Petroglyphs - Communication Technology (EOTO)

 

Petroglyphs are artworks made with a chisel, and are hammered into rocks to form specific patterns/shape using the lighter layer underneath the outer shell of the rock. The Pueblo people are responsible for approximately 90% of the petroglyph carvings from about 1300 to the late 1680s, according to some estimates. It is easy to compare these works to hieroglyphs, but there are many things that set them apart. The most notable difference is their purpose. While hieroglyphics are symbols used to portray words, petroglyphs are used to represent the culture of the area. These representations can help give us an understanding of the traditions and religions of the tribes in different areas. Monuments with petroglyphs carved into them have different contexts, depending on who crafted them. Some petroglyphs only hold meaning to the person who created it, while others are universal markers that hold meaning to everyone familiar with it. 

As you can imagine, petroglyphs have had a great impact on communication. The invention of a technology that allows for the communication of entire belief systems and sets of values was a huge leap for human society. This unique method of communication allowed tribes to learn about their neighbors without direct or verbal contact with them, something we see a lot today. Think about any website that you put your information on: Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. We are able to tell others about ourselves without ever speaking to them, so as to let them know who we are. Petroglyphs are the first case of this, allowing others to get a feel for who they are sharing territory with. Another great thing to come from petroglyphs is the clarity they provide researchers with so much additional context about the Pueblo people. People who are invested in the different contextual meanings of the artwork have been able to contact the Pueblo people and derive the specific meanings from a lot of them. 

Of course, this technology does not come without negative effects. The social media outlets I mentioned in the previous section are certainly flawed, and their true purpose is often overshadowed by these flaws. Greed, corruption, censorship, and power imbalances have all stemmed from trying to moderate these outlets, and their clarity of purpose becomes blurry. It is so difficult to tell if someone is being genuine at any given time today, and a lot of that comes from the lack of direct communication that exists in the age of the internet. Some may argue that petroglyphs solved the problem of not knowing who you share the planet with, and others would say that we now know too much about each other, and we are only trending downward in that regard. 

Petroglyphs have helped advance communication technology in more ways than one, and jump started the process of modernizing indirect communication. The inventors of petroglyphs were truly ahead of their time, and they had no idea what their invention would eventually lead to. Personally, I am grateful for their innovation, as I enjoy taking advantage of different social media to communicate with people I would otherwise be unable to. The amount of opportunity that stems from the simple process of hammering a chisel into a rock is amazing to me, regardless of the darker sides that have come out of it. I believe we can still refine this technology to make it even more useful and accessible.