Rock markings – a useful archaeological category?

Africa is, and continues to be, marked by people. These marks are the residue of activities and even indicators of people’s attempts to re-make their world. ‘Marks’ can range from a simple set of footprints such as are encountered at Laetoli, to hectares of stone-walled agriculturalist settlement. We do have a systematic nomenclature for such ‘marks’ that allows for precision of description and interpretation. But we also have lacunae in our nomenclature. There are also cases where a generalised term like ‘markings’ may be useful. This is especially the case in rock art studies. Typically we refer to rock engravings (or ‘petroglyphs’) and rock paintings (or ‘pictographs’), and sometimes even to ‘geoglyphs. But within especially ‘engravings’ there is an under-researched category I term rock ‘markings’. These markings comprise ‘cupules’, ‘engravings’, ‘peck marks’ to name a few. Though inelegant, these terms have done good service. But the increasing volume and sophistication of archaeological research, in which disciplinary boundaries are re-aligning and cultural connectivity is emphasised, has rendered these terms inadequate without an overarching collective term. I propose we reconsider the term rock ‘markings’.

By no means new to archaeology, though not currently deployed in a systematic fashion, using this term would encourage two actions. First, that we re-think taken-forgranted terms and come up with better insights on how a particular mark was made and used. Part of this re-thinking would involve measuring the physical dimensions and contexts of rock markings to establish a reliable reference collection that separates these non-utilitarian modifications of the landscape from utilitarian ‘marks’ like ‘game boards’ and ‘grinding hollows’. Second, the productively feral nature of rock markings allows them to cross sub-disciplinary boundaries like ‘Iron Age’ and ‘Rock Art’ by recognising the multiple authorships and uses of rock markings. I use case studies from Australia, South Africa’s northern Limpopo Province and the Karoo to illustrate the utility of having ‘rock marking’ Embedded in our nomenclature.