Petroglyphs are images and designs that are carved into rocks that were used to before any language was popularized. They portrayed a variety to different things like stories, events, plans, and beliefs. They are also extremely hard to make as you has to scratch and engrave lines into the darker outer layer of rock to reveal the light lower layer. Petroglyphs are not the same as pictographs and it's actually because of this destructive creation process that we can still find and discover old petroglyphs, but cant find any old pictographs. The depth and longevity of the petroglyph varies based on the method used. You can either scratch the rock by using a smaller sharper rock to make shallow designs, pecking which uses a hammer and chisel like tool which allows for extremely detailed designs, and carving which uses a larger tool to create large and jagged designs into the rock. Of course the deeper the Petroglyph means that it will last longer. The use of petroglyphs varied greatly, but of course to us all the way in the future their main use was to allow us to experience the culture of the people who created the specific petroglyphs.
Petroglyphs were made by many different people all across the world but most known to Americans would be the Native Americans. For example, at the
Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico there is 17 miles of territory with 25,000 still standing petroglyph designs all made by the ancestors of todays Pueblo people. The petroglyph from this culture show us stories on hunting and gathering but more importantly we see depictions of practices, traditions, and even gods. More often then not a petroglyph will have a symbol that was believed to have religious meaning to their culture. In a more historical sense the petroglyphs in the Rio Grande Valley also explained and depicted the arrival of Spanish settlers in 1540.
Petroglyphs changed communications because it was a way to capture something for a long time for many other people to see and understand. Being able to leave a message or design on the rocks allowed them to remember stories, teach each other about lessons and events, as well as communicate to neighbors or other tribes. Petroglyphs was also used in more aggressive ways to mark territories like threatening and insulting other people. It had so many different and creative uses, it was like a big piece of paper that for their lifetime never get rid of their contents obviously useful for maps, schedules, reminders, and things they constantly needed to be aware of. After petroglyphs the sociability of humans took a big step forward and allowed for more expression. As humans we are beings who function off of social connections especially today with our technology. In history petroglyphs was their ancestors way of to create, strengthen, and manage social connections for survival and prosperity.
