.
🇳🇦 Namibia · Rock art
Later Stone Age to Recent (130 ka occupation; paintings 2000 BCE–1000 CE) · San hunter-gatherers (Damara area ancestors)
2,573 m inselberg with >1,000 rock shelters, including Maack 'White Lady' 2,000 BCE shaman panel and 45,000 individual paintings.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Rock art
Boca de Potrerillos is an archeological site located some 14 km from the municipal head of Mina, Nuevo León, Mexico.
🇱🇾 Libya · Rock art
Iron Age to Hellenistic (700 BCE–200 CE) · Libyan (Berber) / Greek
30+ artificial underground caves 4 m deep with Libyan silhouette art and Greek votive 700 BCE–200 CE.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Rock art
Middle to Late Classic (400 – 800 CE) · Cotzumalhuapa
Bilbao Cotzumalhuapa in Escuintla, Guatemala is a Middle to Late Classic (400 – 800 CE) rock art attributed to Cotzumalhuapa culture.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient village
Monte Albán Late I - IIIb (500 BCE–800 CE) · Zapotec (Monte Albán state – Cuicatlán colony)
Zapotec military-agricultural outpost (500 BCE–800 CE, fortress phase 300–700 CE) crowning Cerro Quiotepec massif at confluence of Río Santo Domingo and Río Grande forming Río Papaloapan: hilltop…
🇲🇱 Mali · Rock art
Early Historic (regional) · Early Historic
Outer Djenné-Jeno Village South — Djenné-Jeno (57-41) at Djenné-Jeno, Mali is a Early Historic (regional) rock art of the Early Historic tradition, built c.
🇲🇱 Mali · Rock art
Early Historic (regional) · Early Historic
Inner Djenné-Jeno Fortress A — Djenné-Jeno (57-49) at Djenné-Jeno, Mali is a Early Historic (regional) rock art of the Early Historic tradition, built c. 800 CE for fortress and associated settlement.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Rock art
Early Historic (regional) · Early Historic
Southern Bayuda Terrace West — Bayuda (57-30) at Bayuda, Sudan is a Early Historic (regional) rock art of the Early Historic tradition, built c. 1800 BCE for terrace and associated settlement.
🇺🇸 United States · Rock art
Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age (30000 BCE–500 CE) · Palaeolithic to Iron Age
Uinkaret — Ancillary Lava Tube Petroglyph North (Arizona) in Arizona, Uinkaret Plateau, United States is a Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age (30000 BCE–500 CE…
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Rock art
Bronze Age (regional) · Bronze Age
Sacred Axum Mound North — Axum (57-45) at Axum, Ethiopia is a Bronze Age (regional) rock art of the Bronze Age tradition, built c. 2500 BCE for mound and associated settlement.
🇰🇪 Kenya · Ancient village
Late Stone Age to Iron Age (8000 BCE–1500 CE) · Kansyore fishers → Elmenteitan herders → Urewe Iron Age Bantu
Stratified river terrace Gogo Falls — Kansyore fisher sequence at Kuja rapids.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Rock art
Early Holocene to Camel Period · Pastoral / Kel Essuf / Tuareg
Arch sanctuary Tin Merzouga bridging Acacus pastoral art to Tassili chariots.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Rock art
Late Bronze to Dzungar · Wusun, Turkic, Mongol-Oirat, Tibetan Buddhist
Upper limestone cliff 35 m above the Ili left bank at Tamgaly-Tas (Kapchagai), 800 m upstream from the famous 17th-century Tibetan Buddhist panels.
🇮🇷 Iran · Rock art
Mesolithic to Bronze Age (c.8000–2000 BCE) · Zagros rock-art tradition (pre-pottery to Bronze)
Lorestan painted cave 40 m galleries (150+ black/red paintings, hunters/ibex, c.8–2 ka) in Kuhdasht.
🇸🇩 Sudan · Archaeological wonder
Early Holocene to Late Antiquity (9500 BCE–500 CE) · Holocene Saharan pastoral / Nubian
1000-km Yellow Nile former tributary with 400 Holocene pastoral scatters 9500–2000 BCE.
🇾🇪 Yemen · Rock art
Byzantine (330–1453 CE) · Byzantine
Bal Piedmont Petroglyph Field in Hadramawt, Yemen is a Byzantine (330–1453 CE) rock art attributed to Byzantine culture.
🇮🇳 India · Rock art
Upper Paleolithic to Medieval (100,000 BCE – 2nd century BCE – 1500 CE) · South Asian hunter-gatherer to early historic
Cluster of about 750 sandstone shelters on the Vindhyan fringe with a layered sequence of paintings spanning Mesolithic hunting scenes to historic horsemen and battle processions.
🇷🇺 Russia · Rock art
The Kanozero Petroglyphs (Russian: Канозерские петроглифы, romanized: Kanozerskiye petroglify) are a set of rock drawings discovered in 1997 on an island in Lake Kanozero in the southwestern part of…
🇹🇭 Thailand · Rock art
Andean Formative (1800–200 BCE) · Andean Formative
Rock Art of Citadel Glen in Buriram Province, Thailand is a Andean Formative (1800–200 BCE) rock art attributed to Andean Formative culture.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia · Rock art
Early Bronze Age (3300–2100 BCE) · Early Bronze Age
Rock Art of Cross-Cliff in Northern Tigray, Ethiopia is a Early Bronze Age (3300–2100 BCE) rock art attributed to Early Bronze Age culture.
🇱🇾 Libya · Rock art
Neolithic Pastoral ~8000–2000 BP · Pastoral Neolithic Saharan
Fezzan escarpment's elephant and giraffe engravings marking Holocene Sahara greening.
🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Aurignacian, Upper Paleolithic (~37,000–33,000 BCE) · Aurignacian hunter-gatherer
Sealed Aurignacian cave above the Ardèche gorge containing the earliest known figurative art, with over 430 animal representations including woolly rhinoceros, cave lions, panthers and megaloceros…
🇺🇸 United States · Rock art
Archaic to present (1000 BCE–present) · Sioux (Dakota/Lakota/Nakota), Oneota predecessors
2,000-year sacred catlinite quarries: 3000 pits in Sioux quartzite cliff plus thunderbird petroglyphs.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Rock art
Late Bronze Age, Hittite Empire (~1300–1180 BCE; refurbished under Tudhaliya IV) · Hittite (Hatti–Hurrian)
Two natural limestone chambers behind Hattusa where 90 reliefs carved into living rock depict the Hurrian–Hittite pantheon procession: Chamber A shows 12 underworld gods, sword-god Nergal and the…
