Rock engravings

Engraving is a very old technique. Engravings (also called petroglyphs) are made by removing part of a rock surface either by rubbing (abrading) or by hitting (pecking) it with a stone or other object. The earliest petroglyphs were probably abraded grooves. Abraded designs were produced by repeatedly rubbing a soft rock such as sandstone with a harder stone. Pecked designs were made by striking the rock surface with a pointed stone or shell to form a series of small, round holes. The pecked designs took a variety of forms - concentric circles, lines, the outlines of animals, people, fish, birds, weapons, reptiles, animal tracks and mythical beings. In certain engravings (sometimes called pecked intaglio) the whole surface of the picture was hollowed out.

Rock engravings are commonly found in the open on natural rock exposures such as large flat rocks or cliff faces. They can be very large, especially in the Sydney sandstone district where there is a whale 13m long and 3.5m wide. Although most engravings are hundreds or thousands of years old, some that show sailing ships were created as recently as the time of European settlement.