A WHOLE NEW TYPE OF ROCK ART - AMMOGLYPHS:

"Hashtag" ammoglyph, photograph www.ancientorigins.net.

It is not often I get to pass along news about a whole new kind of rock art, but it was with some excitement that I found this report of a team of South African researchers who have discovered ammoglyphs. These originated as human created designs in beach sand which was later turned to sandstone, preserving the markings in the process, voila - rock art.

Trace fossils of sand ripples on a beach turned to sandstone. Internet photograph, Public domain.

In the past I have seen many examples of ripple marks from water preserved in stone. Indeed, I have long been fascinated by the trackways of extinct animals preserved as trace fossils when beach sand has been cemented into sandstone. I have even been aware that in recent decades hominin tracks in stone have been discovered. What I was not expecting was that doodles or drawings left in the sand by these beings would have been preserved and could be recorded as a form of rock art.

Divided triangle ammoglyph. Photograph Charles Helm.

“An ammoglyph (‘ammos’ being Greek for ‘sand’, and ‘glyph’ being Greek for a carving, image, or symbol) is a name given to fossilized art works created by early humans. They are a special kind of aeolianites. This term was coined by Charles William Helm, lead researcher in the excavation of these fossilized pieces and is a relatively new discovery within the 2019 year.

Deliberate sand impressions have been discovered made in former sand dunes and beach deposits that have now been fossilized into rock and re-exposed through the process of erosion. They were first noticed in coasts in the region of South Africa, an area rich in early rock art. They are dated to the Middle-Late Pleistocene, approximately 158,000 to 70,000 years ago. The sand impressions are theorized to have shown indications of foraging or development of symbols and patterns as a means of communication or art. Such patterns that have been discovered include repetitive figures in the shapes of circles and stylistic techniques that display lines in zig-zags, parallel lines, and cross-hatches.” (Wikipedia)

Helm, a Research Associate at the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University first began studying trackways in British Columbia, but moved to South Africa where he found much more fertile ground.

Fossilized hominin track. Photographs Richard Helm, 2020.

“These rock surfaces don’t just show where and how our ancestors walked or jogged. They also reveal how they foraged or left stone tools - and made patterns in the sand. The patterns that we have found consist of circles, grooves, ‘hashtags’, fan shapes and even what appears to be a sand sculpture that resembled a sting-ray. In our research paper about these discoveries, we introduced the term ‘ammoglyph’ to describe a pattern created by humans in sand that is now evident in rock. Now we’ve discovered two new triangular patterns that we believe are ammoglyhs. This is yet more evidence that South Africa’s coastline is a place where our human forebears became truly modern. Here they developed the complex cognition that defines us today.” (Helm 2021)

Some of the markings found were probably produced accidentally as the hominin walked across the sand, perhaps with a walking staff, or dragging something, but others seemingly would have had to be purposefully created. You don’t get the hashtag patterns, the triangular patterns, or the protractor-created circle by accident.

Protractor created circle ammoglyph. Photograph Charles Helm.

Charles Helm re-creating creation of the circle. Photograph Linda Helm.

The latter, in particular, indicates complex cognition and planning. A forked stick, used like a protractor, with one arm pushed into the sand as a pivot that the other arm was rotated around. This one even shows the impressions of the knees of the hominin who kneeled in the sand to make the design.

I find this stuff very exciting. No dispassionate scientific consideration here, this is a big deal.

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:

Helm, Charles, 2021, What Triangular Patterns on Rocks May Reveal About Human Ancestors, 26 April 2021, https://phys.org

Helm, Charles W., M. Lockley, H. Cawthra, J. D. Vynck, M. Dixon, C. J. Helm, and Guy H. H. Thesen, 2020, Newly Identified Hominin Trackways From the Cape South Coast of South Africa, South African Journal of Science, DOI:20.27259/SAJS.2020/8156

Wikipedia, Ammoglyph, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammoglyph