Plasma physicist Anthony L. Peratt (Los Alamos National Laboratory, IEEE Fellow, student of Hannes Alfvén) proposed that many Neolithic and Early Bronze Age petroglyphs worldwide record intense auroral plasma phenomena visible millennia ago. His 2003 and 2007 papers in IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, plus related work, survey patterns across millions of rock-art images from roughly 139 countries. Identical morphological types appear on every continent, indicating a single widely visible source rather than independent inventions. 
Peratt and collaborators argued that the solar wind rose by one to two orders of magnitude for a prolonged period (on the order of a millennium or across the broader Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, ending around 3000–2000 BCE in some accounts). This drove extreme geomagnetic activity and a high-current auroral display visible over large portions of Earth. Site orientation data show a consistent preference for south-facing views, matching relativistic electron inflow at Earth’s southern polar axis and associated proton effects near the north. Forms evolved as current increased, matching laboratory plasma instability sequences. Humans carved the observed structures into rock. 
Peratt specialized in high-energy-density plasmas, Z-pinches, intense particle beams, and nuclear diagnostics. He led the N-Tunnel Diagnostics Program at the Nevada Test Site (1991–1993), participated in high-yield nuclear tests, inspected Russian Arctic sites, and held U.S. Department of Energy nuclear nonproliferation roles. High-current Z-pinches produce characteristic instabilities and radiation patterns. He also studied artificial auroras from high-altitude nuclear detonations (e.g., the 1962 Starfish Prime event, which created striated plasma structures along Earth’s magnetic field). These laboratory and test-range observations enabled him to recognize the same forms in ancient rock art. The morphological match was, in his view, too precise and widespread to be coincidental. 
In a Z-pinch, a strong axial current generates an azimuthal magnetic field that compresses the plasma column. Under the modeled high-current conditions, magnetohydrodynamic instabilities develop: •The column pinches into a stack of toroidal plasmoids (often roughly nine nested or stacked structures). •A thin plasma sheath filaments into a characteristic number of current filaments—commonly ~56 Birkeland filaments—appearing as concentric rings with radial rays or streamers when viewed end-on. •Other forms include “squatter man” or stick-figure anthropomorphs (pinched column with side toroids or bright spots), ladders, masks, and X-shaped separatrix patterns, matching sausage, helical, and diocotron instabilities seen in laboratory Z-pinches and dense plasma focus experiments. These 56-fold filamentation and stacked-plasmoid geometries appear in both high-current laboratory photographs/simulations and petroglyphs from widely separated cultures. Peratt interpreted the carvings as direct recordings of the evolving plasma structures in the sky—synchrotron light and other emissions from relativistic particles in the auroral column. 
If correct, the work reframes a large class of “abstract” or anthropomorphic petroglyphs as observational records of a planetary-scale plasma event rather than purely symbolic art. It links laboratory plasma physics, nuclear high-energy experiments, and global rock-art surveys. Findings appeared in peer-reviewed plasma-science journals and rest on extensive orientation and morphology data. The interpretation remains outside mainstream archaeological consensus; absolute dating of most petroglyphs is difficult, and alternative cultural explanations persist. Peratt’s contribution is the precision of the match between controlled high-current plasma experiments and the worldwide rock-art record, grounded in his hands-on plasma work.