DINOSAURS IN ROCK ART? THE BLACK DRAGON CANYON PTEROSAUR - REVISITED:

Drawing of the traditional image

of the supposed "pterosaur" in

Black Dragon Canyon, UT. From

Geggel, 2015, Photos:'Winged Monster'

Rock Art in Black Dragon Canyon',

August 18, 2015,

http://www.livescience.com/51892-
photos-utah-rock-art.html.

On May 24, 2014, I posted a column titled DINOSAURS IN ROCK ART? - THE BLACK DRAGON CANYON PTEROSAUR, about the supposed pictograph of a pterosaur seen on a cliff wall in Utah. In that column I stated: "To me one of the strangest sub-studies of the field of rock art consists of attempts of creationists and evolution deniers to find dinosaurs in rock art. Apparently this is to prove that humans and dinosaurs lived concurrently because that is the only way primitive people would have their examples to portray. As best I can tell this is the work of a group of creationists who ascribe to the theory that the bible says the earth is only 6,000 years old based upon 17^th century Bishop Usher’s calculation that “the first day of creation began at nightfall preceding Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC” (Wikipedia), so dinosaurs and humans have to have coexisted." (Faris 2014)

Chalked pictograph in Black Dragon

Canyon, UT. Public Domain.

I then continued, citing Phil Senter whose July 2012 exploration of the subject (Rock Art “Dinosaurs”, More “Dinosaur” and “Pterosaur” Rock Art That Isn’t, Palaeontolical Association) took on the crazy ideas of creationists and evolution-deniers directly. I wrote "Whatever their motivation, there are a few tired examples that get trotted out over and over to supposedly prove that there are indeed portrayals of dinosaurs in rock art. Of these, perhaps the most ubiquitous example is the supposed pterosaur pictograph in Utah’s Black Dragon Canyon. In 2012 Phil Senter stated “An alleged pterosaur painting in Black Dragon Canyon, Utah, is actually not a single painting. Its "head" and "neck" are a painting of a person with outstretched arms. Its torso and limbs are those of a painting of a second person with outstretched arms, whose body continues into the "pterosaur's" "wing." The other "wing" is a painting of a horned serpent. The three paintings only appear connected because someone outlined the group with chalk.” (Senter 2012)" (Faris 2014)

Phil Senter's analysis of the image.

Senter presented a detailed analysis showing that the supposed pterosaur was a combination of smaller painted (and quite faded) Fremont images. An August 18, 2015 article in LiveScience written by Laura Geggel, and titled "Photos: 'Winged Monster' Rock Art in Black Dragon Canyon'" presents a project that resulted in even better analysis of the image and shows the original imagery in greater detail using DStretch analysis of high quality photographs of the panel.

The new DStretch analysis of the

pictograph, Black Dragon Canyon, UT.

From LiveScience.com.

Now a more recent (2015) analysis of the image of the supposed "pterosaur" in Black Dragon Canyon has utilized DStretch to provide even more detail of the real image. This study was conducted by Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Paul Bahn and Marvin Rowe, ("The Death of a Pterodactyl," Antiquity, Volume 89, p 872-884, 2015, Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd., published by Cambridge University Press.), and reported on in LiveScience by Laura Geggel in her article Photos: 'Winged Monster' Rock Art in Black Dragon Canyon, August 18, 2015. Where Senter had conclusively proven that the image was not a pterosaur, but was instead a combination of Fremont pictographs including a pair of anthropomorphs, a pair of animals, and a long sinuous image which might represent a therianthropomorphic figure, Le Quellec, Bahn, and Rowe, have now given us even more detailed images of the original Fremont figures, and even more proof of the fallacy of the Creationist position. And, thank you to Laura Geggel and LiveScience for making this accessible. Go to

http://www.livescience.com/51892-photos-utah-rock-art.html to read the whole article and see a number of detailed photographs.

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter

2014 Dinosaurs in Rock Art? The Black Dragon Canyon Pterosaur, May 24, 2014, httpp://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Black%20Dragon%20Canyon

Geggel, Laura,

2015 Photos:'Winged Monster' Rock Art in Black Dragon Canyon', August 18, 2015, http://www.livescience.com/51892-photos-utah-rock-art.html

Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, Paul Bahn and Marvin Rowe,

2015 The Death of a Pterodactyl, Antiquity, Volume 89, p 872-884, 2015, Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd., published by Cambridge University Press.

Senter, Phil

2012 Rock Art “Dinosaurs”, More “Dinosaur” and “Pterosaur” Rock Art That Isn’t, Palaeontolical Association, July 2012. (http://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2012-issue-2-articles/275-rock-art-dinosaurs).

Wikipedia

NEW SOFTWARE FOR PICTOGRAPH PHOTO ENHANCEMENT:

I would hazard the guess that nine out of any ten rock art enthusiasts have tried to enhance faint pictographs by software manipulation of the image in their computer. I will also hazard the guess that for at least 8 of that 9 the results were less than satisfying. There is now new software that seems to provide amazing results.

An article by Renata d’Aliesio in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Thursday, March 15, 2012, describes this apparently miraculous new tool which its developer Jon Harman has named DStretch. D’Aliesio described the circumstances leading up to its development like this: "Rock art had long fascinated Jon Harman. The American mathematician sought out pictographs on vacations, snapping pictures of stones and caves even when all that remained were indecipherable red blotches. Photo-editing programs improved the images, but not by much. A friend pointed Mr. Harman to an image-enhancement technique known as decorrelation stretch. Developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it has been used to enhance photos of Mars. Perhaps the technique would work for faded pictographs. Mr. Harman took up the challenge and, with a few modifications, DStretch was created in late 2005. He provides the plug-in at no cost through his website (www.dstretch.com) . It’s designed to work with the ImageJ program, on PCs and Macs.”

A couple of photographs from the article in the Globe and Mail can illustrate the results.

Sinclair Creek in Kootenay National Park,

B.C. Photograph Toronto Globe and Mail

The person on the left is dancing within a rayed arc, "depicting a shamanistic activity. This was a common image among central Columbia Plateau aboriginal groups, but less so in eastern British Columbia, where this pictograph is located. The triangular-shaped figure on the right is of a different rock art tradition and may have been painted at a different time. In the figure’s hand is a circle or drum, indicating a ceremonial activity."

Washout Creek along the shore of Kootenay Lake,

B.C. Photograph Toronto Globe and Mail.

 

 

Multiple figures were painted at the Washout Creek site, "often overlapping, indicating these pictographs were created over a long period of time – likely hundreds or even thousands of years. Drawings of a human figure with a drum and fir boughs suggest ceremonial activities took place here. Fir boughs were used in cleansing ceremonies of young females who had completed a vision quest. Vision quests marked the transition from childhood to adulthood for many Columbia Plateau groups. Also shown is a person hunting for sturgeon with a long spear, illustrating this was a good fishing spot."

Parks Canada has been photographically recording rock art sites to preserve the images. A spokesman for Parks Canada, a Mr. Himour said that for them DStretch proved to be a real game changer. They first used the software in the summer of 2010, applying it to photos taken at Sinclair Creek in British Columbia’s Kootenay National Park. Unlike the cross-polarization technique, pictures could be taken during the day. No special filter or flashes were required. They have taken about 2,500 photos at 30 rock art sites in Kootenay and Banff National Parks and in the foothills of Alberta as part of its Pictograph Project. Many of the known pictograph sites have faded so badly that they cannot see images that had already been recorded at the sites. With DStretch, however, these images can be retrieved and seem to jump out at the viewer. While the article in the Globe and Mail only mentions pictographs I also wonder if this software might be sensitive enough to bring out those repatinated petroglyphs that can be so hard to photograph under many lighting conditions. Perhaps those of us with a technical bent can make use of this software in our own photo collections to preserve the precious images that are inexorably fading.

REFERENCE:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/once-thought-lost-the-rock-art-images-of-ancient-peoples-are-seen-again/article2370923/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2370923&utm_source=Southwestern+Archaeology+Today&utm_campaign=53c1d2de58-SAT+Weekly+Broadcast&utm_medium=email