Another category of underwater rock art has to be sites that were flooded intentionally with dams for hydroelectric power, or for irrigation impoundment, and navigational locks.
Horses, Coa Valley, Portugal, Internet photo, Public Domain.
This was the case with the Paleolithic rock art of the Coa Valley (and others) in Portugal. “Portugal’s most important rock art finds of the last three decades, have a rather unfortunate association with dam projects like: Fratel dam on the river Tagus, Pocinho dam on the river Douro, river Coa dam, Laranjeira dem on the river Sabor, Alqueva dam on the river Guadiana. Some got lost in this project but some were preserved after a long struggle by the culture preservers, the local agencies, college professors and also societies.” (Tiwary 2014) The most famously reported was the project to dam the Coa river valley. The discovery of Paleolithic era petroglyphs in the valley caused archaeologists, preservationists, and others to advocate for preservation of these sites and many were saved, but it is unknown how many were lost. Likewise for the other valleys mentioned. This has, unfortunately, been a theme too well known throughout the world.
The United States has a long and unfortunate record on flooding archaeological and rock art sites with dams for hydroelectric power, or for irrigation impoundment, and navigational locks.
One early example of this was along the Ohio River, ironically along land owned some of which was owned by George Washington. His reward for serving the British Crown in the French and Indian War was a large plot of land along the Ohio River in the Ohio Territory that Washington visited in 1770. That stretch of the Ohio River originally sported tens of thousands of petroglyphs. “Although Washington did not mention the petroglyphs he apparently explored the area as he designated on section as good for a house and others as fine cropland. Given Washington’s attention to the details of the land it seems safe to assume that he would have had every opportinity to notice the petroglyph panels on horizontal sandstone in that area. For centuries, hundreds of these Native American carvings - or petroglyphs - stretched for about 10 miles along the Ohio River from Midland, Pa., through Wellsville, Ohio, to the Yellow Creek.” (Faris 2020)
“During the 1920s, a series of dams and locks was constructed along the Ohio, causing water levels along this part of the river to rise. By the 1950s, ‘super’ dams were added on the Ohio and the river rose even higher. Today, the petroglyphs are inundated under about 15 feet of water.” (O’Brien 2020)
When Lewis and Clark traveled the Columbia River gorge, on what is now the border between Washington and Oregon, they could have seen quite a bit of rock art. They visited a village of the Wishram people named Nixluidix which was located approximately where The Dalles dam is now located. “Interestingly, their eventual round down the Columbia river led past the site of the magnificent petroglyph now named Tsagaglalal (She Who Watches) but there is no hint in their records that they actually saw it. They visited a village of the Wishram people which was named Nixluidix by its residents. The Wishram were one of the Upper Chinook people and prospered in their location on trade, specifically in large quantities of dried salmon.” (Faris 2011)
Much of the Columbia river gorge was lined with basalt cliffs which contained a large quantity of rock art although Lewis and Clark did not mention it in their journals. The impoundment of The Dalles dam as well as other dams and locks inundated much of this rock art although some of it was rescued and can be seen displayed at sites in the vicinity. Remaining rock art on the cliffs above the water level of the impoundment is also exciting and worth a visit, but so much was lost.
This has also been the case with many other canyons such as the Colorado River in the American southwest. In the canyons along the Colorado River, the Glen Canyon dam and the Hoover dam as well as other projects have submerged thousands, if not tens of thousands, of rock art and other archaeological sites. This will not always need to be considered a negative effect however. Perhaps being underwater, however, will protect rock art from vandalism. I recall hearing a report from one rock art recording project in northern New Mexico decades ago, in the neighborhood of the Navajo Lake Reservoir that had submerged many rock art and other cultural sites. When their Navajo guide was asked what he thought about their sites and rock art being submerged under hundreds of feet of water he was reportedly quoted as having replied “It’s safe from you now.”
NOTE: Once again RockArtBlog wishes to thank Sachin Tiwary for his cooperation in this, and permission to cite his paper (below) and use his photographs. This effort would be incomplete without his assistance, and would not have happened without his original inspiration.
ALSO: 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, 2020 George Washington May Have Seen These Ohio River Petroglyphs, November 7, 2020, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/George%Washington
2011 Rock Art of Lewis and Clark, December 31, 2011, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Lewis%20and%20Clark
Grant, Campbell, 1967 Rock Art of the American Indian, Promontory Press, New York
O’Brien, Dan, 2020 Learn the Mystery of the Ohio River Petroglyphs,The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio, https://businessjournaldaily.com/mystery-of-ohio-river-petroglyphs/
Tiwary, Sachin Kr., 2014 Underwater Rock Art: In Global Context, En Rupestreweb, http://www.rupestreweb.info/underwaterrockart.html
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