A PALEOLITHIC BUFFALO WOMAN?

Chauvet cave,

www.pinterest.com,

public domain.

On December 3, 2016, I posted a column about an article in the December 2016 issue of Scientific American magazine. Written by Julien d'Huy, and titled The Evolution of Myths, this article traced back the origins of the Greek Polyphemus myth to the Paleolithic of 30,000 to 15,000 years ago. D'Huy illustrated this with the figure from the cave of Les Trois Freres of the "shaman" or buffalo dancer figure surrounded by bison. Intrigued, I wrote the author and asked about the concept of the Pied Piper in mythology, and whether that would fall in the same myth family? I published his answer in my column on April 29, 2017 - he was uncertain but did not believe that the Pied Piper myth had anything close to the necessary depth in time to be pertinent to this cave painting.

Vertical bison,

Chauvet cave,

www.pinterest.com,

public domain.

D'Huy's analysis traced the Polyphemus myth through space as well as time, indicating that it had reached North America in the Paleolithic period and had evolved into an explanation of the coming of the buffalo. He even related a Blackfoot version that involved Trickster Crow hiding a herd of buffalo in a cave, but two hunters outwitted him and freed the buffalo. (d'Huy 2016) For other peoples of North America the trickster who hid the buffalo was Coyote. For the Lakota people, however, the buffalo were brought to the people by Buffalo Woman, or White Buffalo Maiden.

White-Buffalo Woman,

www.ancientorigins.net,

public domain.

"Centuries ago, the Sioux roamed the Paha Sapa or Black Hills. Legends have grown around the now famous vacation land of America in the State of South Dakota, and to this day the legends are still told.

The wind cave, where Wind Cave National Park is located, was a sacred cave where the buffalo lady dwelt. At first the Sioux feared the cave because they thought a giant lived in it. They thought that the wind which blew in and out of the mouth of the cave was caused by a giant breathing. This giant invoked the providence of the Great Spirit to give him knowledge of the mysterious hidden powers of Mother Nature that lurked in the cave the Indians feared.

One day, a medicine man stood at the mouth of the cave pondering, and suddenly, a vision appeared to him. A young Indian maiden told him she was the immortal buffalo lady from below the earth.

The buffalo lady told the medicine man to tell his people that the cave was one of the sacred places of the Paha Sapa. She said, 'Tell your people to come to this cave and offer gifts and tokens by dropping them into the sacred cave. By your offerings the Great Spirit will provide your temporal wants by providing great herds of buffalo for your livelihood.'" (Wikipedia)

Close-up,

White-Buffalo Woman,

www.ancientorigins.net,

public domain.

Another version of the story can be found on the website of the American Indian College Fund. It relates that many years ago "the seven sacred council fires of the Lakota Sioux came together and camped during the summer. The people were starving because there was no game. Two young men went out to look for food for their people in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Along the way, a beautiful young woman dressed in white appeared to them, saying, 'Return to your people and tell them I am coming.'  When she presented herself to the Lakota people with the sacred pipe which showed how all things were connected, she taught them the mysteries of the earth. She taught them to pray and follow the proper path while on earth.

Then, before leaving, she rolled upon the earth four times, changing color each time, turning into a white buffalo calf before she disappeared. As she left, great herds of buffalo surrounded the camps. After that day the Lakota honored their pipe and the buffalo were plentiful." (collegefund.org)

Deep inside Chauvet Cave there is a painting that seems to illustrate the transformation of a buffalo into a woman and vice versa. It could be possible that this illustrates some variant of the Buffalo Woman myth. Drawn on a downward projecting stalactite is a frontal view of the lower half of a nude woman's figure from the pubic triangle on down. "There are also a couple of good examples of the hybrid figure of a bison-woman, such as the famous image from Chauvet, in France. This black painting features the detailed head of a bison on top of the lower half of a female body (she is nude and her pubic triangle has been emphasized by the artist)." (Von Pezinger 2016:91)

Chauvet Buffalo Woman,

pinterest.com,

public domain.

However a closer look reveals that her left leg is the front leg of a buffalo (whose head is right above the woman's pubic triangle). Even more interestingly, the woman's right leg appears to also be the leg of a lion drawn on the stalactite. Whether or not this composition was meant to actually illustrate some Paleolithic version of the Buffalo Woman myth, it certainly does a great job of conveying the idea of animal to human transformation.

NOTE: Images used in this column were retrieved from the Internet with a search that included the phrase Public Domain. If any of these images were not intended to be public domain I apologize for their use, and will be happy to correct my error if so informed.

REFERENCES:

d'Huy, Julien

2016 The Evolution of Myths, pages 62-69, Scientific American, vol. 315, No. 6, Dec. 2016.

Von Petzinger, Genevieve,

2016 The First Signs, Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols, Atria Books, New York, London

http://collegefund.org/blog/the-meaning-of-the-sacred-white-buffalo/

http://wiki.olc.edu/index.php/Lakota_Stories 

www.ancientorigins.net

A MEDICINE SYMBOL IN ROCK ART:

Lone Dog, 1809-10, "Black-Stone made medicine",

Goode and Thornton, 2007, p. 147.

In their wonderful book The Year The Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian (2007), Candace Greene and Russell Thornton illustrate a symbol that was used by many winter count artists as the symbol for “making medicine”, performing a magical/spiritual deed that elicits some effect in the real world. This symbol is an abbreviated buffalo head connected to the maker of the medicine by a line. This has been described by both Mallery (1893), and Greene and Thornton (2007). “In the ceremonial of “making medicine,” a buffalo head, and especially the head of an albino buffalo, held a prominent place among the plains tribes. . . . The device in the chart is the man figure, with the head of an albino buffalo held over his own (Mallery 1893:275).” (Greene and Thornton 2007: 147-8)

Lone Dog, 1860-61,"The Elk Who Shows Himself While Walking

made medicine", Goode and Thornton, 2007, p. 247.

The Swan, 1810-11, "A Minneconjou named Little Tail

first made medicine with a white buffalo cow

hide", Goode and Thornton, 2007, p. 148.

The Flame, 1860-61, "The Elk Who Shows

Himself While Walking made medicine",

Goode and Thornton, 2007, p. 247

This symbol is to be found in a number of winter counts, and perhaps other examples of the handiwork of Native American peoples. In the winter counts the symbol is usually, but not invariably, connected to a human figure. in the Lone Dog winter count the medicine symbol is connected to a sketchy abbreviated elk but that is the name glyph for the human who made the medicine, Elk Who Shows Himself While Walking, and in the winter count by The Flame it leads to what appears to be a horse. The symbol itself, the outline of the bison skull with horns, would lend itself to use in many other circumstances and mediums. With this in mind I have been keeping my eye open for examples of this symbol for “making medicine” in rock art.

Nevada, petroglyph, Highwater, American Indian Painting, p. 21.

One example of what appears to be this “making medicine” symbol in a petroglyph is illustrated in the book Song From The Earth: American Indian Painting by Jamake Highwater (1976: 21). It is a photograph of a petroglyph panel from Nevada (location unidentified) which shows a crude footprint, a large spiral with something attached to the outer end, and our making medicine symbol to the right of the spiral. Upon careful examination, the shape attached to the outer end of the spiral at the top could also represent a skull as well, although it reminds me more of a pronghorn antelope than a bison.

If you know of any further examples, as always, please forward them to me. Thank you.

REFERENCES:

Greene, Candace S., and Russell Thornton,

2007    The Year The Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian, Smithsonian National Museum, Washington.

Highwater, Jamake

1976    Song From The Earth: American Indian Painting, New York Graphic Society, Boston.

Mallery, Garrick

1889    Picture-Writing of the American Indians, 10^th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-1889, by J. W. Powell, Director, Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.

METEORITES IN ROCK ART - CONTINUED?

On January 18, 2013, I posed the question “can we identify meteorites or meteorite falls in rock art?” Although I have been looking for some time I have not, as yet, been able to identify any image that I can realistically state might represent a meteorite. However, there are examples of images of meteors and meteorites in Native American art that we might use as models in our search.

Lone Dog winter count, painted on buffalo hide.

In their wonderful 2007 book The Year the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian, Candace S. Greene and Russell Thornton illustrate the imagery used by Lakota artist/historians to record each year in Winter Counts, kept as a historic record of the tribe or clan.  For the year 1821-22, many winter counts use the symbol of a star with a tail or line behind it. This records a large meteor that passed over Lakota territory from the southeast to the northwest, and reportedly exploded with great noise over Dakota Territory.

They provide illustrations of this drawn in the Lone Dog winter count, The Flame winter count, The Swan winter count, Long Soldier winter count, Cloud Shield winter count, Rosebud winter count, and Battiste Good winter count, and each example is a variation of the star with a line extending from it.

1821-22, Lone Dog Winter Count.

Greene and Thornton, 2007.

1821-22, Long Soldier Winter Count.

Greene and Thornton, 2007.

1821-22, Battiste Good's Winter Count.

Greene and Thornton, 2007.

In viewing these remember that the direction of the line may indicate where it passed overhead in relation to the observer. To understand this, think of an airplane contrail above you in the clear sky.  Thus, in the examples by The Flame, Rosebud, Cloud Shield, Lone Dog, and the one procured from Major Bush, the line is beneath the star suggesting that it was observed somewhere toward the horizon for the viewer and appeared to rise upwards as it approached the zenith. Long Soldier’s image shows it passing from right to left suggesting that he was to the south of its apparent track and he saw it going from right to left in the northern sky. Battiste Good’s drawing shows the meteorite on a generally downward path suggesting that from his viewing point the meteorite appeared generally above him, and he saw it as if descending toward the  horizon.

As I stated above, I personally know of no rock art imagery that fits these descriptions, however, that certainly does not mean that they are not out there. Indeed, given that so many illustrations of this event were created on hide and muslin in Winter Counts, the surprise would be if there were no rock art examples created also. If you know of any please send me a photo and let's get it posted.

And if you find this of interest check my PowerPoint WHEN THE STARS FELL - the 1833 meteor storm  listed in the right sidebar of this page.

http://www.slideshare.net/archeofaris/when-the-stars-fell-slide-show

REFERENCES:

Greene, Candace S. and Russell Thornton

2007    The Year the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian, Smithsonian National Museum.

WE NEED TO KEEP AN OPEN MIND:

I have written elsewhere about the dangers of relying too much on statistical analysis in drawing conclusions about rock art. I have also written about professional bias among professional archaeologists when it comes to rock art research. In all fairness I must say that this really cuts both ways and the rest of us need to keep an open mind about things as well.

When we have studied some aspect of rock art deeply and have come to some degree of understanding about it we cannot let that become dogma to the extent that we are not willing to consider other possibilities. I can illustrate this with a story. There is a well-known Lakota story about the coming of the buffalo with the appearance of Buffalo Woman. Most versions of it have her appearing to two young warriors and her beauty drives one of the warriors to lust after her. Upon his approaching her there is a sudden appearance of a cloud, concealing them both. The cloud dissipates within a few minutes leaving behind only the skeleton of the lustful young man for his friend to see.

This is usually presented as a punishment for his impiety; he was instantly killed and stripped of all flesh because he insulted the sacred figure of Buffalo Woman. A few months ago, however, I heard another version of this story that almost reverses that assumed meaning. My informant said that the traditional interpretation was wrong, that, in fact, the lustful young man had married Buffalo Woman and their offspring became the buffalo. They had lived a long and full life until his normal death of old age. What his companion had perceived as only an instant until the appearance of the skeleton was sort of like the time rift of science fiction, his companion had lived his whole life in that instant, and it was the other warrior’s perception that was wrong.

While this is at odds with the usual interpretation of the story it is a lovely version and believed by at least a few people for it to have come to my attention. We need to be aware of other possibilities, and always beware of dogma.