rupestral

rupestral (not comparable)

1. (art, archaeology) Made on or placed on rock surfaces.
   • 1982, William Kendrick Pritchett, Studies in Ancient Greek Topography, page 277,

     Having departed from Sardis and before reaching the mnema of Tos, the traveller saw a monument which was either a free-standing pillar or a rupestral tablet, depending on how we interpret the word.^[στήλη]

   • 1995, Josiah Ober, Greek Horoi: Artifactual Texts and the Contingency of Meaning, David B. Small (editor), Methods in the Mediterranean: Historical and Archaeological Views on Texts & Archaeology, page 115,

     In the course of the last decade, a fair number of ancient rupestral (rock-cut) horoi have been published from various sites in southern Attica.

   • 2008, Harald Haarmann, Joan Marler, Introducing the Mythological Crescent: Ancient Beliefs and Imagery connecting Eurasia with Anatolia, page 14,

     Representational art appears in two major categories: rupestral art (as in the paintings of the Palaeolithic caves) and mobiliary art (also called mobile or portable art).

2. Constructed in rock; made of rock.
   • 2007, Jennifer Larson, Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide, page 82,

     On the north side of the city, just outside the wall, the rupestral sanctuary of S. Biagio consists of a series of artificial caves or tunnels in the rocky hillside.

   • 2011, Ömür Harmaşah, 28: Monuments an Memory: Architecture and Visual Culture in Ancient Anatolian History, Sharon R. Steadman, Gregory McMahon (editors), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE), page 643,

     The sculpted and columnar rupestral tombs of Achaemenid Paphlagonia, the mountainous Black Sea region west of the Halys (Kızıl Irmak), are equally fascinating in their place-making qualities and their deliberate use of the living rock.

3. (botany) Growing on rocks.
   • 1915, Linnean Society of London, The Journal of the Linnean Society: Botany, Volume 43, page 93,

     The rupestral species have been the next class of lichens to suffer from the atmospheric pollution; and the effects are particularly noticeable in the hilly districts in the eastern part of South Lancashire.

   • 1973, James Holms Dickson, Bryophytes of the Pleistocene, page 123,

     By contrast, in the oak woodland on a steep hillside at Keskadale in Cumberland the occurrence is solely rupestral.

   • 2012, Derek Ratcliffe, A Nature Conservation Review, Volume 1, page 78,

     Among the more notable of these rupestral oceanic and Atlantic bryophytes of acidic rocks are the mosses […] .

• rupestrian