642 MATERIALS TO WRITE UPON BEFORE INVENTION OF PRINTING. 



Fi(i. "). Designs on rock at Tegneby, BohusUln, Sweden. 



ROCKS, CRUDE AND PLANED, BUT NOT DETACHED, 



The rupestriiit' inscriptions, probably the most ancient of all, are 

 found in nearly every ])ortion of the globe, more particularly in Asia 



and P^urope. Those 

 that belong to the pre- 

 historic period a r e 

 traced or eiigi'aved di- 

 rectly upon the rough 

 face of unplaned rock. 

 We may name as ex- 

 amples the cup rocks of 

 riohenstein, at Swan- 

 s e n ( G e r m a n Hol- 

 stein ) ; " the sculptured 

 rocks of Tegneby, in 

 Bohuslan (hg. 5),'' and those of the " Ramsundsberget '' Mountain, in 

 Sodermanland (SAveden). Some of these inscriptions were known 

 in the seventeenth century, for they were copied in 1(527.'' 



The designs and figures engraved upon the granite masses on the 

 banks of the Yuba Kiver in New Aiexico are to be classed in the cate- 

 gor}^ of pictographic Avriting (fig. G).'' 



In central Asia, Egypt, Assyria, and Persia, on the other hand, the 

 rocky surfaces intended to re- 

 ceive inscriptions were care- 

 fully planed and prejjared; the 

 inscriptions therefore stood out 

 very distinctly on the body of 

 the rock. Such is the case with 

 the famous inscription of Be- 

 histoun in the pass that sepa- 

 rates Persia from Mesopota- 

 mia,' the edicts of A^oka, en- 

 graved upon the rock at Girnar, 

 in Guzerat ( India). ^ We nuist 

 not neglect to mention the subterranean temples cut into the rocks," 



o Zeitscbrift f. Ethnologie, Vol. IV. 1872. pi. 14. 



6 Montelius (Oscar). La Suede preliistoriiiue, triul. .7. II. Kramor. StockholJii, 

 s. d., 8°, p. ()4 seq. 



c Revue archeol., 1S7.5, p. l?,! seq. 



^ Siinoniii (L.). De Washington a San Francisco (Tour du Monde. 1S74. p. 240). 



c Morgan (J. de). Mission scientlfiquo en Perso (T. IV). 



/^Berger (Phil.). Op. cit, p. 224. 



.'/Perrot (G.), Chipiez. Hist, de I'art dans ranti(iuitc : 1. Eg.vi)tc, 1,SS2, p. 411 

 seq. 



Fh;. <>. Fragment of a hieroglyphic inscrip- 

 tion made by California Indians on a granite 

 roek. 



