This blog is created to help you find great rocks and learn how to care for them. The first section of this blog will discuss the history of rock art and rock collecting. The second section will teach you how to polish rocks and clean rocks that you have purchased. This blog is a great source of information for anyone interested in learning about how to clean, polish, and take care of their rocks.

**History:** Rock art began about 40,000 years ago with paintings on cave walls. Paintings would later be found on walls in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, but it wasn’t until the late 19th century that people started finding paintings on rocks.

The first man credited with discovering rock art was British doctor David Livingstone in 1851 while he was exploring South Africa’s Kalahari Desert (aka “the desert of death”). Livingstone wrote about his discovery in a letter which read: “I noticed a curious disfigurement over the door in the form of humps resembling horns or ears projecting above each hinge.” [1] He said that he borrowed tools from his swineherd and dug around the edge of the rock until he exposed a painting of a giraffe.

The next person to discover rock art was W.H.I

“The use of paint in rock art is one of the most challenging and frustrating problems facing the conservator of rock art. This is because paint is inherently unstable when it comes into contact with a rock surface.

Colorants are organic, and therefore susceptible to degradation by moisture in the air, often resulting in their loss or fading over time. Paint itself is a medium that acts as a binder for the pigment particles, keeping them from falling off the rock face, but also compromising the integrity of the rock surface itself. The drying out of paint on a rock face can cause small cracks to appear radiating outward from where the pigment was originally laid down on the stone. These cracks may be very fine or large enough to completely split open the rock face.”**

-**Paintox**

Paintox is a blog about how to clean rocks using different methods and products. It covers different types of rocks, along with what products can be used on those particular rocks. The blog also includes tips on how to best clean and polish rocks.

The history of rock art is one of the most intriguing topics in archaeology, which is why we have devoted an entire page to it. We cover how archaeologists date rock art, how they interpret it, and how to take care of your rocks if you collect them.

This page has been written for those who are interested in learning about the history of rock art, the methods used to analyze the many different styles and types of art, and how to take proper care of these cultural treasures if you are lucky enough to own any yourself.

**It is important to keep in mind that these are just tools for dating your rock; they do not inherently prove that it was made by a certain group of people or even necessarily that it dates back thousands or millions of years.**

Rock Art Dating Methods:

The earliest techniques used to date rock art were based on the physical characteristics of the rock itself. Scientists would look at the patina and mineral deposits on the surface of a piece and attempt to pinpoint its age by comparing it with similar canvases. This process proved difficult because every site was different and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to why one canvas developed differently than another.

A more reliable method was developed in 1981 by French archaeologist Henri Bre

Rock art is a very diverse category that includes many different kinds of images. A rock art image may be carved on a rock, painted onto it, scraped or rubbed into the surface, incised or abraded into the surface, or pecked or ground away from the surface.

Treatment methods may be as varied as the images themselves. The first step in any treatment method is to clean the piece and remove as much of its surface as possible. This can be accomplished using a soft brush and soapy water, but if there are any delicate carvings that you wish to preserve, use a soft toothbrush and water without soap. Once you have cleaned off the dirt and debris from your piece, you may notice that more subtle damage has occurred to your rock art. It may have been broken by vandals, it may have been broken during transportation from its original location to its current home in your museum; even if it was kept safe at all times, it may simply need some minor conservation work to help preserve it for future generations.

If your rock art has sustained any visible damage that you would like to repair, look into epoxy-based glues. These can be used with care on any type of rock art and will not discolor

Hi, my name is Debra Martin Koma and I am a Rock Art Historian. I have been studying and cleaning petroglyphs for over 20 years. If you are interested in having me work on your stone please contact me at: debra@rockartcleaningservice.com

I clean both petroglyphs and pictographs, but my specialty is petroglyphs in carved hard stone like sandstone and limestone.

I am not the only rock art cleaner in the world, but I do feel that I am the best. This is because of my training, experience, and techniques developed over 20 years of cleaning rock art professionally. In addition to this blog, I have written two books on rock art cleaning, “Caring for Your Petroglyphs” and “Caring for Your Pictographs”, which are available at http://www.rockartcleaningservice.com/

Rock Art, or petroglyphs, are among the earliest forms of decoration in human history. The first method of decorating rock with petroglyphs is the oldest form of art known to mankind. It dates back to the Neolithic period (8,000-5,000 BC).

The term “rock art” is used for all markings made on rock surfaces. This includes: paintings (pictographs), drawings (petroglyphs), and carvings (engravings). It also includes natural markings such as weathering, cracks, and holes.

Rock art is a popular topic in the anthropological world. The field of study that involves the history and practice of rock art is rock art analysis. Rock art analysis is not to be confused with the analysis of rock music or other types of popular music.

There are many different types of rock art, each created by a different civilization and time period. There are Neolithic petroglyphs (rock carvings), ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic paintings on rocks, prehistoric cave paintings, and many more.

Rock art can tell us about the culture and religious beliefs of the people who made it, as well as their everyday life, what they hunted and gathered for food, etc. We can also learn about their death rituals, the burial process and how they buried their dead. This can be particularly interesting when viewing prehistoric cave paintings because we discover aspects of their culture before they had writing or symbols.

There are many ways to learn about rock art. Many texts have been written on the subject; in fact some books are written entirely on rock art (see References below). One way to learn more is to visit a museum that displays examples of rock art. Museums usually have an expert on-hand to answer questions and assist visitors with understanding the pieces.”