Meteor exploding, Shropshire,
England. Photo Nick Jackson.
I am an
avid sky-watcher. I have had a life-long fascination with clouds, weather, and the
phenomena of the night sky such as meteors and comets. I have to believe that
the creators of rock art would have also reacted with fascination to sky
phenomena and recorded them, especially meteors. Meteors, however, come in a
whole spectrum of sights, from the occasional spectacular fireball (bolide) to
the quick little streak that you just aren't quite sure you actually saw.
So, in my
mind there are essentially two categories: the "wow, look at that"
spectacular meteor, and the "I think I saw a meteor." The first
cannot be mistaken, when you see it you know it.
Fouriesbourg, South Africa.
Coimbra, 2009, p. 637,
The Sky On The Rocks.
Fouriesbourg, South Africa.
Coimbra, 2009, p. 637,
The Sky On The Rocks.
Fernando
Coimba has written on meteors and comets in rock art, and presents examples of
my first category painted by the San people in the Fouriesbourg District of
South Africa. These are very convincingly depictions of meteors or comets, it
is hard to imagine them being anything else.
Chumash, Pictographs at the
Burro Flats Painted Cave, California.
Wikipedia, Public Domain.
"Meteors or Comets from Burro
Flats, California (USA). This example regards two paintings by the Chumash
Indians, consisting one of them on a circle with a tail with four lines and the
other on a circle with internal and external rays and also a tail. The
astronomer F. Whipple (1985) considers that these engravings depict comets. But
according to E. C. Krupp these images have a dynamic appearance suggesting
rapid movement and change, being this way more related with meteors than
comets."
(Coimbra 2009:638)
Barrier Canyon Style rock art,
Head of Sinbad, Emery County,
Utah. Photo Aug. 1993, Peter Faris.
Another
possible depiction of meteors is found in a Barrier Canyon style panel at Head
of Sinbad, in Emery County, Utah. There four circles can be seen at the right
of the panel, approaching the anthropomorphs. These circles have tails behind
them seemingly implying motion, or the streak of light behind the meteor.
In his 2009
paper Coimba presents examples that argue that flashes of light seen at night
might not represent a meteor. In discussing the San examples he writes "Thackeray (1988) argues that this
people associated comets and meteors with flashes of light seen during states
of trance. This author based his theory on examples provided by linguistics,
but in the same article recognizes that "these questions are difficult to
address directly." - I think that although it may exist some connection
between astronomical events and trance, I agree more with Fraser when he writes
that "Bushmen lived close to nature and would have been acutely aware of
any extraordinary happenings in their surroundings . Astronomical events such
as comets, supernovae, meteors and bolides probably made a huge impression on
these folk."" (Coimba 2009:637)
How many
times have you stepped out back late at night to try to catch a meteor shower
that has been advertised and experienced the frustration of not knowing for
sure whether you really saw that quick flash of a meteor, or just imagined it?
Well, perhaps you really saw the flash of light, but it might not have been a
meteor. Perhaps you saw a phosphene. The subject of phosphenes as inspiration
for rock art has been extensively discussed elsewhere but, in short, phosphenes
are shapes or flashes of light seen in the eye in the dark when stimulated by
something like pressure on the eyeball. "Phosphenes
can be directly induced by mechanical, electrical, or magnetic stimulation of
the retina or visual cortex as well as by random firing of cells in the visual
system." (Wikipedia) I do not find this explanation very convincing. I
know a phosphene when I see it, and I assume others do also, but it is a
possibility.
Or even more interesting, perhaps you saw a
cosmic ray.
Some people
report seeing flashes in the dark that seem to originate within the eye. These
light flashes are a phenomenon that is not totally understood but are
apparently stimulated by cosmic rays. This is believed to happen in one of two
ways. Either the ray stimulates the retina in the eye or the visual cortex in
the brain to signal a flash of light, or the cosmic ray passing through the
medium within the eye creates a flash of Cherenkov radiation. "Cherenkov radiation is an
electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle (such as an electron)
passes through a dialectric medium - -. The characteristic blue glow of an
underwater nuclear reactor is due to Cherenkov radiation." (Wikipedia)
As I said
at the beginning, I am an avid sky-watcher. I have been lucky enough to have
seen a few spectacular meteors in my life, the fireball or bolide that presents
a large ball of light that sometimes even breaks apart as if flies. Something
like this is impossible to mistake. I tend to credit the astronomical
explanation - comets or meteors - as the inspiration for these examples of rock
art, but, we should be aware of the other possibilities.
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:
Coimba,
Fernando
2009 The Sky On The Rocks: Cometary Images In Rock
Art, Quaternary and Prehistory Group, Centre of Geosciences, Congresso
International da IFRAQ, 635-646
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene
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