Petroglyphs (carved) and pictographs (painted) are found on every continent except Antarctica. Currently, some cave paintings found in Sulawesi are being touted as the worlds oldest, at over 45,000 years. However, only a small fraction of rock art has been dated directly. Most of the time dates are given based on other artifacts which were found in close proximity to the rock art images. Direct dating of petroglyphs is very difficult and rarely even attempted. Many rock art images are easily recognizable depictions of animals and humans. Some images, such as cave paintings found in Europe, are amazingly realistic, while others look more like the drawings of children. Still others appear to be of a more symbolic nature. These images are not easily interpreted. Geometric patterns and shapes, bizarrely distorted humanoid figures, zigzagging lines, circular mandala-like images. These last two images are of the ubiquitous "squatter man" or "stick man" figure. These images, along with all other images on this website are by the author. These squatter man images were taken in southeastern Utah. The interesting thing is that squatter man rock art has been found worldwide. This is a strange fact given that it is doubtful that people thousands of years ago, on separate continents, would have been in communication with one another. There are other types of rock art, besides the squatter man, which are also found in many places throughout the world. There is a fascinating theory which offers an intriguing explanation for many of the petroglyphs and pictographs which are so ubiquitous. Anthony Peratt is a well respected physicist who had been conducting laboratory experiments in high-energy plasma physics. The story goes that he was showing a friend some of the images of plasma formations in the presence of strong magnetic fields that had been produced during these experiments. His friend made a remark about how the images reminded him of rock art images he had seen all over the southwest United States. Peratt did not realize exactly what he was talking about until his friend took him out to look at some rock art images. Peratt was so impressed by what he saw that he soon embarked on a years-long research project in which he cataloged millions of rock art images from around the world. In their article, "Searching for Rock Art Evidence of an Ancient Super Aurora", Peratt and co-author Marinus Anthony Van Der Sluijs say, "Our survey of rock art images over the past decade has taken us to 139 countries, where we have recorded over 4 million individual rock art images . . ." So, these are not merely casual un-scientific observations. His conclusion is that many rock art images are depictions of actual events which were visible in the night sky, worldwide to ancient observers, and that many of the seemingly abstract images are, in fact, accurate drawings of an ancient super-aurora (as in Aurora Borealis, the "Northern Lights" which are the result of charged particles from the sun interacting with the Earth's magnetic field) which was visible in the past but not during modern times. In addition to the article linked above, here is a presentation by Anthony Peratt himself: Peratt's published research: "Characteristics for the Occurrence of a High-Current, Z-Pinch Aurora as Recorded in Antiquity" Below are some rock art images I have collected from Southeastern Utah which seem to confirm Peratt's theory: More rock art here: Petroglyphs & Pictographs
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AuthorCurrently teaching High School Environmental Science and Biology. Archives
March 2024
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