Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (613 page)

At a general level, any artificially created mark that is cut, engraved, incised, etched, gouged, ground or pecked into, or applied with paint, wax, or other substance (organic or mineral) onto, a rock surface. Within this broad field, the term
petroglyph
is applied to marks made by carving, incising, engraving, pecking, or grinding the rock surface, while the term
pictograph
refers to marks made by painting organic and mineral pigments onto the surface.
The individual marks in rock art are often referred to as
motifs
; groups of motifs in close juxtaposition as
panels
; and places where one or more panels have been identified as
sites
. It is recognized, however, that in making these identifications and using such terminology a structure is being imposed that may not have been known or relevant to the people who made the rock art in the first place. Indeed, use of the very term ‘art’ carries with it a series of assumptions from modern western culture about the nature of the various marks that can be observed.
Rock art is extremely widely spread around the world and appears to have been made since Lower Palaeolithic times for a variety of purposes such as during religious rites, depicting historical or mythological events and narratives, as decoration, or to mark territories and routeways. Dating rock art is often extremely difficult because of its general open and exposed positions and lack of associations. Interpreting the motifs used is also difficult. The most widespread motif is the simple cup or hollow either singly or in groups. Some rock art contains motifs that are symbols, shapes and lines, in other cases people, animals, objects, events, and structures are depicted.
Many different kinds of rock surface have been used in the creation of rock art, but a number of key situations are widely recognized:
parietal
panels are those on the walls of a natural structure such as a cave or rock-shelter;
open-air
panels are those on natural earthfast boulders and rock outcrops that lie unprotected in essentially open countryside;
monument-based
panels are those found on the faces of stones incorporated into the fabric or structure of deliberately constructed monuments—some of these pieces may have been open-air rock art before being lifted and used in monument building; and
mobiliary rock art
where panels occur on the surface of stones that have been relocated from their source and may have been moved several times in the past—essentially portable pieces of rock art.

 
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A tomb constructed by excavating a chamber in the natural rock. Such tombs may be entered directly from a cliff face or by a shaft running vertically or at an angle down from the ground surface above. Such tombs are found in many parts of the world from the Neolithic through into medieval times.

 
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A naturally formed hollow or shallow cave in the face of a cliff or rock outcrop that has been used as shelter for a small settlement or encampment.

 
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Term applied to a type of Mesolithic microlith found especially in northwestern Europe. Rods are rounded forms of microliths retouched along the edges.

 
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Local Fenland name for the ghost of a former river channel.

 
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A term used to describe the battered and abraded condition of flint or stone tools that have been incorporated into terrace gravels or glacial tills after being moved about by fluvial or glacial action.

 
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