Eskimo Monster Petroglyph,
the mercaribou.
Internet file.
In
addition to the quasi-realistic zoomorphs found in rock art - the images of
real animals found in nature - there are another category of animal petroglyphs
and pictographs. These are imaginary creatures imagined from the mythology of
the population or spiritual animals from their religious beliefs. Of course,
one problem in studying this category of creatures is the challenge of deciding
whether a particular zoomorph is an imaginary creature or just a particularly
bad portrayal of a real one. One example of this is the image of the so-called
"unicorn" in the cave of Lascaux in France.
On
July 28, 2018, I published a column titled "The
Paleolithic Unicorn - Found at Last?" in which I reported on the proposal
that this image may have recorded an ice age relative of the rhinoceros, the
elasmotherium. Based upon the morphology of the body of this image I personally
see it as an aurochs with very poorly drawn horns, not an imaginary creature or
an elasmotherium, thus my question mark in the July 28 title (see the picture).
The so-called Lascaux
unicorn, Internet picture,
Public Domain.
There
are, however, a veritable zoo of actual imaginary creatures portrayed in rock
art that have no equivalent in real life. But, before continuing, I need to
clarify that these imaginary creatures are considered imaginary by us but were
real to the believers.
Eskimo Monster Petroglyph,
the mercaribou.
Internet file.
Many
years ago I ran across this image labeled Eskimo Monster Petroglyph. I know no
more about it than that, not which particular people or where it came from
(although I vaguely recall it was an online image from the Smithsonian
Institution), but it appears to be a creature combining the front half of a
caribou with the back half of a sea creature - a mercaribou. Perhaps a clue to
the age of the record can be seen in the label "Eskimo" instead of
the term "Inuit" suggesting that it is an old record, but source and
details are lost to me.
As
can be easily seen it is the body and forequarters of a caribou with the
hindquarters replaced by the tail of a marine mammal such as a porpoise or
small whale. Interpretations of the portrayal will probably interpret the lines
over its back as representing a harpoon strike or the like.
Royal St. John's Regatta crest,
Internet file, public domain.
A
modern version of this creature is found in the crest of the Royal St. John's
Regatta, a boat race or racing shells first documented in 1816 (although likely
held earlier, in the 18th century) on Quidi Vidi Lake at St. John's,
Newfoundland. In their crest the central shield is flanked by two mercaribou
supporters, shown with fish tails (brown trout) instead of marine mammal hindquarters as in the Eskimo image (this
crest was developed in 1993 so it does not have nearly the antiquity of the
Eskimo petroglyph). (Wikipedia)
The
Eskimo mercaribou rather neatly portrays the two areas of concern of a hunting
culture heavily dependent on both the caribou and sea mammals for food, and, as
such perhaps represents a spiritual figure involved in food security for the
population. In any case, it is a wonderfully inventive and imaginative
creature.
REFERENCES:
Faris,
Peter
2018 The
Paleolithic Unicorn - Found at Last?, July 28, 2018, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com
Palacio-Perez,
Eduardo, and Aitor Ruiz Redondo
2014 Imaginary
Creatures in Palaeolithic Art: Prehistoric Dreams or Prehistorians Dreams?,
pp. 259-66, Antiquity, http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/088/ant0880259.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_St._John%27s_Regatta
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