Sydney rock engravings

Sydney rock engravings are a form of Australian Aboriginal rock art consisting of carefully drawn images of people, animals, or symbols, in the sandstone around Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Many thousands of such engravings are known to exist in the Sydney region, although the locations of most are not publicised to prevent damage by vandalism, and to retain their sanctity, as they are still regarded as sacred sites by Indigenous Australians.

They are comparable with the petroglyphs of Native Americans and the rock art found elsewhere in Australia, but have their own distinctive style which is quite unlike rock art found anywhere else in Australia.

The engravings were made by the Aboriginal Australians who have lived in the Sydney region from about 25000 years ago until the present day.

The engravings cannot be dated directly with current archaeological techniques, necessitating the use of indirect dating.

The Aboriginal Australians arrived in the North of Australia around 50000 years ago, but the earliest evidence of occupation in the Sydney region is dated to about 10000 BC, in the Bidjigal Reserve in the Hills District of North-West Sydney. However, dates of over 20000 years have been found in the Blue Mountains, and so it is reasonable to suppose that Aboriginal people may have been in the Sydney region around then, although their settlements have not yet been discovered.

The Sydney engravings are of a style known as "simple figurative", which conventional archaeology dates to the last 5000 years. Other engravings show European sailing ships, and so cannot be more than about 200 years old. The dates therefore range from 5000 to 200 years ago. It is likely that some of the freshest engravings represent the later part of that time range, whilst the most worn represent the earliest part. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that the engravings were sometimes "re-grooved" during ceremonies.

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