Left: Neolithic carvings such as this have been found all over the North East.
It sounds like something to order at a gallery cocktail party, but Art on the Rocks is in fact an examination of Prehistoric rock art in Northern Britain.
Old Fulling Mill Museum of Archaeology is, until September 30, taking an in-depth look at the character and meaning of the North East's prehistoric rock carvings.
No one is entirely certain why our ancestors did it or exactly what it was they were depicting, but one fact is clear, Neolithic humans in the early Bronze Age used the landscape around them as a canvas for their images and symbols.
"The study of rock art is important because nobody really knows what it means," explained Lindy Brewster, Curator at The Old Fulling Mill.
Right: the carved stone gathers no moss.
"There is a lot of interpretation, the carvings could be maps or boundary markings and by studying rock art archaeologists can find out more about the landscape."
The exhibition details the artistic motifs, such as the famous 'cup and ring' and 'spiral' markings and aims to explain the archaeological significance of the art.
In particular the issues of dating, recording, conserving and managing rock art sites are raised in reference to the considerable amount of finds in the North East.
County Durham, Yorkshire and Northumberland have yielded many examples of rock art, which doesn't mean that elsewhere there isn't the volume, but that in this area little quarrying and a keenness to discover has led to greater conservation.
Left: "The study of rock art is important because nobody really knows what it means," Lindy Brewster, Curator, Old Fulling Mill.
The Duke of Northumberland began this process of discovery and preservation in the 1860s, encouraging his farm-holding tenants to do the same.
As well as displaying its own artefacts the Museum has borrowed archaeological exhibits from The Bowes Museum and Alnwick Castle Museum.
