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CategoriesRock art sites
Paintings and engravings from the deepest human past.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Archaeological wonder
Nigerian Iron Age (1500 BCE–500 CE) · Nok
Waterlogged pit yielding 25 in-situ Nok heads 900 BCE–500 CE and early 550 BCE iron knives.
🇹🇭 Thailand · Archaeological wonder
Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Hoabinhian 12000–7500 BCE · Hoabinhian (northwest Thailand hunter-gatherer, proto-Austroasiatic?)
Hoabinhian hunter-gatherer cave (c.12000–7500 BCE) in the Shan Hills karst near Pang Mapha, Mae Hong Son — type-site where Chester Gorman (1966) defined Hoabinhian.
🇦🇷 Argentina · Rock art
Middle–Late Holocene (Pampa–Patagonian transition 5000 BCE–1500 CE) · Patagonian–Cuyo hunter-gatherer → Agrelo (Mendoza)
Basalt boulder field (5,000–500 BP) along Atuel River canyon 60 km south of San Rafael, Mendoza: >800 petroglyphs pecked on 3–5 m basalt columns produced by Pleistocene Atuel volcanics, featuring…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Rock art
Neolithic to Middle Holocene (6000–1000 BCE) · Saharan Neolithic pastoral
1,940-m granite triple-border massif with Karkur Talh 25 km and bovid-hunter rock art 6000 BCE.
🇲🇷 Mauritania · Rock art
Neolithic to Pastoral (6000–1000 BCE) · Neolithic pastoralists / Libyco-Berber
Adrar plateau quartzite guelb rock engravings west of Atar with Neolithic interdune settlement.
🇺🇸 United States · Rock art
Paleo-Indian (Clovis, ~12,700 BP) · Clovis (Paleo-Indian)
Only Clovis burial (12,600 BCE) — 18-month child with 112 ochre-stained tools and first Paleo-Indian genome, Montana.
🇿🇲 Zambia · Rock art
Later Stone Age to Iron Age (2000 BCE–1500 CE) · Batwa / Bantu
700 Later Stone Age paintings at Mwela Rocks near Kasama — Kasama–Isoka bush gallery.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Middle to Late New Kingdom and beyond (2100–1000 BCE cult) · Ancient Egyptian
420-m natural pyramid capping Thebes, shaping Valley of Kings orientation as Ta Dehent.
🇬🇷 Greece · Rock art
Upper Paleolithic to Neolithic (c.38,000–3000 BCE) · Paleolithic–Mesolithic Greek and Early Aegean Neolithic
Franchthi Cave (Upper Paleolithic to Final Neolithic c.38,000–3000 BCE) is a vast 30-m wide limestone cavity on the Koilada Bay cliff 10 m above the now-submerged plain, containing a 5-m stratified…
🇸🇪 Sweden · Megalith
Bronze Age · Nordic Bronze Age (Bohuslän rock art tradition)
UNESCO Bohuslän rock art — 600 panels / 2500 pecked figures (ships, sun, ploughs) on granite, 1700–500 BCE.
🇱🇾 Libya · Rock art
Libyan to Roman (500 BCE–300 CE) · Libyan / Greek / Hellenistic
Libyan shaft necropolis with betyl horseman stela and Hooded-figure Karst chambers 500 BCE–300 CE.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Megalith
Early Nordic Bronze Age · Nordic Bronze Age (Scania elite)
Scandinavian Bronze Age masterpiece — 75 m cairn with cist bearing eight slabs of ship and solar carvings, c.1400 BCE.
🇺🇸 United States · Rock art
Pre-Clovis to Late Woodland · Pre-Clovis (Meadowcroft) to Woodland
16,000-year stratified rockshelter (Miller lanceolate horizon) with basketry preservation, Pennsylvania.
🇲🇽 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…
🇦🇷 Argentina · Rock art
Paleo-Indian – Inca (c.10,620 BP – 1532 CE) · South Andean hunter-gatherer → Humahuaca → Inca (Coyas)
High puna painted cave system (10,620 BP – Inca 1450) in Humahuaca gorge: 6 caves (Inca Cueva 1,4,7) at 3680 m with stratified sequence: Fell-type projectile points 10.6k, early paintings of…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
Old to Middle Kingdom (2700–1750 BCE peak Twelfth Dynasty) · Ancient Egyptian
14th nome ridge tombs with Senbi-Ukh-hotep 1970 BCE earliest daily-life genre scenes and pilgrimage frieze.
🇰🇪 Kenya · Ancient village
Middle Stone Age to Pastoral Neolithic (46,000–3000 BP) · MSA → LSA → Savanna Pastoral Neolithic
Mau Escarpment Twilight Cave Enkapune Ya Muto — 40,000-year-old ostrich eggshell beads at 2,400 m.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A–B · Taş Tepeler / Upper Mesopotamian PPN
Taş Tepeler PPN sanctuary with narrative leopard-human-phallus reliefs matching Karahan Tepe phallic imagery.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan · Rock art
Late Bronze Age to Early Medieval · Andronovo, Saka, Wusun, Turkic
Central tributary gorge of the Tamgaly (Tanbaly) UNESCO landscape 170 km NW Almaty, comprising 4.5 km of northwest-facing Chu-Ili schist panels with ~800 engravings.
🇮🇪 Ireland · Megalith
Late Neolithic · Boyne / Loughcrew passage tradition
35 m Loughcrew chief tomb with cruciform chamber whose art is illuminated by equinox sunrise.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Megalith
Late Neolithic · Boyne / Loughcrew tradition (western outlier)
Hilltop 15 m passage tomb with three decorated stones (spirals/lozenges) — westernmost Boyne-style tomb in Ulster.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Epipalaeolithic to Early Ceramic Neolithic · Central Anatolian Epipalaeolithic → Neolithic
Spring-side rockshelter and village where Epipalaeolithic to PPN aDNA links to Boncuklu and Çatalhöyük.
🇰🇪 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.
🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Gravettian–Solutrean ~27–19 ka BP · Gravettian–Solutrean coastal
Submerged 27 ka painted cave 37 m under Mediterranean with great-auk and hand stencils.
