A PAINTED DINOSAUR FOOTPRINT IN LESOTHO, AFRICA:

Flag Point track site, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Internet photo public domain.

Painted track at Flag Point track site, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. Internet photo public domain.

Chirotherium track, Joseph City, New Mexico. Photograph from Mayor and Sergeant, 2001.

Petroglyph of chirotherium track, Joseph City, New Mexico. Photograph from Mayor and Sergeant, 2001.

I think that my two favorite things in the world may be rock art and dinosaur tracks. And I would imagine that we all know about the red pictograph of the nearby dinosaur track at Flag Point in Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument in Utah. RockArtBlog published a column about that marvel on 21 November 2015 in a column titled “A Painted Dinosaur Track in Utah.” Also, on 13 June 2014 I wrote a column titled “A Dinosaur Track Petroglyph” on a report by Adrienne Mayor and William Sarjeant of a petroglyph they believe was inspired by a nearby dinosaur track. Now, I have seen a report about a site in Lesotho, a sovereign enclave in South Africa, painted by a San bushman a artist that not only records a dinosaur track, but apparently includes a couple of images of the creature that the artist imagined to have made the track (Helm et al. 2012)

Mokhali Cave, Lesotho. Photograph Helm et al. Fig. 3.

The pictographs at this site were first recorded by one Paul Ellenberger, the son and grandsonof two generations of missionaries and ministers in Lesotho. “Swiss-born D. Frédéric Ellenberger (1835-1910) came to Lesotho in 1861. He spent the next 44 years in this work, first in Morija and then in Masitise, where he created temporary accommodation by building a stone wall in front of a massive rock overhang. He lived with his family in this Cave House for 13 years.” (Helm et al. 2012) One of Ellenberger’s children, Victor, later visited the site with his own son, Paul, who recorded the pictographs. “Victor Ellenberger (1879-1972) was born in this Cave House while a war raged outside. He excelled as a student and went to France for his secondary education, then worked as a minister from 1917 to 1934 in Lesotho (mainly at Leribe) and then in Paris. He became an expert on Lesotho’s flowering plants, changing environmental conditions and the tragic end of the San, and published books on these topics. With the help of his son Paul he copied over 400 San paintings.” (Helm et al. 2012)

San painted track image, Photograph Helm et al. Fig. 4.

Victor and Paul visited the site accompanied by Frederic Christol (1850-1933), a Lutheran minister and artist. “Armed with this knowledge of the Ellenbergers, we can imagine a 1930 visit to a rock overhang 10 km north-east of Leribe (Hlotse) known as Mokhali Cave. Victor was the minister in Leribe and likely the orchestrator. Present were Victor’s father-in-law, the artist Christol, and 12-year-old Paul, who was given the task of tracing the paintings. While his grandfather sketched the cave, Paul traced the wonderful images, which were unlike anything he or his father had seen before. Beside a painting in red ochre of a three-toed dinosaur footprint, there were three graceful figures of the imagined track-maker.” (Helm et al. 2012) Since the footprint is three-toed made by an ornithopod, the San artist had recognized its resemblance to a bird track and created the three imaginary figures which are very birdlike.

San painted track image enhanced, Photograph Helm et al. Fig. 5.

As is so often the case, the original drawings had been filed away and essentially forgotten. “The tracings had languished in obscurity in Lesotho and then in Montpellier (Montpellier University in France). But in 1989 David Mossman, a Canadian paleontologist on sabbatical in France, met Ellenberger and learned about them. In 2004 he lectured in South Africa and visited Mokhali Cave with his son Alex. They located it after an exhaustive two-day search, finally identifying it with the use of a copy of Christol’s sketch. Unfortunately the paintings had faded badly – the footprint (resembling that of an ornithopod) was just discernible, but the track-maker images were no longer visible. Ellenberger and the Mossmans then collaborated with renowned ichnologist Martin Lockley in submitting the article to Ichnos.” (Helm et al. 2012)

The claim by Ellenberger et al. (2005) that the track-maker images predate European attempts was based on the estimated latest possible occupation of Mokhali Cave by the San (1810-20), before it was occupied by the son of the Basotho king and before the San were killed or driven from the region. Implicit in such an estimate is the possibility that they may have been made even earlier. This report assumes that the San were the artists. (Helm et al. 2012)

Drawing of San painted track image and imagined track makers, image courtesy David Mossman, from Helm et al. Fig. 2.

“Employing technologies developed in astronomy, forensics and medicine, and applying them specifically to rock art, Kevin Crause has developed the CPED Toolset – Capture, Processing, Enhancement, Display. After obtaining high-resolution images, data is colour-balanced and processed to remove lens distortion. Designed enhancement algorithms resolve imagery details that cannot be resolved under normal light conditions as perceived by the human visual system. By using this technology, images often result of rock art that are no longer visible to the naked eye. We wondered what the CPED Toolset could offer regarding the faded footprint and track-maker images. Kevin and Charles Helm revisited Mokhali Cave to test this in 2011. The cave, which we found without difficulty thanks to excellent directions from the Mossmans, is 75 m wide, 10 m high and 5 m deep. It provides a magnificent north-facing view over the Caledon Valley and its level floor is wide and deep enough to encourage habitation, as in Christol’s sketch, which depicts three Basotho huts. However, it is exposed to the elements. Northerly winds, winter snow and freeze-thaw events damage the paintings on its walls, which are prone to flaking off. The chances of rock art surviving seemed remote. However, the footprint, 2 m from the eastern end of the cave, was recognizable. Midway along the floor were the remains of a circular hut. In addition to analysing the footprint and surrounding area, all promising surfaces in the cave were photographed. This yielded a few images of so-called Late White paintings by Bantu-speaking agriculturalists (Lewis-Williams 2006), likely representing Basotho rock art, but also suggesting the possibility of Basotho artists creating the dinosaur images. Rock art shelters 200mfurther east yielded numerous San paintings. In the valley of the Subeng Stream below, 3 km from Mokhali Cave, we visited a dinosaur tracksite that was recorded by Ellenberger in the 1950s. From here Mokhali Cave was visible."
(Helm et al. 2012)

“Computer programs have enhanced the image quality at this site, confirming the accuracy of Paul Ellenberger’s 1930 tracing and the relation of the footprint to the track-maker images. However, for details on the track-maker images, the efforts over 80 years ago of a remarkable pre-teenager remain the sole source. Future work is required to resolve the origin of this rock art and, if possible, its age.” (Helm et al. 2012)  This may be a reference to their CPED toolset or possibly they finished it up with D-Stretch, in any case they now have provided a great image of the painted footprint that was previously hard to see.

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:

Faris, Peter, 2015, A Painted Dinosaur Track in Utah, 21 November 2015, rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Faris, Peter, 2014, A Dinosaur Track Petroglyph, 13 June 2014, rockartblog.blogspotcom.

Helm, Charles, Kevin Crause and Richard McCrea, 2012, Mokhali Cave Revisited, Dinosaur Rock Art in Lesotho, April 2012, The Digging Stick, Vol. 29, No. 1. Accessed from Researchgate.net.

Mayor, Adrienne and William A. S. Serjeant, 2001, The Folklore of Footprints in Stone: From Classical Antiquity to the Present, Ichnos, Vol. 8, No. 2, 143-163.

SECONDARY REFERENCES:

Ellenberger, P, Mossman, DJ, Mossman, AD, & Lockley, MG. 2005. Bushmen cave paintings of ornithopod dinosaurs: paleolithic trackers interpret Early Jurassic footprints. Ichnos, Vol. 12 No. 3, 223-226.