This entry is an introduction to the issue how rock art is linked to historical contexts of Central Asia. The earliest such context is related to the Indo‑Iranians, who lived in the region in the 2nd millennium BC, hence the possible links of petroglyphs to Aryan culture and their mythology are discussed. Images of animals executed in the Scythian style (1st millennium BC) demonstrate that rock art making was also an important cultural practice for the early nomads throughout the whole region reaching as far east as the Mongolian steppe. At the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, rock imagery started to signify the spread of Buddhism, and since the Arab conquest, sites with rock art have been incorporated into folk Islamic ritual practices. Executing images onto stone surfaces has also been practiced in ethno‑historic times. In the Altai, there are depictions of shamans and shamanic rituals while in Uzbekistan there are rock paintings most possibly associated with Nowruz festivals. Contemporary social and artistic re‑uses of prehistoric rock images are also noted.