Rock art

Students will use art materials, drawings, and rock art examples to differentiate between symbol, petroglyph, pictograph, and rock art. They will also interpret rock art to illustrate its importance in the cultural heritage of a people and as a tool for learning about the past.

Objective

In their study of rock art, students will use art materials, drawings, and rock art examples to:

  • differentiate between symbol, petroglyph, pictograph, and rock art;
  • interpret rock art to illustrate its importance in the cultural heritage of a people and as a tool for learning about the past;
  • evaluate the importance of protecting rock art for study.

Materials

Vocabulary

Petroglyph: a design chiseled or chipped out of a rock surface.

Pictograph: a design painted on a rock surface.

Rock art: a general term for the pecking, incising, or painting of designs onto rock surfaces.

Rock art panel: a group of rock art figures.

Soapstone: a type of stone which is soft and easily carved; also called steatite.

Symbol: a thing or design that represents something else.

Background

Indian people throughout North America created rock art in ancient times. Its meaning is mysterious and sometimes controversial. Some archaeologists think rock art is a type of storytelling. Others believe it depicts religious or spiritual beliefs, while still others regard it as solely an artistic expression.

North American rock art is not a true writing system that can be read like Egyptian hieroglyphics or a phonetic alphabet, although some rock art specialists attempt to decode rock art symbols. Archaeologists analyze rock art figures and patterns, and they frequently find that different cultural groups made different styles of rock art. Other researchers analyze legends and information from Indian people to draw conclusions about rock art meanings.

Some Indian tribes have oral traditions about rock art and its meanings. Many Indian people believe that the spirits of the makers reside in what they have created. Therefore, rock art is living, and it has a spirit. Whatever our responses to, or interpretations of, rock art may be, it stimulates our thoughts and imaginations. It expands our awareness of cultural expressions. Rock art can mean something different to each person who ponders it.

Setting the stage

  1. Discuss the meaning of the word symbol and brainstorm examples of symbols meaningful to us today. You may want to use the American flag or the bald eagle as examples to get the students started thinking about symbols and their meanings.
  2. Give each student a piece of paper, a marker or paint, clay, and a popsicle stick or paper clip. Ask them to flatten the clay into a slab and imagine that it and the paper are rock walls. Ask them to carve a symbol of their culture into the clay with the popsicle stick or the paper clip. Have them paint or draw this same symbol on the paper.
  3. Show students the words pictograph and petroglyph. Ask them to determine which word fits which method of rock design and give reasons for their answers. Verify the correct answer and explain that both design methods are classified as rock art. Give them the definitions of the root words prior to determining the correct definitions:
    • “picto,” to paint (Latin);
    • “graph” to write (Greek);
    • “petro,” rock (Latin);
    • “glyph,” carved work (Greek).

Procedure

  1. Project the “Judaculla Rock Art Panel” transparency. Explain that this rock art panel was created by ancient peoples of North Carolina.
  2. Use the following questions to analyze the rock art panel:
    • What words might you use to describe the symbols on this page?
    • Why do you think people created these designs?
    • If there is a message in these designs, what do you think it is?
  3. Using the “Interpretation of Judaculla Rock,” share the various interpretations with the students.
  4. Discuss the ways rock art might be important to archaeologists’ study of ancient people?

Closure

In summary, why is the preservation of rock art important?

Evaluation

Instead of allowing students to answer the last question as a group, require them to answer it individually in a story, poem, essay, advertisement, or song.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Visual Arts Education (2001)

Grade 4

  • Goal 4: The learner will choose and evaluate a range of subject matter and ideas to communicate intended meaning in artworks.
    • Objective 4.02: Discuss and/or write extended narratives based on one's own art.
    • Objective 4.04: Compare work of various artists' styles and cultures.
  • Goal 5: The learner will understand the visual arts in relation to history and cultures.
    • Objective 5.01: Recognize that art can serve more than one purpose and/or function in a given culture.
    • Objective 5.06: Discuss themes which are most important to a particular culture.

Grade 8

  • Goal 4: The learner will choose and evaluate a range of subject matter and ideas to communicate intended meaning in artworks.
    • Objective 4.03: Utilize environmental imagery to create artwork with personal meaning.
  • Goal 5: The learner will understand the visual arts in relation to history and cultures.
    • Objective 5.01: Consider the history, purpose and function of visual arts and analyze their impact on various cultures.
    • Objective 5.03: Compare and contrast relationships of works of art to one another in terms of history, aesthetics, and cultural/ethnic groups.

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 4

  • Goal 2: The learner will examine the importance of the role of ethnic groups and examine the multiple roles they have played in the development of North Carolina.
    • Objective 2.01: Locate and describe American Indians in North Carolina, past and present.
    • Objective 2.03: Describe the similarities and differences among people of North Carolina, past and present.
    • Objective 2.04: Describe how different ethnic groups have influenced culture, customs and history of North Carolina.

Grade 8

  • Goal 1: The learner will analyze important geographic, political, economic, and social aspects of life in the region prior to the Revolutionary Period.
    • Objective 1.02: Identify and describe American Indians who inhabited the regions that became Carolina and assess their impact on the colony.
    • Objective 1.04: Evaluate the impact of the Columbian Exchange on the cultures of American Indians, Europeans, and Africans.
    • Objective 1.07: Describe the roles and contributions of diverse groups, such as American Indians, African Americans, European immigrants, landed gentry, tradesmen, and small farmers to everyday life in colonial North Carolina, and compare them to the other colonies.

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 4

  • Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
    • Objective 4.03: Make oral and written presentations using visual aids with an awareness of purpose and audience.

Grade 8

  • Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives through analysis of personal, social, cultural, and historical issues.
    • Objective 1.03: Interact in group activities and/or seminars in which the student:
      • shares personal reactions to questions raised.
      • gives reasons and cites examples from text in support of expressed opinions.
      • clarifies, illustrates, or expands on a response when asked to do so, and asks classmates for similar expansion.

Science (2005)

Grade 4

  • Goal 2: The learner will conduct investigations and use appropriate technology to build an understanding of the composition and uses of rocks and minerals.