IS THERE A WOOLY RHINOCEROS PETROGLYPH IN THE GRAND CANYON?

Wolly rhinoceros. Online image, public domain.

On 10 January 2015 I published a column on RockArtBlog about the Doheny Expedition to the Grand Canyon to record petroglyphs of dinosaurs. In this column I wrote “This expedition was led by Samuel Hubbard, director of the expedition and an honorary curator of archaeology at the Museum (The Oakland Museum, Oakland, California), and accompanied by Charles W. Gilmore, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the United States National Museum. The report on this expedition was written by Hubbard and published on January 26, 1925.” (Faris 2015) I tend to be quite critical of creationists and all of their claims such as ‘dinosaurs and humans living together in history.’ In order for there to be a petroglyph of a dinosaur most people would expect that dinosaurs had to be alive at the same time that there was a human artist to record it. Although there is the possibility that the petroglyph could have been the result of a prehistoric interpretation of fossil remains, that strikes me as unlikely.

The Moab petroglyph, Doheny expedition report, p. 27. Photo by Mr. Kelly of Grand Junction, Colorado, 1925.

The Moab petroglyph as seen today showing re-pecking. Photograph Dell Crandall, 2004.

Then, I continued “On page 27 of the report is the astonishing claim that the petroglyph found along the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, and often called the “Moab Mastodon” is really the picture of a wooly rhinoceros. Hubbard wrote: ‘A PREHISTORIC GAME TRAIL: From the Grand Canyon in southern Utah comes another remarkable petroglyph. This was photographed and sent to me by Mr. George Kelly of Grand Junction, Colorado. The outline of the figure was so faint that he was obliged to chalk it in to secure a satisfactory photograph. There is not the slightest question in my mind that this was intended to represent a rhinoceros. All the ‘rhino’ character is present. The menacing horn; the prehensile upper lip; the short tail; the heavy body and short legs, all suggest a ‘rhino’ about to charge. This is the first time it has ever been known that prehistoric man in America was contemporary with the rhinoceros. I have before me an outline of a wooly rhinoceros sketched by an artist-hunter on the limestone wall of the Cavern of Les Combarelles in France. The difference between the two is that the Cro-Magnon hunter shows the ears of his ‘rhino’ erect and pointed forward, while the American artist shows the ears turned over. I venture the prediction that there was that difference in the two animals.’ The photograph illustrating this claim shows the “Moab Mastodon” as it was prior to 1925. How much prior we cannot know because Hubbard does not reveal when he actually received the photo from Mr. Kelly of Grand Junction, Colorado. What I find very interesting is that this early photo allows us to compare with the same petroglyph as it is presently found. The first time I visited the “Moab Mastodon” I suspected that the figure had been seriously re-pecked as the patina across its torso seemed to me to show a suspicious variability. Indeed, comparing a new photo of that image with the pre-1925 photo suggests that the torso has indeed seen a major episode of touchup. This could possibly be a relic of the conditions under which it was originally photographed, so I cannot claim this to be any kind of definitive proof. The other major problem that I found with the “Moab Mastodon” was that it shows definite toes or claws. Checking those features in the 1925 photo they seem to be even slenderer and more defined. These are definitely not the feet of either an elephant or a rhinoceros.” (Faris 2015) I have elsewhere stated that while I do not believe we will ever be sure, I think that the so-called ‘Moab Mastodon’ is likely a bear with a large fish in its mouth.

So-called Wooly rhinoceros petroglyph in the Grand Canyon. Photograph by Jennifer Hatcher.

Now we have another report of a petroglyph of a wooly rhinoceros, this one actually from the Grand Canyon. In 2020 Ray Urbaniak wrote in Pleistocene Coalition News: “Jennifer Hatcher is a high stamina Grand Canyon, Arizona, rock art photographer whose pictures of rarely-depicted animals I have featured in two earlier articles, with what resembled a saiga antelope and with what resembled a peccary. Jennifer recently sent me a couple of new photos also taken in the Grand Canyon. One photo, which she described as a ‘bison,’ caught my attention right away. However, it didn’t strike me as a bison but I wasn’t sure what else it could be until I noticed what appeared to be a small horn near the middle of what is the presumed ‘head.’ I then thought it looked strikingly like a wooly rhinoceros – and extinct animal known for one long horn on the snout and a smaller horn farther back.” (Urbaniak 2020) The photograph in question shows what appears to be a quadrupedal animal of some sort although quite crudely done as no legs are shown. In the area presumed to be the head on the right there are two projections; a large curled on at the end, and a smaller one a little way in from the right end. I assume Hatcher called it a bison thinking the larger projection was a horn and the smaller an ear.

Wooly rhinoceros from Chauvet Cave, France. Online image, public domain.

Another Wooly rhinoceros from Chauvet Cave, France. Online image, public domain.

We now have one major problem in this identification. All of the references I could I could find agree that the wooly rhinoceros never lived in the Americas. “By the end of the Riss glaciations about 130,000 years ago, the woolly rhinoceros lived throughout northern Eurasia, spanning most of Europe, the Russian Plain, Siberia, and the Mongolian Plateau, ranging to extremes of 72˚to 33˚ N. Fossils have been found as far north as the New Siberian Islands. Even during the very warm Eemian interglacial, the range of the woolly rhinoceros extended into temperate regions such as Poland. It had the widest range of any rhinoceros species. It seemingly did not cross the Bering land bridge during the last ice age (which connected Asia to North America), with its easterly-most occurrence at the Chukotka Peninsula, probably due to the low grass density and lack of suitable habitat in the Yukon combined with competition from other large herbivores on the frigid land bridge.” (Wikipedia)

Wooly rhinoceros image from Les Combarelles Cave, France. Online image, public domain.

So, it would seem that we are faced with two possibilities; either there were wooly rhinoceroses in the Americas and we have just not found the fossil evidence yet, or this is another misidentification of a Grand Canyon petroglyph. For the first possibility, if there were actually wooly rhinoceroses in the Americas people would have arrived before their disappearance so they would have been able to see them, but, lacking any fossil evidence to back that up, I have to assume that this just is another case of misidentification. I will add another possibility to the mix, perhaps, as in the case of the Moab Mastodon, this is also meant to be a bear eating a fish and the smaller projection is meant to be an ear. All in all, it is an interesting question, but I am pretty sure it would not be accepted as proven in a court of law.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter, 2015, Is There a Wooly Rhinoceros Petroglyph Near Moab, Utah?, 10 January 2015, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Urbaniak, Ray, 2020, Possible Wooly Rhinoceros Petroglyph, Pleistocene Coalition News, edited by John Feliks, Volume 12, Issue 6, November/December 2020. Accessed online 30 September 2024.

Wikipedia, Wooly Rhinoceros, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooly_rhinoceros. Accessed online 30 September 2024.

PREHISTORIC SPECIES IDENTIFICATION FROM CAVE IMAGERY:

European Steppe Bison. Illustratuon by Constantine Fierow, 1989, from Pinterest.

I have written previously in RockArtBlog that rock art in general, and cave art in particular, might provide insights into extinct animals that otherwise are only known from fossils. Of course, in the past decade or so, DNA analysis has reached the point that quite an amazing amount of knowledge can be gleaned from those fossils. However, I believe that having good art showing a subject can also help in the understanding of the real creature. A paper published in 2016 by a team of researchers led by Julien Soubrier of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide described the DNA discovery of a new species of bison, only to find it already pictured on the painted cave walls in Europe.

Aurochs. Internet image, public domain.

In 2016 Soubrier wrote that “the two living species of bison (European and American) are among the few terrestrial megafauna to have survived the late Pleistocene extinctions. Despite the extensive bovid fossil record in Eurasia, the evolutionary history of the European bison (or wisent, Bison bonasus) before the Holocene (<11.7 thousand years ago (kya)) remains a mystery. We use complete ancient mitochondrial genomes and genome-wide nuclear DNA surveys to reveal that the wisent is the product of hybridization between the extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus) and ancestors of modern cattle (aurochs, Bos primigenius) before 120 kya, and contains up to 10% aurochs genomic ancestry. Although undetected within the fossil record, ancestors of the wisent have alternated ecological dominance with steppe bison in association with major environmental shifts since at least 55 kya. Early cave artists recorded distinct morphological forms consistent with these replacement events, around the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ~21–18 kya).” (Soubrier et al. 2016:1)

Wisent, the product of hybridization between the extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus) and aurochs, (Bos primigenius). Internet image, public domain.

Over the millennia that early humans inhabited Europe there were swings in climate between glacial and non-glacial which affected the biome. These early humans recorded some of those changes in the images they created.

Painted aurochs from Lascaux Cave. Internet image, public domain.

‘More than 30,000 years ago, early cave artists in what is now southwestern France ventured deep underground into limestone caves, where they painted elaborate and detailed frescoes of the huge animals that dominated their lives. The accuracy of the depictions was remarkable – far better than most of us could manage crouched under a sloping damp wall under the flickering light cast by flaming bundles of vegetation and fat. The paintings record a world of cave lions, mammoth, bison and horses, which we are only just beginning to unravel using the combined technologies of ancient DNA and radiocarbon dating. The results show that despite studying cave art for hundreds of years, we have been blind to some of the important stories the artists were telling.” (Cooper and Soubrier 2016) This is, of course, due to the modern jingoistic assumption that these Paleolithic peoples were primitive and unsophisticated, an assumption that we are finally beginning to understand as seriously wrong.

Painted wisent, Altamira Cave, Spain. Image from newworldencyclopedia.org, public domain

“Our research is a case in point. We have used ancient DNA from fossil bones to deduce the existence of a newly discovered bison species – only to discover that it was already recorded on the walls of caves across Europe, such as in Niaux Cave in southwestern France 17,000 years ago.” (Cooper and Soubrier 2016)

Cave painting of a Steppe Bison from Niaux Cave, France. Image from Bradshaw Foundation.

“Since the DNA from our ancient bones was neither Steppe bison nor wisent, we appeared to have found a new species - or had we? We started referring to it as the “Higgs bison”, because – just like the elusive Higgs boson which physicists spent decades tracking down – we had surmised the existence of something without knowing what it looked like.” (Cooper and Soubrier 2016) This would appear to be the result of a kind of compartmentalization in scholarship, the idea that only we know the truth about whatever it is we are studying. While art historians knew of the differences in the images of bison we did not actually know the cause, while the scientists had hints of the cause but had no idea that the images existed.

Comparative morphology of Steppe bison and Wisent. Image from Soubriere et al., 2016, page 2.

Once the research was made more public other data began to come in that would help clarify the situation. “Dutch colleagues reported that among the many Steppe bison and Aurochs bones dredged from the North Sea they had noticed another, less common, smaller animal. Meanwhile, French cave art researchers replied that they had noticed that among the cave drawings were two distinct forms of bison: a wedge-shaped one with big horns, rather like a modern American bison; and a more evenly shaped animal with smaller horns, like a modern wisent.” (Cooper and Soubrier 2016) In other words, putting the genetic evidence together with the differences in stylistic representation of bison in the caves of southern France and northern Spain the researchers discovered that pictures of the different species actually existed and could be studied.

Cave painting of Wisent, Font-de Gaume Cave, France.

Image from musee prehistoire-eyzies.fr.

The DNA studies of fossil bison from the Paleolithic period indicated that steppe bison and aurochs had interbred and led to the hybrid species of bison and the ancestor of the wisent. “Combined evidence from genomic data, paleoenvironmental reconstructions and cave paintings strongly suggest that the hybridization of steppe bison with an ancient aurochs lineage during the late Pleistocene led to a morphologically and ecologically distinct form, which maintained its integrity and survived environmental changes on the European landscape until modern times. Although further analyses of deeper ancient genome sequencing will be necessary to characterize the phenotypic consequences of such hybridization, this adds to recent evidence of the importance of hybridization as a mechanism for speciation and adaptation of mammals as is already accepted for plants. Lastly, the paraphyly of Bos with respect to Bison, and the evidence of meaningful hybridization between aurochs and bison, support the argument that both groups should be combined under the genus Bos.” (Soubrier et al. 2016:1) The new bison species, a result of hybridization of had been noticed by cave art researchers as a different body shape and horn length. Their question of whether it was a different animal, or a different style of portrayal, was answered by the DNA studies confirming a new bison. In this way both fields, genetics and art history, combined to confirm each other’s findings. How great is that?

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Cooper, Alan, and Julien Soubrier, 2016, How we disovered the ‘Higgs bison’, hiding in plain sight in ancient cave art, 18 October 2016, https://theconversation.com. Accessed online 7 September 2024.

Soubrier, Julien et al., 2016, Early cave art and ancient DNA record of the origin of European bison, 18 October 2016, Nature Communications, DOI:10.1038/ncomms13158, www.nature.com/naturecommunications.

PETROGLYPHS OF OMETEPE ISLAND, NICARAGUA:

 

Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Photograph by Ancient-origins.

There is an isleand named Ometepe, rising out of Lake Nicaragua, in Nicaragua. The island of Ometepe has a large number of remarkable prehistoric petroglyphs as well as carved statuary.

Monkey petroglyph with concentric circles. Internet image, public domain.

Children with a statue of a figure with an eagle headdress. Internet image, public domain.

“Ometepe is an island formed by two volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicaragua in the Republic of Nicaragua. Its name derives from the Nahuatl words ome (two) and tepetl (mountain), meaning "two mountains". It is the largest island in Lake Nicaragua. The two volcanoes (known as Volcan Concepcion and Volcan Maderas) are joined by a low isthmus to form one island in the shape of an hourglass, dumbell or peanut. Ometepe has an area of 276 square kilometres (107 sq mi). It is 31 kilometres (19 mi) long and 5 to 10 kilometres (3.1 to 6.2 mi) wide.” (Wikipedia)

Ometepe petroglyphs. Internet images, public domain.

“The island first became inhabited during the Dinarte phase (c. 2000 BC – 500 BC), although evidence is questionable. The first known inhabitants were speakers of Macro-Chibchan languages. Traces of this past can still be found in petroglyphs and stone idols on the northern slopes of the Maderas volcano. The oldest date from 300 BC. Several centuries later, Chorotega natives created statues on Ometepe carved from basalt rock.” (Wikipedia) According to the local museum (Museo de Ometepe) there are over 1,700 recorded petroglyphs on this island.) But, Julian Smith of Archaeology Magazine has set the number at over 2,000 petroglyphs. It would appear that the original inhabitants produced petroglyphs primarily while the newcomers added sculpture to the list.

Statue and petroglyphs, Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Internet image, public domain.

Petroglyph, Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Internet image, public domain.

“Rock art is abundant throughout the region, and includes petroglyphs depicting geometric motifs, abstract shapes, and images of human figures and animals such as birds, monkeys, and caimans, as well as jaguar paw prints. A 17-year survey of rock art on Ometepe Island led by Suzanne Baker of Archaeological/Historical Consultants identified at least 2,000 petroglyphs at 116 sites.” (Smith 2024:60)

Small anthropomorphic statue and petroglyphs, Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Internet image, public domain.

Petroglyph, Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Photograph by Ancient-origins.

“’Zoomorphic’ figures, on the other hand, are relatively infrequent, and occur in both representational and stylized forms. Of the former, the monkey is said to be the most common motif. Other designs include quadrupeds (infrequent, but tend to be found in complex panels), amphibians such as frogs and toads (infrequent), and birds (rare). Figures of reptiles have also been found. Images of lizards and crocodiles have occurred occasionally, whilst those of turtles are infrequent. Additionally, some figures of snakes are present in the petroglyphs. It has also been suggested that some curvilinear designs may be stylized forms of snakes. Other stylized ‘Zoomorphic’ figures include possible bird heads and a crocodilian figure.

There are also a number of head-like designs that can neither be called anthropomorphic nor zoomorphic. These have been placed by the researchers under the category of ‘Mask-like Forms”’. Finally, there is a category called ‘Miscellaneous Motifs’. These include images of flowers or butterflies, sun-like symbols, calendars, and cruciform figures.” (Mingren  2015)

These last two quotations illustrate the difficulty of using trait lists in describing rock art, Julian Smith (2024) and Wu Mingren (2015) appear to contradict each other in their classifications of the petroglyphs with Smith implying that various categories are quite common while Mingren stating that those categories are rare. From the pictures and other reports, however, I receive a very strong impression that there is a lot of rock art on Ometepe Island and that it is almost magically impressive.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Mingren, Wu, 2015, The Mysterious Petroglyphs of Ometepe, Nicaragua, 3 October 2015, https://www.ancient-origins.net. Accessed online on 11 December 2022.

Museo de Ometepe, 2023, Museo de Ometepe, 25 August 2023, https://ometepeislandinfo.com/Museo-Ometepe. Accessed online 25 August 2023.

Smith, Julian, 2024, Who Were the People of Greater Nicoya?, Archaeology Magazine, March/April 2024, Vol. 77, No. 2.

Wikipedia, Ometepe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ometepe. Accessed online on 12 December 2022.

 

 

 

THE SKY SERPENT IN THE ART OF BAJA CALIFORNIA:

In the American southwest as well as down through Mesoamerica there are found ancient traditions around the spiritual significance of snakes, including the famous Plumed Serpent of Mexico and the American southwest. The area of this cultural tradition includes the peninsula of Baja California.

Cueve de la Serpiente,  Photograph from the Instituto Sudcaliforniano de Cultura.

 Drawing of the panel from Cueva de las Serpiente. Image from the Bradshaw Foundation.

In his seminal volume on Rock Art of the American Indians, Campbell Grant (1981) included a majestic example of the plumed serpent in the Baja. “In the San Francisco Mountains of central Baja California, there is a spectacular plumed serpent sixteen feet long surrounded by black and red men and six deer. We can only guess that the snake deity in this case was somehow related to hunting magic.” (Grant 1981:57) The fact is that we do not have to assume that there was any relationship to hunting magic. The long serpent might well have represented the Milky Way while the deer and men could have been meant to represent constellations. This particular panel is located in what is known as Serpent Cave.

Serpent cave. Photograph from the Bradshaw Foundation.

According to the website of the Bradshaw Foundation “the Serpent Cave - Cueva de la Serpiente falls within the Archaic Great Murals Rock Art tradition, found in the central sierras of the Baja California Peninsula: San Borja, San Juan, San Francisco and Guadalupe. The two deer-headed serpents of Cueva de la Serpiente on the Baja California peninsula are spectacular and practically unique. Today, the right-hand one is complete, with deer-like ears and antlers and a long banded body. The left-hand one has lasted less well and only the head is preserved; the rest of the serpent was painted on a section of rock that fell away. The mural is almost 8 metres wide, with more than 50 diminuitive human and animal figures.” (Bradshaw Foundation)

Serpent cave. Photographs from the Bradshaw Foundation.

“The panel is about 8m long and includes 106 motifs. The composition is led by two fantastic deer-headed snakes. The most complete one reaches up to 4m in length and has an undulating body, small antlers and a fish-like tail. It is surrounded by 45 small human figures of between 16 and 41 cm long. The other one, measures 1.8 m and shows contrasting characteristics: a static attitude, and large six-pointed antlers. In both snakes the mouth is half opened, the body is red with black segments, and a white outline that has been almost completely lost.” (Roberto Martinez et al. 2008)

“In the early 1960s, American author Earle Stanley Gardner was exploring Sierra de San Francisco when he heard about a large painted rock shelter along Arroyo de San Pablo, known among the locals as Cueva Pintada. He visited the site and later made his ‘discovery’ public in an article for Life Magazine (Gardner 1962). That first visit was followed by several visits in company of Californian archaeologist Clement Meighan, who then launched the first systematic study of Great Mural Rock Art. Meighan (1966) had some wood fragments from the floor of Cueva Pintada and dated through radiocarbon. The obtained date of 1435±80 AD suggested to Meighan that the rock art belonged with the Comondu archaeological complex, the last phase preceding the historical Cochimi groups. In several occasions Viñas (1989) and colleagues (Viñas et al. 1986-1989) questioned the assumed age and cultural affiliation of Great Mural Rock Art, suggesting that the origin of this tradition might go back several thousands of years BC. The themes indicated that the rock art was created by scantily hierarchised hunter-gatherer groups whose myths, rituals and beliefs were portrayed in the art. A possible relation with the North American Southwest was also put forward.” (Roberto Martinez et al. 2008) In other words they associated it with the ancient cultural significance of the serpent throughout the American southwest and Mesoamerica.

The Great Snake coiled in the sun, Near the Kumeyaay community of San Jose de la Zorra, Baja, California.  Photograph from Jerome Levi.

The sleeping head of the Great Serpent near the Kumeyaay community of San Jose de la Zorra, Baja, California. Photograph from Jerome Levi.

The Cochimi cultural groups mentioned above inhabited the central portion of the Baja Peninsula. Somewhat to their north, overlapping the border with the San Diego, California area resided the Kumeyaay peoples. According to Jerome Levi the Kumeyaay shared the beliefs that centered the serpent in their spiritual and ceremonial life. They, in fact, had actual, physical proof in the form of a rock formation that was shaped like a gigantic coiled snake “near the Kumeyaay community of San Jose de la Zorra, Baja California” (Jerome Levi 2017) between Tecate and Ensenada, Mexico, and known to the Kumeyaay people as “Maayha-Awiity” which he says translates as “snake of the high water.” (Levi 2017)

Levi (2017) directly associated the painting in Cueva de la Serpiente with Maayha-Awiity, associating both with the widespread cultural beliefs in the spiritual significance of serpents in the Southwest and Mesoamerica. And over this wide area that shares so many spiritual beliefs “the horned serpent is frequently related to celestial elements. In Spiro it bears bird wings, in Mayan pottery decorations it is associated with heavenly deities, in Baja California and the Southwest it often appears above other beings, in Michoacán it is portrayed with a bird’s beak and feathered body, and in Wizard Lake, Ontario, it holds an ascending posture. In these examples, the horned serpent is associated to the heavenly realm. - Sky, water and earth appear to be symbolically linked by the image of the horned serpent. Just as the Chorti and Zapotec think that horned serpents inhabit the sky and the land, in the American Southwest it is said that in its human form, this animal is identifiable under the character and attire of the Hopi god of Heaven.” (Martinez 2008:36)

The Milky Way that I am suggesting represents the Sky Serpent. Image from Reddit.

In my opening paragraphs, I suggested that the sky serpent could well represent the Milky Way. While I do not have any direct citations indicating that, it seems logical, and Martinez et al. (2008) do cite a number of heavenly associations for serpents among cultures of the American southwest and Mesoamerica. The long serpent pictured in Cueva de las Serpiente could easily be seen as the long light streak of the Milky Way across the night sky.

NOTE: One image in this posting was retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If this image is not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Bradshaw Foundation, The Rock Art of Baja California, The Serpent Cave – Cueva de la Serpiente, https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/baja/serpent_cave/index.php. Accessed online 2 September 2024.

Grant, Campbell, 1981, Rock Art of the American Indian, Outbooks, Golden, Colorado, p. 57.

Levi, Jerome M., 2017, Flight of the Sky Serpent, Observations on Yuman-Cochimi Worldview in Relation to Mesoamerican and the Southwestern United States, 26 October 2017,  XXXI Mesa Redonda de la Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.  Online PowerPoint presentation accessed 27 October 2023.

Martinez, Roberto, Larissa Mendoza and Ramon Viñas, 2008, Cueva de la Serpiente: Inerpretive analysis of an Archaic Great Mural Rock Art panel Mulege, Baja California Sur, Mexico, pp. 31-46, from Rock Art in the Americas: Mythology, Cosmogony, and Rituals, Proceedings of the 2nd REEA Conference, Edited by Francoise Fauconnier and Serge Lemaitre, Published by Archaeopress Publishers of British Archaeologiacal Reports, Gordon House, Oxford, England. Accessed online 2 September 2024.

AMAZON DROUGHT REVEALS NEW BRAZILIAN ROCK ART:

Praia das Lajes, Brazil. Image from wikimedia.org.

Online image, public domain.

Rock art that had been submerged in Brazil’s Rio Negro river has now been exposed because of a serious drought in that region that has lowered the water level.

Faces carved in high relief. Online images, public domain.

“Drought in Brazil’s Amazon has drastically reduced river levels in recent weeks, affecting a region that depends on a maze of waterways for transportation and supplies. The Brazilian government has sent emergency aid to the area, where normally bustling riverbanks are dry, littered with stranded boats. According to experts, the dry season has worsened this year due to El Niño, an irregular climate pattern over the Pacific Ocean that disrupts normal weather, adding to the effect of climate change.” (Phys Org 2023)

Low relief faces. Image credit AFP.

Low relief face carving. Online image, public domain.

“An extreme drought in parts of the Amazon has dramatically dropped river water levels, exposing dozens of ancient carvings depicting humans. According to archaeologists, the rock carvings are about 2,000 years old, and the engravings feature anthropomorphic representations of civilizations that inhabited the region. The first documentation of the ancient engravings was made in 2010 during another drought not as severe as the current one. At the time (the) river’s dark waters dropped to 13.63 meters, and now, 13 years later, the Rio Negro continues to break drought records and reveal surprises.” (Bartek 2023) With the petroglyphs exposed by a 13.63 meter drop in water levels we must assume that they were created at a time that the water levels were also down at least this far. If science could produce a climate record for the region that would allow more accurate estimates of the time periods that must have been involved.

Incised square face. Image credit AFP.

“The engravings comprise an archaeological site of ‘great relevance,’ said Jaime Oliveira of the Brazilian Institute of Historical Heritage (Iphan). They are at a site known as Praia das Lajes and were first seen in 2010, during another period of drought not as severe as the current one. The rock carvings appear against a backdrop of dense jungle, with the low brownish waters of the Negro River flowing nearby. Most of the engravings are of human faces, some of them rectangular and others oval, with smiles of grim expressions.” (Phys Org 2023) The question would seem to be are the different forms of faces the result of being produced by different carvers, different time periods, or different cultures?

“For Beatriz Carneiro, historian and member of Iphan, Praia das Lajes has an ‘inestimable’ value in understanding the first people who inhabited the region, a field still little explored. Unhappily it is now reappearing with the worsening of the drought, Carneiro said. Having our rivers back (flooded) and keeping the engravings submerged will help preserve them, even more than our work.’” (Voice of America 2023)

It would seem contrary to logic that flooding the images would protect them but that would depend on the type of rock that they are carved into. It cannot be the relatively soft sandstones and limestone that so much of the North American rock art is produced on. It must be a much harder stone, perhaps volcanic.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

SOURCES:

Bartek, Jan, 2023, Drought Reveals 2,000-Year-Old Rock Carvings In Brazil’s Amazon, 23 October 2023, https://www.ancientpages.com. Accessed online 23 October 2023.

Editors, Phys.org, 2023, Drought in Brazil’s Amazon reveals ancient engravings, 22 October 2023, https://phys.org/news/. Accessed online 22 October 2023.

Voice of America, 2023, Drought in Brazil’s Amazon Reveals Ancient Engravings, 22 October 2023, https://www.voanews.com. Accessed online 23 October 2023.

PALEOLITHIC THAUMATROPES, KIDS TOPS? RONDELLES REVISTED:

Paleolithic rondelles, online image, public domain. 

On 20 April 2019, I wrote a column in RockArtBlog titled “Prehistoric Animation – Paleolithic Thaumatropes?” It discussed one possible purpose for the myriad of Magdalenian bone discs that have been recovered in Europe. At that time I had not seen a paper from a team headed by Andy Needham (January 2019) of the University of York in the U.K. that had decided that these artifacts were most likely spindle whorls.

Paleolithic rondelle, image from hominides.com.

Scapula with rondelles cut out, from Mas d'Azil. Photograph from donsmaps.com, Don Hitchcock, 2014.

“Enigmatic circular discs, referred to as ‘rondelles’ are primarily associated with the Magdalenian, a late Upper Paleolithic period dating to between 20,500  - 13,000 Cal. BP and focused around northwest Europe. Spatially, the Magdalenian is especially associated with Spain and France, regions that were used as refugia during the Last Glacial Maximun (LGM) and from where the culture emerged. However, sites are also reported as far west as Portugal and north as the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium and as far east as Poland. Rondelles are especially temporally concentrated between 14,000 – 13,000 BP, while spatially they are found across much of the Magdalenian range, but in particular southern France and northern Spain around the Pyrenees, as well as to the north and east in Germany and Poland, with clear gaps in the northwest, especially the UK.” (Needham et al. 2019) So, this is likely to have been a Magdalenian cultural phenomenon.

Rondelle from Mas d'Azil, online image, public domain.

Stone rondelle. Photograph from donsmaps.com, Don Hitchcock, 2014.

“Various theories have been put forward as to their use, including clothing decoration and large buttons. These are unlikely primary uses, since all have just one, central hole. If they were meant to be sewn to clothing they would have two or more holes to facilitate attachment, or would have the hole close to one edge if they were meant to be worn as a pendant. As my colleague Ann Dayton first pointed out, (pers. Comm.) December 2014) their most likely use is as the weight (normally called a whorl) for a drop spindle in the spinning of fibers into yarn. This is borne out by the fact that the overwhelming majority have a central hole, all of similar dimensions, 2 to 4 mm, and by the fact that many are not decorated in any meaningful or artistic way, and are also made of other materials (sandstone, slate) than bone. The most likely use for these objects is as spindle whorls.” (Hitchcock 2015) This is obviously a reasonable proposal for the single-hole discs that have a large enough hole to insert a spindle shaft through.

Spinning fiber into cordage, photograph from pinterest.

“The results from the function experiments testing use of rondelles as spindle whorls certainly suggest these objects were capable of spinning a length of sheep wool into yarn, although not dog fur. Given that the whorls rotate centrally around an axis, it is important to their function that they sustain a rotation for a period of time which requires symmetry in the rondelle shape. This ability, to stay in rotation around the axis, is a function of the mass and the distance of the rondelle from the axis, also known as the mass moment of inertia. This, to prevent oscillation, the whorl needs to possess symmetry, both centrally and in its diameter, which makes these variables crucial in the production method. Maintaining symmetry can be difficult to attain where the material is naturally uneven across the surface such as bone.” (Needham et al. 2019) While I am not a weaver or spinner, it does seem that a yarn or thread spindle would need to rotate fairly smoothly, and a out-of-true whorl (not evenly weighted on all sides) would wobble.

“This suggests that knowledge of spindle whorl function, the identification of the crucial technical requirements and the skill to produce the whorl is more important than any one particular production method. Further investigations could utilize different materials such as stone, in order to increase the mass of the rondelle.” (Needham et al. 2019) Up to this point Needham et al. (2019) seems to be arguing that these discs are spindle whorls the next quotation appears to moderate that argument somewhat.

Slate rondelles. Photograph from donsmaps.com, Don Hitchcock, 2014.

“Whilst a broad array of functions has been previously proposed for rondelles, our experiments were limited to exploring just two. Previous research has made a strong case for rondelles functioning as thaumatropes; results from our research support this theory, with carved figures taking on an animated appearance when rondelles were strung and spun. However, rondelles can serve as functional spindle whorls, and thus their utility in spinning fibers cannot be ruled out as possible function.” (Needham et al. 2019) Very clever, let’s just combine the possibilities into one single proposal.

“Demeshenko (2006) argued that the presence of weaving tools at particular locations in Upper Palaeolithic sites on the Russian Plain indicated specific activity areas related to weaving. Imprints on clay, carvings on figurines and these tools constitute the first physical evidence of weaving. The early evidence for the utilization of plants for basketry is known from Israel (23000BP). Although plants were used most probably for making cord and probably nets, there is, however, so far no tangible record indicating textile production (Nadel et al. 1994). It is important to remember that the cold environment of the tundra in which textile production first appeared, rather than the warm climate of the Mediterranean or the Caucuses, does not necessarily mean that it was linked with clothing, since animal skins and fur unarguably provided the best protection against the cold.” (Janik and Bates 2012) There is no need for a spindle whorl in the creation of mats and basketry, and the most common means of producing cordage involves rolling the fibers on the thigh, not spindling.

Although it is difficult to see how a one-holed disc would have functioned as a thaumatripe (how would you attach the cord to rotate it?), many examples with complementary designs on the two sides certainly would have worked well in this role. Two-holed or multi-holed discs certainly would not hav functioned in the capacity of a spindle whorl, and many one-holed examples have a central hole so small that it is hard to see any kind of substantial shaft fitting through it to use as a whorl. One-holed discs with a small central hole may have had a small stick projecting through it and functioned as a spinning top. Not all are symmetrically balanced either. Finally, I have seen no report of Magdalenian fabrics associated with rondelles, although a nuber of the Magdalenian "Venus" figures have indications of textures that some interpret as fabric.

Children's spinning tops, image from aliexpress.com.

We know that most indigenous cultures produced cordage, usually from plant fibers, but the overwhelming number of examples I have seen have the maker rolling the plant materials on their thigh with one hand while holding one end firm with the other hand to twist them. All in all, I do not think we have any one overall solution to the question of these Paleolithic discs. Perhaps they were intended for a number of different uses. For now I am going to go with the idea that they were intended as spinning tops for the kids to play with. At least that is not controversial.

NOTE 1: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

NOTE 2: For the sake of space I have omitted citations in the quotations above. For that information I refer you to the original publications referenced below.

NOTE 3: A very comprehensive presentation of rondelles may be found at Don’s Maps “Discs From The Stone Age” (https://donsmaps.com/discs.html).

PRIMARY REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter, 2019, Prehistoric Animation – Paleolithic Thaumatropes?, 20 April 2019, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Janik, Lila, and Jennifer Bates, 2012, The Origins of Weaving Project, copyright 2012, first published 2015, https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk. Accessed online 15 March 2024.

Hitchcock, Don, and Ann Dayton, 2015, Discs from the Stone Age,  https://donsmaps.com/discs.html. Accessed online 8 January 2024.

Needham, Andy et al., 2019, Spinning in Circles: The Production and Function of Upper Palaeolithic Rondelles, Exarc Journal, Vol. 2019, Issue 3. Accessed online 12 January 2024.

SECONDARY REFERENCES: (cited in Janik and Bates)

Demeshenko, S. A., 2006, Osobennosti ukrashehij Kostenkovsko-Avdeevskoj kultury, Rossijskaya Arheologiya 1:5-16

Nadel, A. D., Werker, E., Schick, T., Kislev, M. E. and Stewart, K., 1994, 19,000 years-old twisted fibers from Ohalo II, Current Anthropology 35, 4:451-458.