Enhanced image of monumental rock art on Cerro Pintado, Venezuela.
Philip Riris
Archaeologists have amassed a huge database of giant engravings in South America.
Julien Cooper
The theme of cattle in ancient rock art is one of most important pieces of evidence for a bygone age of the “green Sahara”.
The western passage of the Umm Jirsan lava tube.
Green Arabia Project
New research reveals signs of ancient human habitation in a vast cave beneath the Arabian desert. It may have been used as a waystation by Stone Age herders travelling from one oasis to another.
Ian Moffat
Rock art directly represents how our ancestors saw the world. A new approach involving the history of the landscape brings fresh meaning to Arnhem Land rock art.
Elephants communicate underground by generating seismic waves.
Anadolu Agency
Elephants can be viewed as geological engineers that create minor tectonic forces on the substrate they walk on.
Andriamamelo cave art panel.
Author provided
Rock art from a Malagasy cave hints at some remarkable cultural connections.
Maria Guagnin, Michael Petraglia
A close look at 7,000-year-old grinding stones left in ancient firepits shows wandering herders in northern Saudi Arabia carried heavy tools for working on bones, plants and rocks.
Cakase Kruiper, a San elder, explains her connection to the cosmos in the film !Aitsa.
© Dane Dodds and Med_Cine
To the ǀXam and San people, being in the world as a person includes “the sky’s things” - an understanding of and deep connection with the cosmos.
Andrea Jalandoni
New dates for the rock art in the Gua Sireh cave in Malaysia reveal resistance to frontier violence between 1670 and 1830.
Images of one-horned rain-animals have been found in the northern parts of the Eastern Cape province.
Courtesy David M. Witelson
Some explorers believed they had found unicorns depicted on rocks. The truth behind the paintings is far more interesting.
The view from the Arnhem Land escarpment over the floodplains that contain a hidden landscape.
Ian Moffat
Beneath the floodplains of Arnhem Land lies a hidden landscape that has been transformed over millennia as seas rose and fell.
Archaeologists excavate inside and outside Little Muck Shelter, in the Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa.
Photo: Tim Forssman
Hunter-gatherers were an important part of the development of the Mapungubwe Kingdom in southern Africa – a fact that history has tended to neglect.
After colonial contact, indigenous Africans acquired horses and guns, and raided settlers as a means of resistance.
Courtesy Sam Challis
Changes in southern African rock art reflect the mixing of groups of people after they came into contact with each other.
A replica of the famous Linton Panel.
Courtesy Rock Art Research Institute/Origins Centre
A new exhibition in Johannesburg focuses on the beliefs and paintings of the San people.
An example of the rock art created by young Samburu men.
Photo: Ebbe Westergren
Instead of displaying myths, Samburu rock art reveals real-life stories and is made as a leisure activity.
Chiribiquete National Natural Park and the Serranía de la Lindosa buffer zone feature many flat-topped mountains known as Tepuyes .
Unesco
Local communities and national authorities are working to develop sustainable tourism in Colombia’s Chiribiquete National Natural Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2018.
Indigenous Rangers pointing to damaged rock art. Left to right: William Campbell, Meryl Gurruwiwi, Aron Thorn, Marcus Lacey, Djorri Gurruwiwi.
Jarrad Kowlessar/courtesy of Gumurr Marthakal Indigenous Rangers
Cyclones, floods and other climate change-linked events are threatening Indigenous heritage tens of thousands of years old. Unless we act, they’ll be gone for good.
Traditional Owner and co-author Clinton Walker.
City of Karratha
A major fertiliser plant is set to be constructed in the Pilbara, potentially impacting as many as 20 ancient rock art sites.
Josie Maralngurra touching her hand stencil made when she was around 12. In the background are three white barramundi fish figures with red line-work also created by her father Djimongurr.
Photograph by Fiona McKeague, copyright Parks Australia
Australia’s stunning galleries of rock art are vast repositories of knowledge that can teach us much.
Adventurer Francis Birtles in his car with a man identified as Indigenous artist Nayombolmi.
National Library of Australia
One was a celebrity adventurer, the other was a skilled Indigenous artist who painted everything in sight. A new look at old photographs confirms their meeting.