ROCK ART AND MAGNETISM:

The Hogback, Las Animas

County, Colorado.

Photograph Peter Faris, 1997.

Lightning strike on the Hogback,

Las Animas County, Colorado.

Photograph Peter Faris, 1997.

Rock art on the Hogback,

Las Animas County, Colorado.

Photograph Peter Faris, 1997.

Vision quest enclosure

on the Hogback, Las Animas
County, Colorado.
Photograph Peter Faris, 1997.

Back in 1997 I had the opportunity to visit parts of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, in Las Animas County, Colorado, on a field trip guided by Larry Loendorf, to view rock art that he and his team had recorded. Some of the sites are along a basalt dike known as “The Hogback”. Loendorf pointed out some locations along the Hogback bearing traces of lightning strikes as well as rock art and vision-quest beds. This “Hogback” is a basalt dike associated with the dike network that originated with the nearby Spanish Peaks. We all speculated that the lightning strikes on the “Hogback” might have made it special for local Native Americans and influenced its use for vision-quests as well as the placement of the rock art. Many of the images on "The Hogback" are of bison. Could it just be a coincidence that the thunder associated with the lightning strikes sounds like a herd of stampeding bison? Probably.

Rock art on a boulder with a

possible lightning strike, Three

Rivers, Otero County, New

Mexico. Photograph Jack and

Esther Faris, 1988.

Rock art on a boulder with a

possible lightning strike, Three

Rivers, Otero County, New

Mexico. Photograph Peter, 1998.

Rock art on a boulder with a

possible lightning strike, Three

Rivers, Otero County, New

Mexico. Photograph Jack and

Esther Faris, 1988.

Then in 1998 I took a trip to the Three Rivers petroglyph site in New Mexico, where the rock art is also found on the remains of a basalt dike. Looking back at my pictures from that visit I found a number of possible lightning strikes on boulders that contain rock art. Given these instances it would seem reasonable to look for evidence of lightning strikes when looking at rock art on basalt or other magmatic rocks. There might be some relationship between rock art and lightning strikes.

Well, it turns out there is a vague connection. It comes in the form of giant, carved heads and figures in Central America known as “Fat Boys”.

"Fat Boy", Guatemala,

mysteriousearth.net,

Public Domain.

“The ‘fat boys’ are sculptures usually associated with Olmec/Maya/Izapan sites in southern Mexico and Guatemala, especially near the Pacific coast. They look very different from the sophisticated sculptures we usually associate with the ancient cities of that area. They’re stumpy stone figures of very fat humans, with a big ball for the bottom and a smaller, flattened bell for the top. The arms can barely stretch across the wide belly.

Kaminaljuyu, - now mostly absorbed by Guatemala City, had the greatest number of ‘fat boy’ sculptures discovered at a single site. Some of the fat boy sculptures are so worn, they look like blobs, with no indication of features. Yet hundreds of large and small versions of the ‘fat boys,’ as the sculptures became known after their discovery, have been found across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico, through modern Guatemala, and down into Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador.

"Fat Boy", La Democracia,

Escuintla, Guatemala.

flickriver.com, Public Domain.

Some of the sculptures, also called ‘potbellies,’ featured a collar around the figure’s neck, possibly a sign of wealth. Many were situated on pedestals. Some had a prominent navel. None had specific genitals that would identify it as male or female, though a few had a bulge at the bottom.” (Rollins 2018)

In January 1975, Vincent Malmstrom from the Department of Geography, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire was conducting studies at Izapa, in the Pacific coastal plain of southeastern Chiapas State, Mexico. He found a large basalt carving of the head of a turtle. “When a Brunton compass was brought near the turtlehead a sharp deflection of the needle was observed, of more than 60°. No matter where the compass was moved along the perimeter of the sculpture, the needle continuously pointed to the snout of the turtle. Discovery of this magnetic field prompted the testing of all other exposed rock at the site for magnetic properties, but no others were detected. This would suggest that the Izapans knew about magnetism in that they had reserved a basaltic boulder rich in iron for their carving of the turtlehead, and had executed it so carefully that the magnetic lines of force all came to a focus in the snout of the turtle.” (Malmstrom  1976)

Then, in 1979, an expedition led by Malmstrom found that some of the carved basalt statues at Monte Alto, Guatemala, also had magnetic properties. “Vincent Malmstrom and his assistant, Paul Dunn, discovered that when a compass was held up to one of the “potbellies” at Monte Alto, the needle reacted. It swung away from true north and pointed at the stone. When they tested other potbellies and giant heads on the site, they found the needle was sharply attracted when they held the compass to the navel of some statues and to the right temple in others.” (Rollins 2018)

"Fat Boy", Wikipedia,

Public Domain.

Now there is the connection between these Mesoamerican sculptures and the rock art at “the Hogback” here in Colorado and at Three Rivers in New Mexico - lightning. They theorize that the magnetism in these basalt sculptures had been caused by lightning strikes.

“The intense currents of lightning discharge create a fleeting but very strong magnetic field. Where lightning current passes through rock, soil, or metal these materials can become permanently magnetized. This effect is known as lightning-induced remnant magnetism, or LIRM.” (Magnetism/Wikipedia)

Lacking a Brunton compass the Mesoamerican cultures would have determined the magnetic attraction of the boulders that they wished to sculpt with a piece of magnetite, naturally magnetic iron ore. It is believed that the magnetism made the boulders more attractive for the creation of sculptures because they could then show that the sculptures had a mysterious effect on an outside object.

The Olmec and related peoples of Mesoamerica actually knew of magnetism and may well have utilized it. “There is evidence that the Olmecs used lodestone, a naturally magnetic material, as a compass for navigation.” (Peat 2002:185) A shaped bar of lodestone, grooved for possible suspension, was found at one excavation. And if they knew about it, what about other New World cultures and groups?

So, should we check the dike at “Three Rivers” and at “The Hogback” for lightning induced remnant magnetism, especially at sites where rock art is located? Should this be part of the process at any rock art site on basalt or related magmatic rocks? Will a magnetometer become required equipment to study rock art? Would we be able to prove that there was a connection between the lightning induced magnetism and the rock art anyway?

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:

Magnetism, https://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Magnetism

Paul A. Dunn and Vincent H. Malmström,
1979 Pre-Columbian Magnetic Sculptures in Western Guatemala, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~izapa/M-11.pdf

Malmstrom, Vincent H.,
1976 Knowledge of Magnetism in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, February 5, 1976, Nature, Vol. 259, No. 5542, pp. 390-391.

Peat, F. David
2002 Blackfoot Physics: A Journey Into the Native American Universe, Phanes Press, Grand Rapids, MI.

Rollins, Kathleen Flanagan
2018 “Fat Boys,” Magnetism, and Magic, January 15, 2018, https://misfitsandheroes.wordpress.com/2018/01/15/fat-boys-magnetism-and-magic/