ENGRAVED STONES DISCOVERED ON VANCOUVER ISLAND:

Close-up of K'ómoks engraved pebble.

Photograph Erin Haluschak,

Comox Valley Record.

Excavations by Simon Fraser University Archaeology Professor Bob Muir and his students in the Comox Valley, British Columbia, have been exploring a midden ascribed to the K'ómoks First Nation people, and they have turned up a rich assortment of finds. A July 20,2016 article in the Comox Valley Record, by Erin Haluschak described the finds of a field school conducted by Simon Fraser University Archaeology professor Bob Muir. During the six-week field school students uncovered around 80 engraved tablets and pebbles at a site on the traditional territory of the K'ómoks First Nation.

 K'ómoks engraved pebble.

Photograph Erin Haluschak,

Comox Valley Record.

"Muir described the pebbles or tablets as flat pieces of stone with images sketched on one side - symbols which could be interpreted as a tree, feather, or a symbol of fertility." (Haluschak 2016) These items have only been found at two other sites in the Comox valley. They were originally discovered when a roasting pit was being dug for a barbeque and artifacts were turned up by the shovel. The excavations produced well-preserved shell and animal bone (including bone needles for sewing or leather work, harpoons, and herring rakes). Animal bones included deer, elk, and dog. (Haluschak 2016) 

These engraved plaques will be photographed and studied at Simon Fraser University for a year or two and then returned to the K'ómoks First Nation to put on display. Interesting things just keep turning up.

REFERENCE:

Haluschak, Erin

2016 SFU Archeology Students Discover Tablets That Could Be 2,000 Years Old, Comox Valley Record, July 20, 2016.

http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/387667641.html

CARIBBEAN ROCK ART - PUERTO RICO:

Cave with wall markings (inset).

Mona Island, Puerto Rico.

www.livescience.com.

Writing for LiveScience on July 20, 2016, Megan Gannon introduced the petroglyphs of Mona  Island, Puerto Rico. Citing an article in the July 19, 2016 journal Antiquity, she presented both prehistoric and Spanish settler images. This considerably expands the knowledge of rock art in the Caribbean.

Cave markings. Mona

Island, Puerto Rico.

www.livescience.com.

This collection of rock art is found in caves on Mona Island, and many of the markings were made by dragging fingers or a tool through a soft surface layer on the limestone walls of the caves. Researchers reportedly found markings in thirty of seventy caves they explored, and date the oldest back to 500 years B.P.

Historic cave inscription.

Mona Island, Puerto Rico.

www.livescience.com.

In one cave they found a mix of prehistoric and historic imagery. "Alongside the indigenous artwork there are names, dates, and Christian symbols like crosses and Christograms (a symbol of Christ usually consisting of letters) from the 16th century. There are also some Christian phrases and Bible verses, in Spanish and Latin, such as "dios te perdone" (may God forgive you") and "verbum caro factum est" ("and the Word was made flesh")." (Gannon 2016)

Christograms on cave wall.

Mona Island, Puerto Rico.

www.livescience.com.

"In one case, a name scribbled graffiti-style on a cave wall could be tied to a real person. Francisco Alegre, who came to the Caribbean from Spain with his father in the 1530s and became a royal official in Puerto Rico." (Gannon 2016)

So much more rock art is there to be discovered, if only we look.

REFERENCE:                       

Gannon, Megan,

2016      http://www.livescience.com/55467-pre-columbian-cave-art-discovered.html

NEW HAWAIIAN PETROGLYPHS DISCOVERED BY TEXAS TOURISTS:

Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

In an August 10, 2016, story on LiveScience, contributing writer Stephanie Pappas reported on the discovery of petroglyphs on the beach at Oahu's Waianae Coast on the western side of the island.

Newly discovered petroglyphs on

the Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

A layer of horizontal sandstone rock on the beach is normally covered by sands which can be shifted and moved by wave action. Two tourists from Texas were there at just the right time to see exposed engraving in the rock layer. At the time of Pappas' writing seventeen carvings have been found along the shoreline. Most of the images are human figures with one measuring 1.5 meters (almost 5 feet) tell.

Newly discovered petroglyphs on

the Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

Finding petroglyphs right on the shoreline is rare, but some locals report that they have seen them before. They had not, however, been previously reported or recorded.

Newly discovered petroglyphs on

the Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

"The plan for the preservation of the petroglyphs is still in its infancy, a Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman told Live Science. The agency's State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) will work with the Army  to develop a plan. The petroglyphs are extremely fragile, and even brushing sand away from them can damage them, archaeologists said. They are an important part of Hawaii’s culture and while sands have covered them again, in time they will reappear and we want to make sure people know that they are fragile and culturally sensitive and should only be viewed; not touched," Alan Downer, SHPD administrator, said in a statement." (Pappas/LiveScience)

Newly discovered petroglyphs on

the Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

If the Hawaiian SHPD stated that "even brushing sand away from them can damage them", one has to ask what the tide washing sand back and forth over them daily is doing, or do they believe that the water provides a cushion protecting them from sand erosion?

In any case the Waianae Coast petroglyphs provide an interesting and valuable new addition to knowledge of Hawaiian rock art.

REFERENCES:

http://livescience.com

THE OLDEST ART IN AMERICA - CLOVIS ART? - THE GAULT, TEXAS ENGRAVINGS REVISITED:

Engraved limestone cobble, Clovis,

ca. 13,000 years old. From Tamara

Stewart, Paleo-Indian Art Identified

At Central Texas Site, p. 10, American

Archaeology, Summer, 2016,

Volume 20, Number 2.

On June 25, 2011, I posted a column titled "The Oldest Art In America - Clovis Art? - The Gault, Texas, Engravings". That column was a report on a 2010 publication by D. Clark Wernecke and Michael B. Collins,  “Patterns and Process: Some Thoughts on the Incised Stones from the Gault Site, Central Texas, United States”, and was illustrated with a line drawing I had done from a photogaph by Michael B. Collins, co-author of the original IFRAO Congress, September 2010 – Symposium: Pleistocene art of the Americas story that I was reporting on. Now another report on incised limestone cobbles from the Gault site in Texas has enlarged the subject considerably.

Writing in the summer 2016 issue of American Archaeology, Vol. 20, No. 2, p. 10, author Tamara Stewart's column Paleo-Indian Art Identified At Central Texas Site, presented Wernecke and Collins' recent findings from the Gault site. They now have "numerous small, weathered limestone cobbles with elaborate engravings, nine of which are clearly associated with Clovis technology dating to about 13,000 years ago." (Stewart 2016:10)

Nine purposefully incised limestone cobbles "clearly associated with Clovis technology dating to about 13,000 years ago". This gives us 13,000-year-old rock art in North America, and another strong candidate for the oldest rock art in North America.

Engraved stone, Clovis, Gault, TX.

Drawing by Peter Faris (2011)after a

photograph by Michael Collins.

Note: I reported on the previous hard date for the oldest rock art in North America on Jan. 25, 2014, in "Pyramid Lake Petroglyphs May Be Oldest In North America", on http://rockartblog.blogspot.com .

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter

2011    The Oldest Art In America - Clovis Art? - The Gault, Texas, Engravings, http://rockartblog.blogspot.com, June 25, 2011.

2014     Pyramid Lake Petroglyphs May Be Oldest In North America, http://rockartblog.blogspot.com, January 25, 2014.

Stewart, Tamara

2016    Paleo-Indian Art Identified At Central Texas Site, p. 10, American Archaeology, Summer, 2016, Volume 20, Number 2.

Wernecke, D. Clark, and Michael B. Collins,
2010     “Patterns and Process: Some Thoughts on the Incised Stones from the Gault Site, Central Texas, United States”, IFRAO Congress, September 2010 – Symposium: Pleistocene art of the Americas.