The rock was put there by art prankster Banksy, who has previously put works in galleries in London and New York. A British Museum spokeswoman said they were "seeing the lighter side of it". She said it went unnoticed for one or two days but Banksy said three days ... BBC News
Many
generations after they were etched into the sides of trees, the faces
created by unknown Moriori artists on the Chatham Islands still seem to
speak to us.
The faces, full bodies and other designs on living trees cannot be more than a century or two old.
Many
may have been carved after 1835, when 900 Atiawa people from Wellington
invaded the Chathams, killed about 300 of the Moriori and enslaved the
rest - around 1500 to 2000 people.
In the quiet forests where
only the roar of the sea breaks the silence, it is easy to imagine
those sad survivors etching their designs on to the kopi (karaka)
trees, perhaps to pass on their memories to their children ... New Zealand Herald
Uranium-series dating shows cave engravings oldest in Britain.
A team of scientists from Bristol, The Open and Sheffield Universities have proved the engravings at Creswell Crags to be greater than 12,800 years old, making them Britain's oldest rock art.
An overdrawn photo of the stag engraving in Church Hole (Photo: Sergio Ripoll).
Creswell Crags which straddles the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border is riddled with caves which have preserved evidence of human activity during the last Ice Age. Recently, engravings on the walls and ceiling were found by archaeologists.
These engravings depict animals such as the European Bison, now extinct from Britain, and other more enigmatic figures. The nature and style of these engravings led archaeologists to wonder if this art was perhaps older than any existing art in Britain ... EurekAlert!
A recent survey of moorlands to the north of Ilkley in Yorkshire (England), has led to a number of previously undocumented archaeological sites being found. Particularly at Middleton Moor, where Paul Bennett and Richard Stroud - authors of the survey - discovered in the area more than twenty cup-and-ring carvings. Several cairns, and possible standing stones, Neolithic walling, hut circles and a long-suspected prehistoric enclosure have also been discovered ... Stone Pages Archaeo News
German archaeologists have given about 2 000 copies of rock art paintings, including the renowned White Lady of the Brandberg Mountain, to Namibia to help preserve the ancient art.
Experts from the University of Cologne launched a research project in 1963 to record the rock art by copying the drawings onto foils including the so-called White Lady, a figure in white leggings carrying a lotus flower that is said to be 2 000 years old ... News24.com
An archaeologist in India has suggested that the rock paintings at Bhimbetka are as old as the oldest rock paintings known in the world, making them 25,000 years old ... Stone Pages Archaeo News
Archaeologists working in the hills of Peru's southern coastal desert have discovered a group of giant figures scraped into the earth.
The site covers an area of around 90 square miles close to the city of Palpa, approximately 220 miles south-east of Lima. Around 50 figures, which were made by clearing darker rocks from the desert surface to expose the lighter soil underneath, have been identified, including human figures and animals such as birds, monkeys and cats. They are believed to have been created between 600 and 100 BCE by members of the Paracas culture ... Stone Pages Archaeo News
The meaning of Ice Age art has been endlessly debated, but evidence is increasing that some was religiously motivated, says Paul Bahn.
At least 70,000 years ago, our ancestors began to adorn their bodies with beads, pendants and perhaps tattoos; by 35,000 years ago, they had begun to paint and engrave animals, people and abstract motifs on cave walls, like those in Lascaux, France, and Altamira in Spain. They sculpted voluptuous figurines in ivory or stone, such as the Venus of Willendorf.
Ever since Ice Age art began to be discovered a century ago, people have wondered what it meant. How could we understand what these early artists were trying to express? Many theories have been put forward – "art for art's sake", totemism, hunting magic and so on ... Telegraph
Another piece of the puzzle concerning the prehistory of the Davis Mountains area is being studied by a team of volunteers who are recording a Native American rock art site ... Stone Pages Archaeo News
The deadly tsunamis that crashed into southern India have unearthed priceless relics, including two granite lions, buried under sand for centuries, archaeologists say ... Archaeology - Topix.net
