Sunday, May 24, 2009

Kariong Hieroglyphics

The following series of photos of the Kariong Hieroglyphics were taken on the 5th May 2003 and were the result of a couple of months of investigation into these rock carvings.

Countless websites exist to debate the authenticity of these carvings and the official and archaeological view is that they are modern day fakes and were created in the last 80 - 100 years.

Regardless of the authenticity they are still a unique and interesting part of the history of the Central Coast area and are well worth a visit.

The carvings can be accessed via the Kariong Trig point which is reached via a fire trail starting at Woy Woy Road. Once you reach the Trig the carvings are slightly further down the slope.

The carvings are situated in a steep sided crevasse between two large blocks of stone and are entered via a duck-under from the main track. This can be identified via the well worn stone at the entrance (the area gets many visitors these days).Once inside the crevasse you can see the hieroglyphs carved into both rock walls. Whoever carved these glyphs were very busy over a number of years.

At the top of the crevasse under a large rock resting across the crevasse was a hole which reportedly descends underneath the boulders to a chamber. Many have speculated on the origin of the chamber.
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3 comments:

  1. hi dave,
    my name's Tia. I hope you do not mind that I have used two of your photographs from this blog that I found while searching "kariong" on google. It is for a "save the sacred land at kariong" facebook group page, as a developer is trying to develop homes there so there is a campaign against this happening!
    if you have any other photos you would be happy for us to use, please contact me at k_tia@ymail.com
    i know i should have asked you before using them- please let me know if this isn't ok!

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  2. Hi DAve,

    Great to see an accurate report on this as I've been having a good chuckle at the facebook group mentioned above. I'm okay with 'Save the interesting rock carvings' but I think 'sacred' is a very long bow to draw and potentially offensive to indigenous people.

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  3. Anonymous, although my post refers to the 'heiroglyphs' at Kariong there are quite significant indigenous carvings in the vicinity and these would also be impacted by the development.

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