NORTHWEST COAST ART, AND PICTISH ART REVISITED:

 This is a column that is just for fun. I am not trying to claim any sort of discovery or insight, it is just about a coincidence that I find entrancing.

Line drawing of the 'Pictish Beast.' Internet image, public domain.

On 5 February 2017, I published a column on RockArtBlog titled An Ancient Pictish Water Monster’s Resemblance to the Sea Wolf of Northwest Coast Indian Art. In this column I am going to revisit that subject because the similarity still intrigues me. First, I will state again that I do not see any possibility of contact between the people of ancient Scotland and the tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America. I am not implying any connection between the images, I am just fascinated by their similarities.

'Pictish Beast' carved on the Maiden Stone. Illustration from aberdeenshire.gov.uk.

First, I present the animal symbol known as the ‘Pictish Beast.’ It is found carved in relief on rock slabs known as ‘Pictish Symbol Stones.’

“Pictish symbol stones are of two broad types, long known as Class I and Class II. The symbols on Class I stones are incised, whereas those on the class II stones are carved in relief.” (Cummings 1995:126) These carvings range from a simple line image to wonderfully intricate carved designs with a broad range of content, but the most recognized symbols have been catalogued.

Carved 'Pictish Beast.' Internet image, public domain.

“Some fifty different Pictish symbols have been recognized. These include animal’s heads, birds (eagle, goose), other animals (fish, serpent, boar, bull, dog), and the ‘Pictish Beast’ (often referred to as an elephant, but more probably a stylized dolphin), and a variety of inorganic designs.” (Cummings 1995:126) It would not, of course, be an elephant. Of the dolphins around Scotland the Bottlenose dolphin is common and the shape of its head most closely matches the ‘Pictish Beast.’

Spouting dolphin. Image from Dolphin Watch Cruises.

“The Pictish Beast symbol is characterized by an elongated, sinuous body that typically adopts a horizontal or diagonal orientation, evoking a swimming or serpentine post. Its head features long jaws or a beak-like snout that curls outward at the tip, often accompanied by a lappet indicated by one or two lines. A prominent crest or mane runs along the back in many depictions adding to the creature’s distinctive silhouette. The limbs end in scroll-like or spiraled forms resembling flippers or coiled feet, while the tail is usually drooping and spiral-ended, sometimes reduced to a simple line. The body is frequently infilled with decorative elements such as interlace, fretwork, or spirals, rendered in incised lines of varying depth that contribute to a stylized rather than a naturalistic style.” (Grokipedia vO.2) Assuming that the image can be identified as a Bottlenose Dolphin, what is called the ‘crest’ was probably inspired by the dolphin spouting, the spray of water when it exhales through its blowhole.

The ‘tail’ may be, in fact, the dolphins dorsal fin (or may have been added by the artists because animals have tails), and the ornate coiled legs are the dolphins flippers and flukes.

“On symbol stones, the Beast measures up to 1-2 meters in length, scaled to the slabs dimentions, and appears on both Class I (incised) and Class II (relief) stones.” (Grokipedia vO.2)

Line drawing of Sea Wolves. Nainamo, British Columbia. Internet image, public domain.

Which brings me to Vancouver Island off of the coast of British Columbia in Canada. I have been to petroglyphs sites there that have creatures often identified as Sea Wolves that have a lot in common with the ‘Pictish Beast.’ Generally the resemblances are in the head and the sinuous torso of the animal. Now, let me repeat, I know that they cannot be related in any way, but I love the synchronicity of this. There are images of these from sites on Sproat Lake, Nainamo, and Gabriola Island, five kilometers offshore from Nainamo.

Sea Wolf, Petroglyph Park, Nainamo, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Photograph by Peter Faris, 1997.

Sea Wolf, Sproat Lake, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Photograph by Peter Faris, 1997.

Another wonderful concidence is that the ‘Pictish Beast’ is usually thought to represent a dolphin, and the people who inhabited Vancouver Island, the Kwakwaka’waks, Nuu-chah-nulth, and the Coastal Salish peoples are maritime cultures like the other tribes of the Northwest Coast. Could their Sea Wolf also be a dolphin?

Head of a Sea Wolf, Gabriola Island, off of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Image from Gabriola: Petroglyph Island, by Mary and Ted Bentley, Sono Nis Press, Nelson British Columbia, Canada, 1981, page 26.

I have speculated in the past that the sea wolves might indeed be just that, actual wolves who have adapted to a somewhat maritime lifestyle. But the images identified as sea wolves could equally well be images of dolphins like the ‘Pictish Beast.’

NOTE 1: Some images in this column 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.

NOTE2:  Grok4, cited below as a reference, is a Large Language Model from SpaceXAI.

REFERENCES:

Cummings, W. A., 1995, The Age of the Picts, Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd., Gloucestershire, UK.

Faris, Peter, 2017, An Ancient Pictish Water Monster’s Resemblance to the Sea Wolf of Northwest Coast Indian Art, 5 February 2017, RockArtBlog, https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7760124847746733855/2882785802379020134

Grok4, Pictish Beast, Grokipedia vO.2. https://grokipedia.com/page/Pictish_Beast.

Owen, Kathryn, 2022, Pictish Beasts, 19 September 2022, https://www.livingfield.co.uk/art/pictish-beasts/. Accessed online 19 September 2026.

CANADIAN CARVED STONE PILLAR – ANCIENT OR MODERN?

The Vancouver carved stone. Photograph from CBC News.

A supposed First Nations artifact has been discovered on a beach near Vancouver, British Columbia. This one is a conundrum, the artifact may or may not actually be indigenous but it is impressive. A carved stone face found on a rock on a beach at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, has been identified as an old artifact created by First Nations people, and also claimed by a contemporary artist to be his creation. So, which is it?

"A carved sandstone pillar discovered on Dallas Road Beach last summer is an Indigenous artifact once used in rituals by the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations, says a Royal British Columbia Museum curator of archaeology." (Kloster 2021) So, it has been authenticated. This seems pretty cut and dried, right? 

The artifact was discovered on the beach in January 2021 by a resident out walking. "Last week, the Royal B.C. Museum announced it had discovered an Indigenous artifact used in rituals by the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations. The museum said the 100-kilogram oblong pillar with a carved face on its edge had been examined by an archeology curator. After consulting with local communities and looking at anthropological records, the curator came to the conclusion the artifact was likely related to ceremonies involving the feeding of the dead." (Diclson 2021) The discoverer certainly did the right thing in notifying the Royal British Columbia Museum.

Coastal Salish style petroglyphs, Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada. Photograph by Wolfgang Zintl.

This artifact was studied and pronounced authentic by Royal British Columbia Museum curator of ­archeology Grant Keddie. “It’s very likely a special stone that was used in rituals and ceremonies, he said, explaining that Coast Salish peoples had “weather specialists. They were believed to have “special powers to draw the salmon in when they were late, or you could undertake rituals [with] certain stones to change the weather to make it good for fishing, to make it worse for your enemies, He speculates the pillar once stood near the edge of a cliff above the beach where it was found until parts of the cliff came down in a landslide.” (Haldoupis 2024) While this seems to make sense, given ethnographic records of the people of the area, this is only surmise, not proof.

This is in the area of prehistoric occupation by the Coastal Salish First Nations People. Now I have a few images of rock art by Coastal Salish peoples and none of them resemble this carving in any degree so my first reaction was to doubt the authenticity of the stone carving. The handling of the eye and mouth seem quite out of character for Salish art work.

Artist's photograph claiming authorship of the carving. Photograph on right by Ray Boudreau, from the Times Colonist.

Then, to make things even more confusing, a local artist claimed he had carved the figure. "Ray Boudreau posted a photo of a similar rock carving on the Times Colonist Facebook page, saying it was his carving and he thought it had been stolen." (Dickson 2021) However, the photograph he provided does not quite match the carving in many details, but then the photograph shows a piece that looks unfinished. 

Coastal Salish stone carving - Txwelatse. Photograph from the Burke Museum, Seattle. 

If it helps cast light on this question somewhat similar carved stone figure was held at the Burke Museum in Seattle. The stone T'xwelatse, an ancestor of the Chilliwack (Ts'elxweyeqw) - one of the the Stolo tribes in the Fraser Valley - is a man who was born thousands of years ago and transformed into a four foot high granite statue as punishment for mistreating his wife. This figure has since been returned to the Stolo tribes and has been displayed at their cultural center gallery.

So, we have contradicting claims for the authenticity of the artifact. Is it an authentic Salish relic, or is it not? At this point I could not begin to tell you. You might have to figure this one out for yourselves.

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:

Dickson, Louise, 2021, Provenance of stone pillar in question after artist says he created the rock carving on Victoria beach, 1 February 2021, Victoria Times Colonist. Accessed online 18 September 2025.

Haldoupis, Julia, 2024, Carved Stone Pillar Found on B.C. Beach Identified as an Indigenous Artifact, 29 March 2024, https://archaeologyworlds.com/. Accessed online 18 September 2025.

Kloster, Darron, 2021, Stone pillar found on Dallas Road beach likely once used in Indigenous rituals: Curator, 27 January 2021, Victoria Times Colonist. Accessed online 18 September 2025.

A MYSTERIOUS RUNE STONE IN ONTARIO HAS BEEN DECIPHERED:

Ontario rune-stone. Illustration from Ancient-origins.com.

A mysterious carved boulder in Ontario has now determined to be inscribed with a long inscription in runes, as well as a nearby petroglyph of a boat surrounded by crucifixes.

“Archaeologists have cracked the code of 255 mysterious symbols carved into a rock in Canada more than 200 years ago. The writing was discovered in 2018 after a fallen tree revealed the square-shaped inscription near the town of Wawa, located about 155 miles from the nearest US border crossing in Michigan.” (Liberatore 2025) This strikes me as a terrible way for the whole story to start, being found under a fallen tree sounds like the backstory of the Kensington Rune Stone.

Rune panel carved on Ontario rune-stone. Internet image, public domain.

“Ryan Primrose, an archaeologist from the Ontario Center for Archaeological Education, has identified the characters as Nordic runes, part of an old alphabet once used in Sweden and other parts of Scandinavia.” (Liberatore 2025)

Primrose studied the carved symbols for seven years. The rock bears 255 symbols lined up like writing as well as an image of a boat. With the help of Swedish researcher Henrick Williams, Primrose finally solved the riddle. The markings spell out a 1611 version of the Lord’s Prayer in Swedish.

“It was a surprising find in the middle of Canada, but researchers later discovered that Swedish workers were hired by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the 1800s to work at remote trading posts – suggesting one of them may have made the carving.” (Liberatore 2025)

Boat carving and crucifixes by Ontario rune-stone. Photograph by Ryan Primrose from the Ontario Center for Archaeological Education.

“The carved boat, containing 16 figures and marked by 14 crosses, hints at a deeper symbolic meaning hidden within the mysterious runestone. Experts are still undecided on whether it served for communal worship or was just the project of one person.” (Brucker 2025) This is a little confusing – the 14 crosses are not on the boat, but are divided up into two groups on either side of the carved boat, with five on the left and nine on the right. No explanation or speculation so far whether there is any significance to the numbers 16, 14, 5 or 9. It may be that the boat represents the trip over to Canada from Sweden by the workers.

The Ontario rune-stone. Photograph by Ryan Primrose from the Ontario Center for Archaeological Education.

 “Scholars are still struggling with core mysteries: why is this text here, of all places, in the boondocks of northwestern Ontario? Was it part of a gathering-place for spiritual reflection, or the creative act of a loner? The reason for the deliberate burial is also still unknown. Ongoing archival work and site analysis may yet bring answers to these lingering questions.” (Brucker 2025) Given the location I am going to assume that this was the personal obsession of an eccentric loner working for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

It also appears to have been intentionally buried although available articles do not explain the relationship to the tree, was it intentionally planted or a natural growth from the intervening 200 years. Let us hope that archival work in records of the Hudson’s Bay Company eventually turns up references that will help explain the history of this inscription. In the meantime it is an interesting curiosity.

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:

Archaeology, 2025, Mystery of Strange Canadian Rock Carvings, 18 June 2025, Ontario Centre for Archaeological Research and Education. https://archaeology.org. Accessed online 19 June 2025.

Brucker, Miles, 2025, Researchers deciphered a mysterious runestone found in a forest in Canada, 3 July 2025, Things, https://www.factinate.com. Accessed online 3 July 2025.

Liberatore, Stacy, 2025, Mysterious carving with biblical message linked to Jesus’ crucifixtion found in North America, 16 June 2025, Dailymail.com. Accessed online 19 June 2025.

THERE’S SOMETHING FISHY ABOUT THIS PETROGLYPH – SALMON:

Salmon jumping a waterfall. Internet image, public domain.

Improved analytical techniques have made it possible to trace hominin use of fish for food back a considerable distance in the historical record. In 2011 Hardy and Moncel wrote about fish remains associated with Neanderthal occupation 125 – 250,000 years ago.

“Fishing and fowling are often used as markers of modern human behavior, despite their remains having been reported from numerous early hominin (as far back as 1.95 Ma) and Neanderthal sites. In fact, fishing is difficult to detect in the archaeological record for several reasons: 1) many coastal sites are lost due to rise in sea level; 2) fish bones are fragile and may be lost due to taphonomic processes; 3) many fish bones are small and may require specialized recovery techniques; and 4) the widespread assumption that fishing is a modern human behavior may lead investigators not to look for evidence in the first place. The argument that Neanderthals did not fish has recently been bolstered by stable isotope research that suggests that Neanderthal dC13 values do not match those of fish. This evidence must be treated with caution, however, as dC13 for fish can vary greatly, particularly from freshwater fish.

Sites with possible evidence of Neanderthal consumption of fish include Milan, Almada and Abreda Caves, Spain, Grotte XVI, France, Devil’s Tower and Vanguard Cave, Gibraltar, Raj Cave, Poland, Grotta Maggiore, Italy, UstKanskaya Cave, Siberia, and Figueira Brava Cave, Portugal. Evidence at these sites includes the recovery of osteological remains, fish bones in association with hearths, and cut-marks on fish bones. At Payre, residues and use-wear indicative of fish are found in the absence of osteological remains. Fish may have been processed off-site (at local streams or rivers), and the tools returned to the site or fish may have been processed on site but the bones did not preserve. In Level Fa, all of the artifacts with fish residues are located in one square meter near the wall, a possible indicator of a specialized intrasite activity area. These results highlight the difficulty in recognizing fish consumption archaeologically and suggest that fish consumption by Neanderthals may be underrepresented. The growing list of sites with fish remains as well as the detection of fish processing in the absence of fish bones at a site further suggests that fish consumption should not be seen as exclusively in the domain of modern humans.” (Hardy and Moncel 2011:7-8) I know of no rock art of fish attributable to Hominin (including Neanderthal) sources but we now know they procured them somehow and ate them.

Hardy et al. (2013:30) again reported on fish remains at Abri du Maras. Remains found there include bones and scales of chub and perch. “Estimated body weights range between 550 and 850 g. Few predators are able to catch and carry fish of this size. Hence, the possibility of Neanderthals as predators cannot be discarded, and the presence of these fish remains in layer 4 may be considered the result of anthropic activity. Once again, the combination of residue and zooarchaeological analyses provides corroborating evidence and strengthens the case of Neanderthal fishing.” (Hardy et al. 2013:30) So Neanderthals caught and ate fish, probably including salmon, but as far as we know they did not leave any images of fish in rock art.

Salmon carving in Abri Poisson Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

Salmon carving in Abri Poisson Cave, France. Showing attempted removal of the carving from the cave ceiling. Photograph Heinrich Wendel.

Then we reach the Paleolithic Period and the high point of cave art. Abri du Poisson (Fish Shelter) is known for a beautiful relief carving of a salmon. A series of holes were drilled around the fish and chiseling had begun to undercut that section when the vandals were discovered and saved. The damage can be seen in these photographs of the panel in situ. “The shelter is discovered by Paul Girod in 1892 which recognizes an Aurignacian level . It was not until 1912 that Jean Marsan identified the superb fish that made the site famous. Represented life-size (1.05  m ), it is engraved and carved in low relief on the ceiling of the vault, highlighted with red color. It is a becquart salmon, with its jaw turned up; the attitude is characteristic of the male exhausted by spawning. The theme is rare since only a dozen fish have been identified in Paleolithic cave art. Other parietal works have since been identified by Christian Archambeau and Alain Roussot, including a black negative hand and incomplete animal engraved figures.The attribution of these works to the Gravettian (- 25 000 years) is likely; it makes engraved salmon one of the oldest representations of fish known in the world, possible testimony of prehistoric fishing activities.” (Wikipedia)

Carved reindeer antler. Lortet, Hautes Pyrenees, France. Internet image, public domain.

Somewhat later, during the Magdalenian Period (18,000 to 15,000 BC), an artist produced a carving on reindeer antler of wading or swimming reindeer with salmon swimming around their legs which was recovered from the Grotte de Lortet in France.

Broken carved bone salmon. Grotte de Lortet, France. Internet image, public domain.

Maz, D'Azil, France. Image from www.donsmaps.com.

Other carvings of salmon include a broken fragment of bone with the head of a salmon at one end, and a broken spear thrower with a salmon carved into it. One might almost be tempted to assume it was intended for spear fishing.

There are also representations of other fish in European Cave Art, indeed elsewhere in the world as well, but I am focusing on salmon in this column.

Closer to home, the culture of the Pacific Northwest Coast tribes of North American relied to a great extent on the availability of salmon.

“Salmon are an essential component of the ecosystem in Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s traditional, ancestral, and contemporary unceded territory, centred on present-day Burrard Inlet, BC, Canada, where Tsleil-Waututh people have been harvesting salmon, along with a wide variety of other fishes, for millennia. Tsleil-Waututh Nation is a Coast Salish community that has called the Inlet home since time immemorial. This research assesses the continuity and sustainability of the salmon fishery at təmtəmíxʷtən, an ancestral Tsleil-Waututh settlement in the Inlet, over thousands of years before European contact (1792 CE). We apply Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) analysis to 245 archaeological salmon vertebrae to identify the species that were harvested by the ancestral Tsleil-Waututh community that lived at təmtəmíxʷtən. The results demonstrate that Tsleil-Waututh communities consistently and preferentially fished for chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) over the period of almost 3,000 years. The consistent abundance indicates a sustainable chum salmon fishery over that time, and a strong salmon-to-people relationship through perhaps 100 generations. This research supports Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s stewardship obligations under their ancestral legal principles to maintain conditions that uphold the Nation’s way of life.” (Efford et al. 2023) Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, is on the east side of the Strait of Georgia, where the modern city of Vancouver is located. Approximately 40 miles west across the open water is Nainamo on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. These are both in the Coastal Salish culture group.

“Tsleil-Waututh is a distinct, Indigenous Coast Salish nation whose ancestral and contemporary territory is centred on səlilwət, part of the inlet ecosystem that is now also known as Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, Canada. Since European contact in 1792 CE, colonial development and resource extraction have driven dramatic change and development in Tsleil-Waututh territory to the extent that today it includes Canada’s busiest port and metropolitan Vancouver, a city of 2.5 million people. Consequent damage to and loss of vulnerable ecosystems, habitats, and animal and plant populations have impacted Tsleil-Waututh ways of life and greatly reduced their ability to harvest important traditional foods. Despite these impacts, the area is rich with archaeological evidence of Tsleil-Waututh’s relationship to the lands and waters throughout their territory and confirms Tsleil-Waututh oral histories and traditional knowledge of continuous connections to land, waters, plants, and animals.” (Efford et al. 2023)

“Both oral histories and the archaeological evidence identify chum as being particularly important for Tsleil-Waututh communities over the millennia. The consistency of the comparative abundance of salmon species across time suggests that Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s chum salmon fishery was a stable and sustainable salmon fishery, maintained over the course of almost 3,000 years. We would expect to see a drop off in the abundance of chum salmon over time, or a switch to another species as the most abundantly harvested, if the fishery had been unsustainable, or if there had been a major ecological impact. Instead, through this work as others, we see consistent use of salmon, particularly chum salmon, as well as herring, anchovy, and eulachon over millennia.” (Efford et al. 2023)

In their 2018 article on rock art of the Tsleil-Waututh people Arnett and Morin purposely avoided ascribing any particular identities or meanings to the imagery, focusing instead on their cultural significance of marking important locations to the Tsleil-Waututh people.

Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, To Welcome the Salmon Back From the Sea, removed from Jack Point, Vancouver Island. Photograph J&E Faris, 1992.

“In this article we have described the specific historical and cultural context of rock art production in the territory of one Coast Salish group. The rock paintings are best understood in terms of marking culturally significant places in the Tsleil-Waututh landscape so that future generations might know their significance.” (Arnett and Morin 2018) Their paper included no illustrations that could be identified as images of salmon. As I stated above, however, as a branch of the Coastal Salish culture they were culturally related to the people who produce other rock art of the area. One particularly important concentration of Salish is found at Nainamo on Vancouver Island, and, at Nainamo, there are images of salmon. These are on a boulder that was recovered from Jack Point in Vancouver Island, which is just a few miles to the east of Nainamo. This petroglyph panel on this boulder shows a group of salmon, supposedly to welcome the return of the salmon to begin their spawning run.

So, we find that across the Northern Hemisphere, and through a period of tens of millennia, salmon were considered a valuable food source and were of great spiritual and ceremonial significance.

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:

Choi, Charles Q., 2011, World’s Oldest Fish Hooks Show Early Humans Fished Deep Sea, 24 November 2011, https://www.livescience.com. Accessed online 30 August 2023.

Efford, Meaghan et al., 2023, Archaeology demonstrates sustainable ancestral Coast Salish salmon stewardship over thousands of years, 25 August 2023, https://journals.plos.org. Accessed online 31 August 2023.

Hardy, Bruce and Marie-Helene Moncel, 2011, Neanderthal Use of Fish, Mammals, Birds, Starchy Plants and Wood 125 – 250,000 years ago, August 2011, Plos ONE 6(8), DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0023768. Accessed online 13 September 2023.

B.L. Hardy et al., 2013, Impossible Neanderthals? Making String, Throwing Projectiles and Catching Small Game during Marine Isotope Stage 4 (Abri du Maras, France), Quaternary Science Reviews 82 (2013) 23-40. Accessed online 13 September 2023.

Arnett, Chris and Jesse Morin, 2018, The Rock Painting/Xela:Is of the Tsleil-Waututh: A Historicized Coast Salish Practice, Ethnohistory 65:1, American Society for Ethnohistory. Accessed online 16 September 2023.

Walls, Alex, 2023, Salmon bones confirm sustainable chum fishery for 2,500 years under Tsleil-Waututh Nation, 20 August 2023, https://phys.org. Accessed online 30 August 2023.

Wikipedia, Fish Shelter, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Accueil_principal. Accessed online 30 August 2023.

 

 

STORY TELLING - BIOGRAPHIC NARRATIVES IN ROCK ART:

It is quite common in looking at rock art to have the feeling that the images are telling a story, and that you can almost understand it, almost being the key word here. Although many rock art researchers deny that we can interpret the imagery we find, I disagree - at least in some cases. Some rock art is obviously telling a story and we are meant to be able to decipher it.

Bird Rattle (Blackfeet) carving his petroglyph,1924, Writing-on-Stone, Alberta, Canada. From James Keyser, 2004, Art of the Warriors, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

A prime example of this is Bird Rattle’s panel from Writing-On-Stone at Alberta, Canada. As explained by Klassen, Keyser, and Loendorf in their paper in Plains Anthropologist (2000) “The recent discovery of photographs and narrative of a 1924 trip by Roland Willcomb and Piegan elder Bird Rattle demonstrates that a well-known historic petroglyph at Writing-On-Stone was carved by this Plains Warrior as part of the Biographic rock art tradition.” (Klassen et al. 2000:189)

       Bird Rattle's panel, Writing-On-Stone,           Alberta, Canada. Photograph Peter Faris,                           June 25, 2016.

Bird Rattle and Willcomb had met in 1923 in the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. Willcomb had come to the West as an engineer and in the summer of 1923 joined the Montana Highway Commission, overseeing the building  of roads on the reservation from 1923 to 1925. After meeting Bird Rattle a close friendship developed between Willcomb and him which lasted until the death of Bird Rattle in October 1937. (Klassen et al. 2000:191-2)

         Bird Rattle's panel, Writing-On-Stone, Alberta, Canada. Figure 7, page 196, Klassen                        et al., 2000.

“Within a year of their meeting, Willcomb had arranged to take Bird Rattle on a visit to Writing-On-Stone. Apparently, he had been told of this ‘place of mystery, where the ghosts live’ and he wished to experience it himself. Their journey to Writing-On-Stone was documented by Willcomb with a series of photographs, and he later audio recorded a narrative of the journey, apparently based on his original notes and letters. On the morning of September 13, 1924, Willcomb and Bird Rattle, accompanied by a second Piegan elder, Split Ears, and Jack Wagner, who acted as interpreter, left Browning in Willcomb’s car. The party drove north to the Canadian border. There they were joined by two of Willcomb’s friends from Great Falls.” (Klassen et al. 2000:192-3)

Coso range, California. Photograph Paul and Joy Foster.

The example in the panel from the Coso Range in California by Paul and Joy Foster is another candidate for such attempts at interpretation. Although some of the elements are a little hard to make out what I see in it is; a large anthropomorph holding what might be an atlatl in his right hand with a projectile point superimposed over the end of it. Five more, carefully delineated projectile points are seen on the right side of the panel for a total of six. Additionally, six zoomorphs are illustrated, one overlapping the anthropomorph and five more on the left side of the panel. If this is not a “mighty hunter” bragging I don’t know what would be. I have been around hunters and fishermen enough to know their bragging when I hear it, or in this case see it. “Six animals with six shots.”

Of course, such interpretation is not acceptable in Archeology, but it is fairly common in Art History, so I reserve the right to indulge in it periodically.

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: 

Klassen, Michael A., James D. Keyser, and Lawrence L. Loendorf,  2000, Bird Rattle’s Petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone: Continuity in the Biographic Rock Art Tradition, Plains Anthropologist, Vol. 45, No. 172, pp. 189-201.

MEET THE ROCK ARTIST - BIRD RATTLE AT WRITING-ON-STONE:

Bird Rattle's petroglyph record of his 1924

visit to Writing-On-Stone. Photograph

Peter Faris, 25 June 2016.

It is a verity in our branch of Art History study that we rarely get to know who created the art we study. In my March 3, 2018, posting I presented rock art (of a sort) that had been created by Sir Isaac Newton. Now, in this posting, I am visiting the author of a historic panel found in Writing-On-Stone, in Canada.

Close-up of the car on the right,

next to large "V"-necked figure

(the figure was not created

by Bird Rattle, it was already there).

Photograph Peter Faris, 25 June 2016.

This car contains 4 passengers.

A couple of years ago I finally had the pleasure of visiting the famous rock art site of Writing-On-Stone provincial park, in Alberta, Canada. There, along the cliffs on the north side of the Milk River valley, a whole lot of world-class rock art can be seen.

Close-up of the car on the left.

Bird Rattle's petroglyph record of his 1924

visit to Writing-On-Stone. Photograph

Peter Faris, 25 June 2016.
This car contains 2 passengers.

Among many images in the Plains Biographic tradition to be found at Writing-On-Stone, one panel shows a pair of automobiles with passengers clearly seen within. While unmistakably of historic origin, the actual details of its creation were debated until a photograph turned up which shows the creation of the images by a Piegan elder named Bird Rattle in 1924.

Bird Rattle carving his petroglyph,1924,

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park,

Alberta, Canada. Public Domain.

"Taken by Roland Willcomb, the photograph clearly shows the South Piegan elder Bird Rattle carving a petroglyph - one of two very similar, detailed automobiles - on a panel at the main site in what is now Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park. The origin of these automobile images has long been a source of debate. Several early researchers assumed the vehicles were recent Euro-American images, while one of us in more recent research had identified certain stylistic elements which suggested a possible aboriginal source. The photograph conclusively ends the question as to the origin of the automobile petroglyphs, but more importantly, its discovery led the authors to additional photographs, correspondence, and documents pertaining to Bird Rattle's and Willcomb's association with Writing-on-Stone." (Klassen et al 2000:189)

Bird Rattle, ca. 1910, Photograph

Edward S. Curtis. Public Domain.

"Born about 1863 near Writing-On-Stone (Willcomb 1968a:3), Bird Rattle grew up during the last of the buffalo days on the Northern Plains. He was intimately familiar with Writing-On-Stone. As a boy in 1866, he and his famil were camped near the locale at the time of the Retreats-Up-The-Hill battle - one of the last major conflicts involving the Blackfoot Nation. Bird Rattle's name has long been association with both Retreats-Up-The-Hill and Writing-On-Stone, as his version of this battle directly links the rock art with this famous conflict. (Dempsey 1973) After the buffalo were gone, Bird Rattle settled in a cabin on Cut Bank Creek, just north of Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation of Montana. By the 1920s, Bird Rattle was a prominent Piegan elder and the owner of a sacred Beaver Bundle. (Willcomb 1970a:44)." (Klassen et al 2000:191)

Roland H. Willcomb was born in Massachusetts and educated in engineering. He had first come to Montana in 1908 (Willcomb 1970a). Willcomb worked around the American West until 1923 when he returned to Montana to work for the Montana Highway Commission. Between 1923 and 1925, he was the Project Engineer overseeing construction of roads across the Blackfeet Reservation. Willcomb met Blackfeet elders including Bird Rattle in Browning, Montana, and "a close friendship developed between Bird Rattle and Willcomb which continued until Bird Rattle's death on October 31, 1937 (Willcomb 1979a)." (Klassen et al 2000:191-2)

"Within a year of their meeting, Willcomb had arranged to take Bird Rattle on a visit to Writing-On-Stone. Apparently, Willcomb had been told stories of this "place of mystery, 'where ghosts live'" (Willcomb 1968a:1) and he wished to experience it himself. Their journey to Writing-On-Stone was documented by Willcomb with a series of photographs, and he later recorded a narrative of the journey (Willcomb 1968a), apparently based on his original notes and letters." (Klassen et al 2000:191-2)

”On the morning of September 13, 1924, Willcomb and Bird Rattle, accompanied by a second Piegan elder, Split Ears, and Jack Wagner who acted as an interpreter, left Browning in Willcomb's car. The party drove north to the Canadian border. There they were joined by two of Willcomb's friends from Great Falls, John Stevenson and I. O. Deshon, who arrived in a second car. From the border the two cards proceeded to Writing-On-Stone, where the party set up camp near the cliffs. After briefly inspecting the rock art on the cliffs, the party gathered around the campfire where Bird Rattle and Split Ears described the rock art as messages from the spirit world which could be read by Medicine Men (Willcomb 1968a:13). These messages, which frequently changed overnight, warned of enemies in the area, told them the location of buffalo herds or strayed horses, and foretold future events. One of the stories told by Bird Rattle that evening was that of the Retreats-Up-The-Hill battle, which Willcomb transcribed in great detail in his later narrative. (Willcomb 1968a; Dempsey 1973)." (Klassen et al, 2000:193)

It was during this visit that Bird Rattle decided to add a record of his trip to the Biographic rock art at Writing-On-Stone. "According to Willcomb, at one point during the day, "Bird Rattle decided that he should record our trip. He selected a bare rock face some distance from any of the ancient 'writings.' He tried his best with a hard piece of quartz, but was barely able to scratch the surface of the sandstone" (Willcomb 1968a:17). Bird rattle, in fact, selected a face already containing rock art, and despite Willcomb's assertion to the contrary, he was quite successful in carving his record of the trip, judging from the resulting petroglyphs." (Klassen et al 2000:194)

"By recording this significant event as rock art, Bird Rattle demonstrated the relationship between narrative expression and the spirit powers of a sacred place. Bird Rattle's petroglyphs, and Willcomb's narrative of this trip (together with the anonymous 1932 narrative), provide new insights into the aboriginal significance of Writing-On-Stone, and the meaning of its rock art."

(Klassen et al 2000:195)

(I wonder whether Bird Rattle actually wore his feather headdress as he created his images, or whether the photo was posed later.)

For students of this art form which is all too often presented to us anonymously on the surface of the cliff, cave, or boulder, and incident like this where we have factual knowledge of the time and place, as well as the thoughts of the creator, can be of inestimable value in looking for meaning.

I am personally very grateful to Klassen, Keyser, and Loendorf for their work in winkling out the facts of this story, and then bringing it to us.

NOTE: The images of Bird Rattle 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 originals at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Dempsey, Hugh A.,

1973 A History of Writing-On-Stone, Unpublished manuscript on file with the Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.

Klassen, Michael A., James D Keyser & Lawrence L. Loendorf,

2000 Bird Rattle’s Petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone:Continuity in the Biographic Rock Art Tradition, Plains Anthropologist, 45:172, 189-201.

Willcomb, Roland H.

1968a        Ah-sin-efp: Writing-On-Stone, Manuscript on file at the Montana Historical Society Archives, Helena.

1970a        Bird Rattle and the Medicine Prayer, Montana Magazine of Western History 20:42-49.