petroglyph
(ˈpɛtrəglɪf)
[ad. mod.F. pétroglyphe, f. Gr. πέτρα rock + -γλυϕή carving.]
A rock-carving (usually prehistoric).
| 1870 Athenæum 12 Feb. 233 The peculiar cup-shaped depressions and concentric rings rudely sculptured on certain stones in this locality. In addition to these petro⁓glyphs there are menhirs, cairns, and duns, while crannoges occur in most of the lochs. 1883 E. F. Im Thurn Among Ind. Guiana xix. 403 Richard Andrée..has described and figured a very large number of examples of ‘petroglyphs’, as he calls rock-drawings. 1952 V. G. Childe New Light Most Anc. East ii. 23 Petroglyphs, like microliths, attest hunting over many areas now uninhabitable. 1955 Sci. News Let. 9 July 31/2 The crescent is not a common figure among petroglyphs and pictographs of northern Arizona. 1958 E. A. Armstrong Folklore of Birds i. 10 In the Californian deserts I have seen petroglyphs made by Red Indian initiands. 1972 Sci. Amer. June 91/1 The use of a line to depict a contour may well have been one of the earliest developments in art, as exemplified by the ‘line drawings’ in the pictographs and petroglyphs of prehistoric artists. 1974 Environmental Conservation I. 8/2 The desert is dotted with..fossil remains..of domestic animals whose present range lies well outside the areas of the petroglyphs. |
So petroˈglyphic a., belonging to or of the nature of a petroglyph; petroglyphy (pɪˈtrɒglɪfɪ), the art or process of carving upon rocks.
| In Dicts. |