Have you found a stone age picture?Sophie (7)

Hi Sophie,

I love Stone Age art! It is one of my favourite subjects. But alas, I have never personally found some, it is very rare after all.

I have, however, visited a few places where some can be seen. Last year my summer holiday was to the Mull of Kintyre and whilst there I visited Killmartin Glen where there are several petroglyph sites. A petroglyph is where a picture has been carved in to the surface of the rock (see my picture below)

Then there are cave paintings… We know of some fantastic Palaeolithic (old Stone Age) sites such as those at Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain where there are incredible paintings of bison, horses, ibex and other prey animals.

Personally, I have been lucky enough to visit some of the most famous rock shelter sites in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Here I visited some wonderful places and saw some art that may date back 6,000 years or more! I’ve included a picture below of some of the figures that I saw. Absolutely amazing!

Hope you get to find some!

Phil

Answered by:

Phil Weston

After almost 20 years in field archaeology, Phil finally hung his trowel up and he became a Cultural Heritage consultant with Arcadis. In this role Phil uses his archaeological knowledge to help major developers gain planning permission for huge infrastructure projects. He still remembers his days in the trenches fondly and his favourite sites were an Iron Age village in Sawtry, Cambridgeshire and a Neolithic henge on Anglesey.

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