Blog 6: The Petroglyph

For my media presentation in this class, I chose to research the Petroglyph. I learned throughout this project that this medium originated in 3500 BC and that it was primarily used by the ancient Egyptians for many purposes such as illustrating real-life events, transmitting information, or even religious or ceremonial events. These were so historically significant because they were the first written, tangible form of communication

While I was browsing Google for information, I came across a Smithsonian article titled "Eight Spots in the United States Where You Can See Petroglyphs". The article states that "while we may naturally think of petroglyphs and pictographs being out west, in reality, they are found in more than half of our country's states and territories—meaning you don’t have to travel far at all to get a glimpse of native history." So while petroglyphs are an ancient art, they can still be found at certain places in our country.

The locations for these petroglyphs vary. One of these can be found on a boulder in San Diego portraying the voyage of the ship San Salvador in 1542. Another 40 petroglyphs are visible at Petroglyph Beach in Wrangell Island, Alaska which were supposedly carved by the Tlingit, an ancient tribe that lived there thousands of years ago. These depict faces, spirals, and a whale, but the situation being portrayed is unclear.

Petroglyphs can also be found at Dighton Rock State Park in Massachussetts. This is a half-submerged rock in the Taunton River that Cotton Mather could only describe as being "filled with strange creatures". This one has been speculated to be from the time of King Solomon's reign described in the Old Testament while others believe it is a depiction of a Portuguese journey in 1511. In addition, some people took it as a warning for anyone who was about to enter the river.

So what do these Petroglyphs show about communication? There is not one definitive way to communicate. The petroglyphs were essentially miscellaneous images that once meant something but are now too abstract for our understanding. On other forms of communication today such as phone calls or texting lack the nuance and/or emotion that can be performed during face-to-face conversation. Another thing that comes to mind is our social media; we only post and follow the content we want while filtering out what we do not want to see of ourselves or the rest of the world. In all these different forms of communication, there is always a little bit of context that is not touched upon.