A PAINTED DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT IN LESOTHO, AFRICA:

Flag Point track site, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Internet photo public domain.

Painted track at Flag Point track site, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Internet photo public domain.

Chirotherium track, Joseph City, New Mexico. Photograph from Mayor and Sergeant, 2001.

Petroglyph of chirotherium track, Joseph City, New Mexico. Photograph from Mayor and Sergeant, 2001.

I think that my two favorite things in the world may be rock art and dinosaur tracks. And I would imagine that we all know about the red pictograph of the nearby dinosaur track at Flag Point in Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument in Utah. RockArtBlog published a column about that marvel on 21 November 2015 in a column titled “A Painted Dinosaur Track in Utah.” Also, on 13 June 2014 I wrote a column titled “A Dinosaur Track Petroglyph” on a report by Adrienne Mayor and William Sarjeant of a petroglyph they believe was inspired by a nearby dinosaur track. Now, I have seen a report about a site in Lesotho, a sovereign enclave in South Africa, painted by a San bushman a artist that not only records a dinosaur track, but apparently includes a couple of images of the creature that the artist imagined to have made the track (Helm et al. 2012)

Mokhali Cave, Lesotho. Photograph Helm et al. Fig. 3.

The pictographs at this site were first recorded by one Paul Ellenberger, the son and grandsonof two generations of missionaries and ministers in Lesotho. “Swiss-born D. Frédéric Ellenberger (1835-1910) came to Lesotho in 1861. He spent the next 44 years in this work, first in Morija and then in Masitise, where he created temporary accommodation by building a stone wall in front of a massive rock overhang. He lived with his family in this Cave House for 13 years.” (Helm et al. 2012) One of Ellenberger’s children, Victor, later visited the site with his own son, Paul, who recorded the pictographs. “Victor Ellenberger (1879-1972) was born in this Cave House while a war raged outside. He excelled as a student and went to France for his secondary education, then worked as a minister from 1917 to 1934 in Lesotho (mainly at Leribe) and then in Paris. He became an expert on Lesotho’s flowering plants, changing environmental conditions and the tragic end of the San, and published books on these topics. With the help of his son Paul he copied over 400 San paintings.” (Helm et al. 2012)

San painted track image, Photograph Helm et al. Fig. 4.

Victor and Paul visited the site accompanied by Frederic Christol (1850-1933), a Lutheran minister and artist. “Armed with this knowledge of the Ellenbergers, we can imagine a 1930 visit to a rock overhang 10 km north-east of Leribe (Hlotse) known as Mokhali Cave. Victor was the minister in Leribe and likely the orchestrator. Present were Victor’s father-in-law, the artist Christol, and 12-year-old Paul, who was given the task of tracing the paintings. While his grandfather sketched the cave, Paul traced the wonderful images, which were unlike anything he or his father had seen before. Beside a painting in red ochre of a three-toed dinosaur footprint, there were three graceful figures of the imagined track-maker.” (Helm et al. 2012) Since the footprint is three-toed made by an ornithopod, the San artist had recognized its resemblance to a bird track and created the three imaginary figures which are very birdlike.

San painted track image enhanced, Photograph Helm et al. Fig. 5.

As is so often the case, the original drawings had been filed away and essentially forgotten. “The tracings had languished in obscurity in Lesotho and then in Montpellier (Montpellier University in France). But in 1989 David Mossman, a Canadian paleontologist on sabbatical in France, met Ellenberger and learned about them. In 2004 he lectured in South Africa and visited Mokhali Cave with his son Alex. They located it after an exhaustive two-day search, finally identifying it with the use of a copy of Christol’s sketch. Unfortunately the paintings had faded badly – the footprint (resembling that of an ornithopod) was just discernible, but the track-maker images were no longer visible. Ellenberger and the Mossmans then collaborated with renowned ichnologist Martin Lockley in submitting the article to Ichnos.” (Helm et al. 2012)

The claim by Ellenberger et al. (2005) that the track-maker images predate European attempts was based on the estimated latest possible occupation of Mokhali Cave by the San (1810-20), before it was occupied by the son of the Basotho king and before the San were killed or driven from the region. Implicit in such an estimate is the possibility that they may have been made even earlier. This report assumes that the San were the artists. (Helm et al. 2012)

Drawing of San painted track image and imagined track makers, image courtesy David Mossman, from Helm et al. Fig. 2.

“Employing technologies developed in astronomy, forensics and medicine, and applying them specifically to rock art, Kevin Crause has developed the CPED Toolset – Capture, Processing, Enhancement, Display. After obtaining high-resolution images, data is colour-balanced and processed to remove lens distortion. Designed enhancement algorithms resolve imagery details that cannot be resolved under normal light conditions as perceived by the human visual system. By using this technology, images often result of rock art that are no longer visible to the naked eye. We wondered what the CPED Toolset could offer regarding the faded footprint and track-maker images. Kevin and Charles Helm revisited Mokhali Cave to test this in 2011. The cave, which we found without difficulty thanks to excellent directions from the Mossmans, is 75 m wide, 10 m high and 5 m deep. It provides a magnificent north-facing view over the Caledon Valley and its level floor is wide and deep enough to encourage habitation, as in Christol’s sketch, which depicts three Basotho huts. However, it is exposed to the elements. Northerly winds, winter snow and freeze-thaw events damage the paintings on its walls, which are prone to flaking off. The chances of rock art surviving seemed remote. However, the footprint, 2 m from the eastern end of the cave, was recognizable. Midway along the floor were the remains of a circular hut. In addition to analysing the footprint and surrounding area, all promising surfaces in the cave were photographed. This yielded a few images of so-called Late White paintings by Bantu-speaking agriculturalists (Lewis-Williams 2006), likely representing Basotho rock art, but also suggesting the possibility of Basotho artists creating the dinosaur images. Rock art shelters 200mfurther east yielded numerous San paintings. In the valley of the Subeng Stream below, 3 km from Mokhali Cave, we visited a dinosaur tracksite that was recorded by Ellenberger in the 1950s. From here Mokhali Cave was visible."
(Helm et al. 2012)

“Computer programs have enhanced the image quality at this site, confirming the accuracy of Paul Ellenberger’s 1930 tracing and the relation of the footprint to the track-maker images. However, for details on the track-maker images, the efforts over 80 years ago of a remarkable pre-teenager remain the sole source. Future work is required to resolve the origin of this rock art and, if possible, its age.” (Helm et al. 2012)  This may be a reference to their CPED toolset or possibly they finished it up with D-Stretch, in any case they now have provided a great image of the painted footprint that was previously hard to see.

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, A Painted Dinosaur Track in Utah, 21 November 2015, rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Faris, Peter, 2014, A Dinosaur Track Petroglyph, 13 June 2014, rockartblog.blogspotcom.

Helm, Charles, Kevin Crause and Richard McCrea, 2012, Mokhali Cave Revisited, Dinosaur Rock Art in Lesotho, April 2012, The Digging Stick, Vol. 29, No. 1. Accessed from Researchgate.net.

Mayor, Adrienne and William A. S. Serjeant, 2001, The Folklore of Footprints in Stone: From Classical Antiquity to the Present, Ichnos, Vol. 8, No. 2, 143-163.

SECONDARY REFERENCES:

Ellenberger, P, Mossman, DJ, Mossman, AD, & Lockley, MG. 2005. Bushmen cave paintings of ornithopod dinosaurs: paleolithic trackers interpret Early Jurassic footprints. Ichnos, Vol. 12 No. 3, 223-226.

HIGHEST ALTITUDE PETROGLYPHS IN EUROPE:

Stelvio National Park, Lombardy, Italy. Image from  arkeonews.net.

I have written a few previous columns on high altitude rock art (see ‘highest elevation’ in the cloud index at bottom). Now we have learned of the discovery of petroglyphs in Lombardy, Italy that are acclaimed as the highest in Europe.

Spiral and anthropomorph with possible quadruped. Image from archaeology.org.

Image from  arkeonews.net.

“The discovery of a series of petroglyphs over 3,000 meters high in the Valtellina Orobie mountain range in Lombardy has made them the highest petroglyphs found in Europe and provided new clues to human presence in mountainous areas since ancient times. Tommaso Malinverno, a Como hiker, informed the Soprintendenza in the summer of 2017 that he had noticed odd carvings on a rock at the base of the Pizzo Tresero glacier. After receiving this report, scientists and archaeologists conducted thorough research and determined that the petroglyphs dated to between 3,600 and 3,200 years ago (1600 -1200 BCE), during the Middle Bronze Age.” (arkeonews 2025) Now 3,000 meters is 9,842 feet so this is not up in rarified air. It does, however, prove that some people of the Middle Bronze Age traveled in the high mountains for some reason, shades of Otzi. 

Image from Regione Lombardia. 

The location of the newly found rock art is not all that isolated archeologically. “The petroglyphs are located near the Gavia Pass, a region already renowned for its rich archaeological heritage. The site connects with other significant tock art locations in Lombardy, including Val Camonica, recognized as Italy’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, and the Valtellina region, home to the famed Rupe Magna in Grosio and the stele statues of Teglio.” (Radley 2024)

Quadruped. Image from Regione Lombardia. 

As you will see below they have suffered damage from a source that we usually do not consider to be a threat to rock art – glacial activity. This threat would seem to be reducing, however, given climate change and global warming. What new threats will show up now? “Stefano Rossi, and archaeologist from the Superintendence, remarked, ‘The Tresero petroglyphs are an exceptional research opportunity. They raise crucial questions about the complex relationship between humans and mountains over millennia. High-altitude exploration is often associated with modern mountaineering, but these engravings demonstrate long-term human presence starting in prehistory.’ However, glacial activity over thousands of years has eroded many of the carvings, leaving striations on the rocks and potentially obliterating many portions of a once larger rock art complex.” (Radley 2024) The fact that their rock face shows glacial erosion means that the petroglyphs would have been obscured by ice for part of their history. The news stories do not state how far from glacial ice they are now but they have obviously been covered at some point suggesting climatic changes over history.

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:

Arkeonews, 2025, The Highest Prehistoric Petroglyphs in Europe Discovered at 3000 Meters in the Italian Alps, https://arkeonews.net. Accessed online 5 January 2025.

Radley, Dario, 2024, Europe’s highest petroglyphs unearthed in Lombardy’s mountains, 21 November 2024, https://archaeologymag.com. Accessed online 21 November 2024.

GEOGLYPHS – A SERPENT INTAGLIO IN KANSAS:

The Great Serpent Mound, Peebles, Ohio. Gettyimages.

Most people know of the Great Serpent Mound at Peebles, Ohio. Less well known is a smaller serpent intaglio in Rice County, near Lyons, Kansas. Like the Ohio serpent mound, the Kansas serpent is portrayed as swallowing an egg.

Rice County Serpent Intaglio. The Wichita Eagle, November 11, 2014.

“This manmade curiosity represents an enormous serpent in the act of swallowing an egg. It is one of the best-preserved Indian carvings still around. In Kansas, there are only two, said Janel Cook, the director of Lyons’ Coronado Quivira Museum. They call it the Serpent Intaglio.” (Bickel 2008) The Quivira people were believed to be the predecessors of the Wichita tribe.

“Ancestors of the Wichita tribe cut this 160-foot-long image of a serpent into the sod of Rice County roughly 600 years ago. This photo was taken in the 1980s when an archaeologist poured biodegradable lime into the cut to highlight the shape. In Gary Miller’s Rice County cow pasture, miles from anywhere, there’s a long depression in the prairie grass that zig-zags along the western slope of a ridge. It’s a faint image, only inches deep. But in springtime, wild onions grow in an egg-shaped circle at one end. And in 1983, a scientist named Clark Mallam poured lime into the zig-zag and had an airplane fly over to take a photo. The yellow lime contrasted with the pasture grass and revealed the image of a serpent, 160 feet long, jaws closing around an egg.” (Wenzl 2014) The fact that different vegetation grows there than in the untouched ground around it suggests that the soil is different, or has perhaps been treated some way to give it different properties. “Apparently a different kind of soil was put into the snake,' said Kermit Hayes, a neighboring farmer. 'Short buffalo grass is about all that will grow there. Grasses such as bluestem and western wheat grass cover the pasture around the trench.”(Blosser 1982) So the modified soil is affecting growing conditions and make the serpent detectable.

Close-up of the serpent intaglio and vegetation differences. Online image, public domain.

This geoglyph or intaglio has been visited by archaeologists, but apparently it has not yet been studies in detail. “Dr. Clark Mallam, a visiting archeologist, says the jaws of the serpent point northwest toward the remains of ancient Quivira Indian villages two miles away. 'Dr. Mallam isn't saying positively, but it looks like the Indian villages were all under the influence of the serpent,' Ernst said. 'Dr. Mallam says, 'Here is the serpent and here is the Garden of Eden,'' Ernst said, pointing to a map of the villages in a fertile valley of the Little Arkansas River. The consensus is the hilltop discovery, which local residents refer to as 'the snake' or by its technical name, 'the intaglio,' which means a design or figure carved or engraved into a hard material, is one more Quivira relic which has withstood the elements.” (Blosser 1982) Dr. Mallam was a professor of anthropology at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, who specialized in studying Native American mounds and geoglyphs.

The curator of the Lyons, Kansas museum, Clyde Ernst, has reported that the members of the Wichita tribe have not provided any insight into the meaning of the serpent in their beliefs (BLosser 1982). The image of a serpent swallowing an egg must have had spiritual significance to all these people, possibly portraying an eclipse.

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:

Bickel, Amy, 2008, LYONS – On a hill amid the pasture, something mysterious emerges from mixed-grass prairie, 9 August 2008, The Hutchinson News, Hutchinson, Kansas. Accessed online 3 January 2025.

Blosser, J.B., 1982, Apparent ancient Indian symbol snakes across Kansas pasture, 17 September 1982, UPI Archives online. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/09/17/Apparent-ancient-Indian-symbol-snakes-across-Kansas-pasture/4598401083200/. Accessed online 3 January 2025.

Wenzl, Roy, 2014, Wichita State anthropologist hopes to unearth a Plains people’s lost story, 11 November 2014, The Wichita Eagle. Accessed online 3 January 2025.

IS A MODIFIED CAVE FLOOR IN FRANCE THE EARLIEST KNOWN MAP?

View out of the Ségognole 3 rock shelter, Fontainbleu, in the Paris Basin, France. Online image, public domain.

Readers of RockArtBlog may remember that I have been a skeptic of many claims of ancient maps in various rock art media. This one, however, might actually be real. An apparent carved stone map has been discovered at Fontainbleu, outside of Paris. “Researchers have unearthed what may be the world’s oldest three-dimensional map, located in the Paris Basin. Found within a quartzitic sandstone megaclast at the Ségognole 3 rock shelter.” (Science News Today 2025)

Geophysicists Medard Thiry of Mines Paris – PSL Centre of Geosciences,  and Anthony Milnes from the Adelaide School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences noticed signs of carving on the cave floor and, after investigating further recognized two features apparently produced by humans. Thiry and Milnes surveyed water courses in the cave and found a pattern of human manipulation and modification. (Cassella 2025)

Supposed map carved into the floor of the cave. Photograph by Pascal Crapet, Fontainebleau, Courtesy of Médard Thiry.

“Around 20,000 years ago, the prehistoric people who sheltered in this cave carved and smoothed the stone floors to create what looks like a miniature model of the surrounding valley, according to geoscientists Medard Thiry and Anthony Milnes. As water from the outside world trickled through carefully laid-out channels, basins and depressions in the cave, the surface would have come alive with rivers, deltas, ponds, and hills.” (Cassella 2025)

Along with this landscape another set of grooves seem to illustrate a portion of the torso of a female figure with pelvis, groin, thighs and hips.

"Thanks to his extensive research on the origins of Fontainebleau sandstone, Dr. Thiry recognized several fine-scale morphological features that could not have formed naturally, suggesting that they were modified by early humans. 'Our research showed that Paleolithic humans sculpted the sandstone to promote specific flow paths for infiltrating and directing rainwater, which is something that had never been recognized by archaeologists,' Thiry says. 'The fittings probably have a much deeper, mythical meaning, related to water. The two hydraulic installations - - that of the sexual figuration and that of the miniature landscape - - are two the three meters from each other and are sure to relay a profound meaning of conception of life and nature, which will never be accessible to us.'" (Pacillo 2025)

Carved female torso inside the cave opening. Photograph by Médard Thiry.

Rainfall seeping into the cavern through fractures runs across the cave floor where is pools in low points. The largest and most elevated of these pools shows indications of having been enlarged and deepened by humans, and it functions as the source of water for the features. Water from this basin runs further into the cave, splitting into two streams with one running through the carved pelvis where it runs out of the ‘vulva,’ and the other running into the carved map. The hills or mounds in the carved landscape are rounded and some are encircled by deep grooves. (Cassella 2025)

Previously, the oldest known three-dimensional map was a rock slab carved with a local river network and landscape features about 3,000 years ago in the Bronze Age. The Segognole 3 map provides a new view of these prehistoric people's perception of the world around them. (Science News Today) 

These reports certainly seem credible and may, indeed, represent the oldest map in the world. I, however, am more interested in the female representation and the purposeful way the water reportedly interacts with it, providing animation of a biological process. In any case, the two features provide some insight into the cognitive processes of people in that distant age.

NOTE: One or more 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.

PRIMARY REFERENCES:

Cassella, Carly, 2025, Earliest Known 3D Map Found in Prehistoric French Cavern, Say Experts, 7 January 2025, https://www.yahoo.com/news/. Accessed online 14 January 2025.

Pacillo, Lara, 2025, World’s oldest 3D map discovered, 13 January 2025, University of Adelaide, https://www.sciencedaily.com. Accessed online 14 January 2025.

Science News Today, 2025, World’s Oldest 3D Map Unearthed in French Cave, 17 January 2025, https://www.sciencenewstoday.org. Accessed online 22 January 2025.

SECONDARY REFERENCE:

Thiry, Médard et al, 2024, Palaeolithic map engraved for staging water flows in a Paris Basin shelter, Oxford Journal of Archaeology. DOI: 10.1111/ojoa.12316.

ARCHAEOMAGNETIC DATING OF OLD PICTOGRAPHS:

For forty years I have maintained that it should be possible to date certain old pictographs painted with ochres by archaeomagnetic dating techniques.  A 2004 study by Avto Goguitchaichvili and his team used archaeomagnetic dating on ochre paint used to create precolumbian murals in Mexico. “The magnetic measurements of the pigments show that at least four murals retain a remanent magnetization carried by a mixture of magnetite and minor hematite grains.” (Goguitchaichvili et al. 2004) Given that they have proved the feasibility of the process on murals, it stands to reason that it would work on paint deposits on cave walls and other pictographic imagery.

Murals from Templo de Venus, Cacaxtla culture, Mexico. Image from Pinterest.

In traditional archaeomagnetic dating clay samples from a feature that has been exposed to high heat, like a fireplace or a adobe brick from a structure that burned down are tested for magnetic orientation. This is then used to calculate the time period that the earth’s magnetic north pole was in the position indicated. “A number of samples are removed from the feature by encasement in non-magnetic plaster within non-magnetic moulds. These samples are marked for true north at the time of collection. The samples are sent to an Archaeomagnetic Laboratory for processing. Each of the samples is measured in a spinner magnetometer to determine the thermal remnant magnetism of each sample. The results are statistically processed and an eigenvector is generated that shows the three-dimensional magnetic declination that will yield a location for the North Pole at the time of the last thermal event of the feature. Data from this feature is compared to the regional secular variation curve in order to determine the best-fit date range for the feature's last firing event.” (Wikipedia)

Murals at Templo Rojo, Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, Mexico. Photograph by Marcela Perez Z., El Giroscopo Viajero.

Now a team of scholars in Mesoamerica have tested the red paint in four Precolombian murals to see if they can be dated archaeomagnetically. The team of scholars involved in the study, aware that archaeomagnetic dates for Mesoamerican sites are relatively few, wanted to study the possibility of retrieving dates on paintings from Precolumbian sites. “For this study, we chose four mural paintings from Central Mexico: Templo de Venus (Cacaxtla culture), Templo Rojo (Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan), Chapulines and Estrellas (both belonging to the Cholula complex). These sites correspond to the Classic and early post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology (approx. 200 to 1200 A.D.).” (Goguitchaichvili et al. 2004)

Heavy red paint, La Pasiega Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

The results of these tests were very promising, having positive results in all samples. “In summary, 28 samples belonging to four Mesoamerican mural paintings were investigated and the direction of their remnant magnetization was successfully determined. A mixture of magnetite and hematite is responsible for the magnetization, Studied Mesoamerican mural paintings retain the direction of the magnetic field at the time they were painted and are therefore an invaluable source of information concerning secular variation. The archeomagnetic study of pre-Columbian mural paintings opens new alternatives for improving the Mesoamerican absolute chronology.” (Goguitchaichvili et al. 2004) If this is the case in the tested murals, surely it will also apply to many other records painted with ochre paint, such as pictographs and cave painting.

Lascaux Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

The team of researchers also triple-checked their results to confirm them. “When researchers compared the magnetic directions of the murals to directions measured in volcanic rocks dated to the same periods and to other archaeomagnetic studies of similarly aged lime-plasters, they found rough agreement. And based on that agreement, they conjecture that the mean direction from three of the murals corresponds to the interval between A.D. 1000 and 1200.” (Pratt 2004)

 

Red dots in Pech Merle Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

In the situation I am proposing the layer of ocher paint will have to be thick enough on the painted surface (cliff, cave wall) to remove a sample. This might be the result of uneven application of paint, or applying paint to a rough stone surface where high and low points on the stone would create a paint layer of varying thickness. While it was still liquid after application the earth’s magnetic field would influence the magnetite and hematite constituents of the paint to orient to the magnetic North Pole as it was then located, and when the paint dried that orientation would be locked in place. This procedure would add a new tool to our collection of dating methods for ancient paintings in addition to radiocarbon dating of charcoal based black pigments. Now some graduate student can take this and run with it - it always feels really good to be vindicated.

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 technical details see the paper (Goguitchaichvili et al. 2004) in References below.

REFERENCES:

A. Goguitchaichvili, A. M. Soler, E. Zanella, G. Chiari, R. Lanza, J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi, and T. Gonzalez, 2004, Pre-Columbian mural paintings from Mesoamerica as geomagnetic field recorders, Geophysical Research Letters, 22 June 2004, Vol. 31, No. 12. DOI:10:1029/2004GL020065. Accessed online 3 February 2-25.

Pratt, Sara, 2004, Geoarchaeology - Magnetic Murals, Geotimes Magazine online, September 2004, http://www.geotimes.org/sept04/NN_magneticmurals.html. Accessed online 12 January 2025.

Wikipedia, Archaeomagnetic dating,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeomagnetic_dating. Accessed online 20 November 2024.

 

SHAMANISM AND ROCK ART - REVISITED:

Dancing Shaman. Image created with DALL-E.

I am taking the opportunity to revisit the subject of ‘shamanism’ in rock art because it seems that more and more references to shamanism can be found in books and articles about rock art. I feel I need to state here (again) that I am not denying that there is shamanistic rock art. I am stating that there are a myriad of potential meanings for a rock art image and reasons for its production, some of it shamanic, some not.

I once had an opportunity to attend a lecture by the great Joseph Campbell, author of so many books on mythology and belief systems. Campbell believed that similarities in myths were of much greater significance than differences, so he had no trouble equating myths from different sides of the globe. At this lecture he explained the significance of the dying man/wounded bison panel from the chimney at Lascaux in terms of  Australian Aboriginal belief. To my way of thinking this goes way too far afield. These cultures were separated by tens of thousands of years and thousands of miles, with no possibility of reciprocal influencing.

Dying hunter scene from Lascaux Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

My example from the Campbell lecture is indicative of a problem that I see cropping up all too frequently in rock art studies. The shamanic or neuropsychological model for explaining rock art has become such a fad explanation that it is hard to find people giving credence to any other possibilities. As far as trancing and/or entoptics influencing rock art I really do not need a trance hallucination or entoptic vision to inspire the images I make. Once the pigments or hammerstones are picked up in front of a rock face there are only so many things I can do with them. Trying to reproduce an image from life or create a geometric shape needs no artificial stimuli. There are only so many geometric shapes available, and a reproduction of a living being is inspired by the being itself. To invariably attribute these to anything else is nonsense.

An understandable, but biased interpretation of rock art is found in the tendency of the viewer to attempt to define what they are viewing on the basis of what has been successfully applied to interpretations in the past. An example of this is seen in the case of David Lewis-Williams whose early work with interpreting South African rock art in light of San bushman shamanism so impressed the rest of the rock art community. Since that early success Lewis-Williams seems unable to consider any other possible interpretation no matter what the conditions or location the rock art is found in, or what age it is from. An early success of intellectual application that was thought to approach the genius level seems to have led him to the status of a one-trick pony.

The White Shaman, White Shaman Cave, Val Verde County, Texas. Photograph by Peter Faris.

I suggest that Lewis-Williams made the mistake of taking the wrong message away from his earlier work. Instead of learning the lesson that he had succeeded by a rigorous application of reasoning based upon knowledge of ethnographic material for the San people of Africa, he seems to have come away with the message that “shamanism” was the correct answer so it would always be the correct answer. In other words he seems to have subsequently used his mental abilities, knowledge, and reason, to fit other rock art into his shamanic framework instead of using those same gifts and abilities to find a unique answer that would fit the unique conditions of the rock art he was appraising.

Paul Bahn (1997) pointed out that “Throughout the book by Clottes and Lewis-Williams (see references below), possibilities are presented as ‘evidence’, then used as building blocks for speculation that magically acquires the status of ‘fact’ (Bahn). This is a crucial problem for, in the words of Carl Sagan, if we become ‘self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition’ (Sagan 1997: 27). As Hamayon (1997:65-66, my translation) puts it, the book’s ‘approach is devoid of any critical thought: conjectures on one page become, as if by magic, assertions on the next . . . I have rarely seen such reductionism, I have rarely seen such simple-minded determinism.” (Bahn 2010:118-119) This is a phenomenon I see all too often in rock art writings. A concept that is introduced as a possibility on one page will be used as a fact a page or two later to support another surmise.

We would do well to remember that the limited remains of the physical cultures studied by archaeologists represent a very small proportion of those cultures. They had a whole world of beliefs, mythology, rituals, and physical knowledge that is not necessarily represented by those physical remains. Rock art represents that world of beliefs, mythology, rituals, etc. aspect of the whole world that these people lived in, and we have no physical artifacts from that world for most of the cultures that we are studying.

"The Sorcerer," Henri Breuil, Cave of the Trois-Freres, Ariege, France. Internet image, public domain.

In 2011 I wrote “In his 2002 book The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art, David Lewis-Williams revisited the shamanism argument for the dying man panel. Lewis-Williams originally swept the rock art community with his early analysis of much of South African rock art in light of San (bushman) religious practices that he defined as Shamanism. He eventually served as director of the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand from which he retired in 2000. He has since published many important books and reached a position of respect world-wide. He has a great ability to organize and analyze data and search for clues and patterns. As might be expected, considering his focus and early success on the interpretation of South African rock art in light of shamanic influences, he tends to find shamanism behind pretty much anything he looks at. At this point I must confess that I believe that the use of shamanism as an explanation of rock art is hugely overdone. I have gotten to the point where I think of shamanism as the “S”-word. It has reached the position where anyone who cannot come up with a better explanation for rock art just calls it shamanic. A few decades ago pretty much all rock art of animals was dismissed as “hunting magic” and much of the early respect afforded Lewis-Williams came from the fact that he very convincingly gave us an alternative to that overused term. We need to be very careful that we now do not just automatically substitute the “S- word” for “hunting magic” and continue to make the same mistake.” (Faris 2011)

Self portrait by Samantha (last name unknown), 1998.

”A number of years ago on a field trip an enthusiastic rock art fan explained to me that all human figures in rock art that have their arms stretched out straight represent shaman figures. Upon return from that trip to the museum where I worked as exhibits curator at the time I was confronted by the illustration above. It turned out that the picture had been done by a young girl named Samantha who had run out of space on the page when signing her name. The resulting picture had been posted on a lobby wall by the institution’s education curator. I kept a copy of the picture because at that time its innocent childishness seemed to sum up so perfectly the statement that “all figures in rock art that have their arms outstretched straight represent shaman figures”; why she even spelled shaman almost correctly. At the very least it represents scientific proof as definitive as some of Lewis-Williams’.” (Faris 2011) In this I have not modified my opinion since.

Grant McCall wrote in 2006 that “The “shamanism” or “neuropsychological” model proposed by Lewis-Williams and colleagues has had a powerful impact on rock art research, and has significantly added to our knowledge of past foragers lifeways in southern Africa and elsewhere in the world. However, this model is primarily based on the view of shamanism as a universal and unvarying characteristic of foragers over space and time. This paper raises both theoretical and empirical problems with this view. The paper examines the relationship between the specific social roles and practices of shamanism and the overarching cosmological structures on which they are based in both southern Africa and Northern Eurasia. In both cases, the paper argues that many cosmological beliefs are highly persistent and durable, extending into prehistory, while the specific practices and roles of shamans are variable, changing to meet the immediate and local needs of their communities.” (McCall 2006)

Korean Shaman dancing. Image from Brittanica.

This concept of rock art being the product of shamanism had been pushed by the Abbe Breuil. “By Breuil’s death in 1961, the concept of shamanism aligned an idea of universal early religion with the eminence of the painter, the beauty of the cave art, the violence of the imagined ritual, and the political influence of the charismatic leaders. It explained the painter as a shaman too. Like Picasso, Breuil enjoyed what this meant for himself: the painter saw and moved where others could not, and like the shaman he plumbed the animal depths and made them accessible to everyone. The Renaissance of cave painting in the twentieth century was built on this myth. Contemporary artists, confronted with an unpleasant, disenchanted world in their own time, couldn’t resist.” (Stefanos Geroulanos 2024:302) I, for instance, grew up in the Unitarian church, my wife a Baptist church. If either, or both of us were to paint a picture of a deer on a cliff or cave wall, would it then be shamanic in nature. According to Breuil and Lewis-Williams it would.

Bahn argued basically the same point. “Unfortunately, the claim is often made that ‘shamanism is the religion of all hunting and gathering cultures’, which, as we have seen, is simply not true. For example, there is no shamanism at all in Australia. Trance and ecstasy are not found in many cultures known to have produced prehistoric and historic rock art.” (Bahn 2010)

How can anyone state so positively that they know what was in the mind of people from thousands of years in the past? “There are both theoretical and empirical flaws with the view that shamanism is a universal feature of forager societies, and that forager rock art invariably relates to shamanism. Future rock art research in southern Africa must work to address these flaws in moving beyond past paradigmatic dispositions. This paper has also argued that rock art is (a) class of archaeological remains originating from the process of landscape enculturation. The production of rock art is affected by many short-term and local contingencies, but rock art affects human behavior at scales beyond human lifetimes. The accumulation of rock art on landscapes represents a long-term, inter-generational process. Therefore, this paper has argued that the content of rock art at regional scales is easier to relate to the durable and persistent cosmological structures of forager societies than to the variable, flexible, and transitory social practices of shamanism.” (McCall 2006)

Another point to consider is that among all the rock art images identified as shaman (ie. the Dying Hunter, The Sorcerer, The White Shaman), it is often hard to find common traits. I fear that the S-word has often merely supplanted the term "ceremonial" as an explanation for images that cannot otherwise be identified. 

I feel the need to state here (again) that I am not denying that there is shamanistic rock art. I am stating that there are a myriad of potential meanings for a rock art image and reasons for its production, some of it shamanic, some not. Let us not automatically jump to the use of the “S-word” in all instances. It is just not the only answer.

NOTE 1: In some of the quotations I have included above I have left citations that are not listed in my references below. To find these I recommend that you go to the sources listed.

NOTE 2: Some images in this column were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain images.

REFERENCES:

Bahn, Paul G., 2010, Prehistoric Rock Art: Problems and Polemics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Clottes, Jean, and David Lewis-Williams, 1996. The Shamans of Prehistory, Harry N. Abrams, New York.

Faris, Peter K., 2011, The S-Word, Shamanism- or, The Dying Man in Lascaux Revisited, Rock Art Blog, 9 July 2011, https://www.rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Geroulanos, Stefanos, 2024, The Invention of Prehistory, Liveright Publishing Company, a division of Norton and Co., New York.   

McCall, Grant S., 2006, Add Shamas and Stir? A Critical Review of the Shamanism Model of Forager Rock Art Production, 25 September 2006, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2006.09.001

Williams, David Lewis, 2004, The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the origins of Art, 1 April 2004, Thames and Hudson, New York.

 

ANCIENT VENEZUELAN ROCK ART FROM AN UNKNOWN CULTURE?

Arauák River valley with the Upuigma Tepui at the back,

and the savanna where the boulder is located. All images ©José

Miguel Perez-Gomez unless indicated otherwise. Figure 2, page 132.

A number of new rock art sites have been discovered in southern Venezuela in Canaima National Park. These newly discovered rock art sites in Venezuela can be stated to exist in a truly magnificent landscape.

Main panel showing digitally traced motifs obtained by using Photoshop. Image from Josẻ Miguel Pẻrez-Gỏmez and Roger Swidorowicz, 2023, Figure 7, page 134. Area of red square shown in next image.

“The Guiana Highlands region of southeastern Venezuela is characterized by flat-topped mountains, or tepuis, rising thousands of metres into the clouds while remaining geographically inseparable from the rainforest and savannahs below. The remarkable geographical characteristics of these mountains are likely to have had a significant phenomenological impact on the cultural perception and environmental interpretation of the nearby human groups. Rock art found in these magnificent landscapes can be appreciated on isolated rocks in river valleys as well as on large boulders strewn across the savannas.” (Pẻrez-Gỏmez and Swidorowicz 2023) While the magnificence of the landscape was undoubtedly appreciated by the original inhabitants, I can see no influence of that in the illustrations that I have seen of the rock art they left. This sort of poetic rhapsody really has no place in a paper intended to be scientific.

Main panel detail selected from Fig. 7. Image from Josẻ Miguel Pẻrez-Gỏmez and Roger Swidorowicz, 2023, Figure 8, page 135.

“At around 20 different sites, carved and painted in caves and on boulders archaeologists have discovered glyphs, pictograms, and other symbols left behind thousands of years ago. It’s the first rock art of any kind discovered in southern Venezuela, and while there are similarities to rock art in Brazil, it’s unclear whose hands left behind the mysterious motifs.” (Starr 2024) In other words, not enough archaeology has been done in the region to begin to pin down the local archaic indigenous cultures.

Image from Josẻ Miguel Pẻrez-Gỏmez and Roger Swidorowicz, 2023.

In a very positive development researchers have begun to study the rock art of southern Venezuela. “Josẻ Miguel Pẻrez-Gỏmez, a researcher from Simỏn Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela, has documented previously unrecorded rock art with the Indigenous Pemỏn community. This artwork represents a largely undisclosed cultural tradition. Pẻrez-Gỏmez recently presented evidence and findings about these remote sites at a rock art conference in Italy. The conference served as a forum for disseminating information about this significant archaeological discovery to the international scientific community. This research contributes to understanding the region’s Indigenous art and cultural practices, potentially offering new insights into historical and anthropological studies.” (Bartek 2024) As I said above, not enough archaeology has been done in the region to begin to pin down the local indigenous cultures. Apparently the historical and anthropological studies have not yet been done. Without further hard evidence (archeology) the claims for the important influence of this rock art are basically empty.

Surprisingly the local inhabitants claim to have possessed no knowledge about the rock art in their area. Pẻrez-Gỏmez summed up their report with these recommendations. “Subsequent inquiries with people in various local communities confirmed their lack of awareness about these sites. In light of this, we propose introducing these rock art manifestations to the local communities through a community engagement project that includes establishing a local museum. This initiative would not only raise awareness about these significant archaeological sites but also contribute to their protection as valuable heritage sites. Furthermore, it would have the added benefit of stimulating the indigenous local economy.” (Pẻrez-Gỏmez and Swidorowicz 2023) This last bit sounds like archaeological tourism. In many instances such stimulation ends up creating more problems for local societies than it solves. It certainly prompts development which can, in the end, begin to cause environmental impacts such as pollution, paving, and infrastructure, which can destroy the local culture in the end.

Image from Josẻ Miguel Pẻrez-Gỏmez and Roger Swidorowicz, 2023.

 “Although it is not known precisely how old rock art is, similar rock art in Brazil has been dated to about 4,000 years ago, but Perez-Gomez believes the examples in Venezuela may be older. The park might have been the original place where this unknown culture first developed, Perez-Gomez told Live Science, adding that they may have later dispersed to places as far away as the Amazon River, the Guianas, and even southern Colombia, which all feature rock art akin to the newly found sites in Venezuela.” (Archaeology World 2024) What can I say about this quote – so much is so wrong. First, Petez-Gomez says “it is not known precisely how old rock art is”, but he knows his is older than the others. Second, similar rock art is found around the world. These symbols would generally be called ‘abstract style’ and I can point to some in southeastern Colorado like them, but I am pretty sure that the local cultures here were not originally dispersed from Venezuela.

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:

Archaeology World Team, 2024, 4,000-Year-Old Rock Art From a Previously Unknown Ancient Culture Uncovered in Venezuela, 4 July 2024, Archaeology World Online, https://archaeology-world.com. Accessed online 23 November 2024.

Bartek, Jan, 2024, Mysterious Rock Art By Unknown Ancient Culture Found In Venezuela, 5 July 2024, Ancient Pages, https://www.ancientpages.com. Accessed online 7 July 2024.

Josẻ Miguel Pẻrez-Gỏmez and Roger Swidorowicz, 2023, New Rock Art Site Complex in the Arauk River Valley, Southeastern Venezuela, Rock Art Research 2023, Volume 40, No. 2, pp. 131-144. Accessed online 23 November 2024.

Starr, Michelle, 2024, Mysterious Symbols on 4,000-year-old Rock Art Hint at an Unknown Culture, 6 July 2024, https://www.sciencealert.com. Accessed online 23 November 2024.