#rockart — Public Fediverse posts

Historical Rock Art Observations in the Colorado Desert [pdf 22pp] #RockArt #petroglyphs https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Steve-Freers/publication/413526003_Vaqueros_Ladies_Gentlemen_Historical_Rock_Art_Observations_in_the_Colorado_Desert/links/6a89b7ab4c551d12697f2cd8/Vaqueros-Ladies-Gentlemen-Historical-Rock-Art-Observations-in-the-Colorado-Desert.pdf

NASA Color Trick Was Meant for Mars. Now It's Unveiling Rock Art on Earth

https://gizmodo.com/this-nasa-color-trick-was-meant-for-mars-now-its-unveiling-rock-art-on-earth-2000809844

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49645437

#HackerNews #NASA #Color #Trick #Mars #RockArt #Earth #Exploration

The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.... The most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.
-- Albert Camus

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #AlbertCamus #Evil #Ignorance #Murder #Love

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Pictographs #RockArt #NativeAmerican #Utah

The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.... The most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.
-- Albert Camus

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #AlbertCamus #Evil #Ignorance #Murder #Love

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Pictographs #RockArt #NativeAmerican #Utah

The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.... The most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.
-- Albert Camus

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #AlbertCamus #Evil #Ignorance #Murder #Love

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Pictographs #RockArt #NativeAmerican #Utah

The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.... The most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.
-- Albert Camus

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #AlbertCamus #Evil #Ignorance #Murder #Love

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Pictographs #RockArt #NativeAmerican #Utah

The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.... The most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.
-- Albert Camus

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #AlbertCamus #Evil #Ignorance #Murder #Love

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Pictographs #RockArt #NativeAmerican #Utah

"I told people I was a drummer before I even had a set."

Remembering Keith Moon , who died today 7th September 1978

#photooftheday #RockArt #TheWho #photography #music

📸 Barrie Wentzell

#RockArt depicting the iconic #RainbowSerpent, and other large-format #paintings, became far more common in #ArnhemLand after European settlement, reflecting a broad shift in style, materials, and technique.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03122417.2026.2676505?scroll=top&needAccess=true#d1e313 #science #anthropology #archaeology #archeology #art #painting #FirstNations #AboriginalAustralians #australia #NorthernTerritory

A 6.8m Rainbow Serpent with a crocodile head, 29 of them in 27 sq km, and Australia’s only rock art whale with baleen. Awunbarna’s giants were painted as the buffalo shooters arrived. #RockArt #ArnhemLand #Archaeology https://www.anthropology.net/p/why-the-rainbow-serpents-of-awunbarna

Blood may have helped ancient Chinese rock art survive for 2,000 years

Ancient paintings on limestone cliffs in southern China have survived more than 2,000 years of heat, rain, and storms. A new study suggests their unusual durability came from a paint binder made from lime and blood...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2026/08/blood-in-ancient-chinese-rock-art/

Follow @archaeology

#archaeology #archeology #archaeologynews #anthropology #ancientchina #rockart #rockpainting

‘Petroglyph Enhancement’ with Ken Jones (RIP) discussing one of the Photoshop techniques he used to dissect ghost signs and identify content and layers that are invisible to the naked eye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcmURnKlX2w

PS. Here are some posts featuring Ken Jones and his work on the Ghostsigns site: https://ghostsigns.co.uk/tag/ken-jones/

#Ghostsigns #Petroglyphs #RockArt #Photoshop

Grey Cairn carving, Kirkmichael, Perthshire #petroglyphs #RockArt #TheNorthernAntiquarian #RosaCamuna https://www.thenorthernantiquarian.org/tag/rock-art/page/9/

#1359 Stan Beckensall - British Prehistoric Rock Art. Tempus Publishing Ltd, Stroud, 1999, 1st edition.

#StanBeckensall #TempusPublishing #RockArt #Petroglyphs #Prehistory #BookOfTheDay

Happy 77th Birthday to Francis Dominic Nicholas Michael Rossi, OBE . Born today 29th May 1949

"Most of us in this business are insecure little show-offs."

#photooftheday #RockArt #FrancisRossi #StatusQuo

📸 Frank Griffin

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

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#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

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#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

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#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

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#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

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#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

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#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

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#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Volga River Region Archaeology Nº1/55 - 2026

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/03/volga-river-region-archaeology-n155.html

#Archaeology #Prehistory #Protohistory #IronAge #scythians #steppe #Kazakstan #Scandinavia #rockart #paleolithic #neolithic #lithics #materialculture #journals #openaccess

#ArnhemLand #RockArt raises questions about #Tasmanian #thylacines living on #mainland.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-04/thylacine-rock-art-arnhem-land-tasmanian-tiger-mainland/106528418

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-04/thylacine-rock-art-arnhem-land-tasmanian-tiger-mainland/106528418

#ArnhemLand #FirstNations #RockArt #Thylacine

Discovery Reveals 10,000 Years of Rock Art in Sinai.

An Egyptian archaeological mission has discovered a previously unknown site in southern Sinai featuring rock paintings and inscriptions that reveal 10,000 years of history, from prehistory to the Islamic period.

Read more: https://omniletters.com/10000-years-of-rock-art-in-sinai/

#Sinai #Archaeology #AncientHistory #RockArt #Egypt #Prehistory #IslamicHistory #ArchaeologicalDiscovery #CulturalHeritage #MiddleEast #HistoryLovers #AncientCivilizations

Commission I did for @wesleyote
Thank you so much ❤️

My Commissions are always OPEN
I draw everything for you in a short time
https://ko-fi.com/fennekfuchsi
https://vgen.co/fennek

Payment via PayPal or Stripe

Commissions pay my living.
I am thankful for every support ❤️

#furryart #furry #furryartist #sfwfurry #sfwfurryart #coyote #RockArt #DisabledArtist #CommissionsOpen #vgencomm #vgenartist #kofiartist #kofigoal #kofiych #koficommissions #halfbody

The Role of Imagination in Human Evolution

Introduction:

Human evolution is a dynamic, multifaceted process spanning more than seven million years. It is characterized by an intricate interplay of anatomical, behavioral, and cognitive transformations. From early ancestors like Sahelanthropus tchadensis to anatomically modern Homo sapiens sapiens, the hominin lineage has undergone remarkable divergence from our closest extant relatives—chimpanzees and bonobos. While we share over 98% of our genetic material with these great apes, our species is uniquely distinguished by symbolic language, complex culture, technological innovation, and cumulative knowledge.

At the heart of this divergence lies the cognitive faculty of imagination. More than a passive or fanciful capacity, imagination is a sophisticated neurological process that enables the mind to simulate scenarios, project future events, and envision realities beyond the present moment. This paper argues that imagination is not a byproduct of cognitive evolution—it is a driving force behind it. Through the lens of imagination, we examine how humans came to innovate, symbolize, ritualize, and build cumulative culture.

Drawing on evidence from paleoanthropology, cognitive archaeology, and neuroscience, this paper explores the foundational role of imagination in human behavioral evolution. Special attention is given to rock art and symbolic material culture, which serve as enduring and visible legacies of ancient imaginative capacities.

Human Cognitive Distinctiveness and the Origins of Imaginative Cognition

Human uniqueness is evident in both physical and behavioral adaptations, from obligate bipedalism and increased brain size to extended childhood and advanced linguistic abilities. Yet these traits gain deeper significance when contextualized through imaginative cognition.

Consider tool use: while several non-human animals use basic tools, only humans create complex, standardized tools that improve over generations. This capacity demands not only physical dexterity but also the cognitive ability to envision form, anticipate function, and mentally model outcomes—clear indicators of imagination in action.

Richard Wrangham’s cooking hypothesis (2009) offers a useful framework. Mastery of fire allowed early hominins to cook food, increasing its digestibility and nutritional value. This shift reduced the metabolic demands of the gut, freeing up energy for brain growth. However, fire itself is not self-evidently useful. It required early hominins to imagine its potential applications, overcome fear, and experiment. This interplay of creativity, risk assessment, and problem-solving exemplifies the evolutionary utility of imagination.

Imagination also enabled social and symbolic behaviors such as ritual, storytelling, and cooperation beyond kin networks. These capacities enhanced survival by fostering group cohesion and transmitting shared knowledge. Language, myth, and culture are each sustained by the ability to imagine alternative realities and shared mental models.

Evolutionary Deep Time: Rethinking the Timeline of Imagination

Recent archaeological discoveries have significantly altered our understanding of when imaginative behavior emerged. The Lomekwi 3 site in Kenya revealed lithic tools dated to 3.3 million years ago, predating the genus Homo and suggesting that australopiths or even Paranthropus engaged in intentional flake production (Harmand et al., 2015). These findings challenge the assumption that tool-making began with Homo habilis and reveal deeper evolutionary roots for imaginative cognition.

Tool-making is not a purely mechanical task—it requires foresight, planning, and mental simulation of cause-effect relationships. These are foundational components of imagination. Early tool industries like the Oldowan and Acheulean reflect increasingly complex conceptual templates, passed down across generations and refined over time.

Similarly, the emergence of symbolic behavior—once thought to appear exclusively in Upper Paleolithic Europe—is now recognized in much older contexts. Ochre markings from Blombos Cave (ca. 75,000 BP), perforated shell beads from North Africa (ca. 82,000 BP), and abstract engravings from Trinil in Java (possibly 500,000 BP) suggest that early humans, and possibly other hominins, engaged in symbolic expression much earlier than previously believed.

These artifacts indicate the presence of what neuroscientist Andrey Vyshedskiy (2020) terms “prefrontal synthesis”—the conscious combination of mental representations to create novel imagery. This ability underpins language recursion, hypothetical reasoning, and the mental flexibility to imagine new scenarios.

Imagination, therefore, was not a sudden leap unique to Homo sapiens. It was a mosaic development, with roots extending into the Pliocene, and gradually expanding the behavioral and cognitive repertoire of our ancestors.

Rock Art: The Archaeology of the Imagination

Perhaps no evidence of imagination is more vivid and lasting than prehistoric rock art. From the painted caves of Chauvet and Lascaux in France to the hand stencils in Sulawesi and Arnhem Land’s x-ray figures, rock art offers a direct material record of early human cognition.

These artworks are not mere decoration. They reflect symbolic thinking, abstraction, and shared cultural narratives. The recurrence of motifs—handprints, animals, geometric patterns, therianthropes—suggests the existence of a visual language through which ancient humans communicated identity, belief, and memory.

Notably, rock art appears globally across vastly different environments and epochs. In Africa, sites such as Blombos Cave, Apollo 11, and the Namibian Brandberg demonstrate symbolic marking by early modern humans. In the Sahara, Neolithic depictions of cattle cults and social gatherings reveal the imaginative worlds of pastoralists. In Australia, Aboriginal traditions continue to reflect Dreamtime cosmologies through intricate rock panels that may be tens of thousands of years old.

Many scholars, including David Lewis-Williams (2002), interpret these works as visual expressions of altered states of consciousness. Entoptic phenomena, experienced during trance or ritual, may have inspired many of the abstract forms and hybrid figures. In this sense, rock art externalizes the internal: it manifests individual and collective imagination onto the landscape.

Furthermore, rock art served a communicative function—transmitting stories, recording rituals, and embedding knowledge in place. It is not only a product of imagination but also a medium for sustaining it across generations. In its persistence and power, rock art exemplifies how imagination became a cornerstone of human culture.

Conclusion

Imagination is not a peripheral feature of the human mind—it is central to what makes us human. From striking sparks to painting gods, from crafting spears to building mythologies, imagination has been a catalytic force in our evolutionary journey.

Recent discoveries continue to reshape our understanding of when and how imaginative behavior emerged. Tool-making is no longer the domain of Homo habilis alone. Symbolic expression appears across multiple continents and hominin lineages. As our timelines stretch deeper and broader, one constant remains: imagination is a fundamental driver of cognitive and cultural evolution.

To study the past is to study the minds that imagined it. Through rock art, tools, symbols, and myths, our ancestors reached beyond survival into meaning. In that leap—the leap of imagination—we find the essence of our species.

References

Harmand, S., Lewis, J. E., Feibel, C. S., Lepre, C. J., Prat, S., Lenoble, A., … & Roche, H. (2015). 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 521(7552), 310–315.

Lewis-Williams, D. (2002). The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art. Thames & Hudson.

Vyshedskiy, A. (2020). Neuroscience of imagination and implications for artificial general intelligence. Research Ideas and Outcomes, 6, e54624.

Wrangham, R. (2009). Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Basic Books.

#Anthropology #BlombosCave #ChauvetArt #CognitiveArchaeology #CognitiveRevolution #CookingHypothesis #CulturalEvolution #CumulativeCulture #HomoSapiens #HumanEvolution #HumanOrigins #Imagination #LanguageOrigins #MentalSynthesis #Paleoanthropology #PrefrontalSynthesis #PrehistoricArt #RockArt #SymbolicThought #ToolInnovation

The Disney-ABC-Time-Warner-Microsoft machine -- exists only because we turn it on. If enough of us turn it off, it is gone. Think of it: It is in your power to plunge Bill Gates into poverty, to send Peter Jennings off to 'Good Morning, Saskatchewan,' to rid the world of Disney-licensed products, to see Martha Stewart and Jerry Springer reduced to talking only to each other. Disconnect now!
-- Michael Kelly (Editor-in-Chief, National Journal)

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #MichaelKelly #Microsoft

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Pictographs #RockArt #NativeAmerican #Utah

Sea Level Rise Drowned A Vast Habitable Area Of North-Western Australia Driving Long-Term Cultural Change
--
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108418 <-- shared paper
--
[By modelling these geographic features, the team estimates that the region could have supported a population of between 50,000 and 500,000 people.]
#GIS #spatial #mapping #sealevelrise #demographics #remotesensing #climatechange #Pleistocene #Sahu #human #occupation #dispersal #archaeology #rockart #indigeneous #aborgines #firstnation #ancientpeoples #paleogeography #drownedlandscapes #Continentalshelf #Sealevelchange #bathymetry #topobathy #SLR #sealevel #sealevelrise #NewGuinea #PapuaNewGuinea #kimberley #arnhemland #NorthernAustralia #WesternAustralia #marine #ocean #innundation #model #modeling #archipelago
#australia #Wallacea #habitation #settlement #civilisation #maritime #economics #ancienthistory #sediment #sampling #geology #holocene