PAINTED PEBBLES, VAL VERDE COUNTY, TX.

Painted pebbles (reproductions) on display,

White Shaman, Val Verde County, TX.

Photograph: Peter Faris, March 2004.

Forms of rock art that are often considered portable include rock slabs, stones or pebbles, or even stone tools that are carved, scratched, or painted. In the Pecos region of Texas painted pebbles are quite commonly found, often with burials in rock shelters. A large number of them were recovered during the 1933 excavation of Fate Bell Shelter by J. E. Pearce.

Painted pebbles, Val Verde County, TX, From Newcomb, 

1967, The Rock Art of Texas Indians, paintings

by Forrest Kirkland, Plate 68, p. 107.

“Forty-eight painted pebbles were found in the shelter. Eight were broken.

Of the pebbles excavated 67 per cent came from the upper 25 inches, 21 per cent from depths of 25 to 40 inches, and 12 per cent from below 40 inches.

The painted designs on a few of the pebbles remain clear and bright, but on a majority they are somewhat dim. Frequently they are so nearly obliterated that but little remains of the original designs. On twenty of the pebbles the paint is barely discernible.” (Pearce 1933:79)  

“Black was the predominant color of the paint used. One design has a trace of red bordering the black; another bears a very dim design in red paint.

In length the pebbles vary from 1½ to 4½ inches, in width from ½ to 2¼ inches, and in thickness from 1/8 to ½ inch.

It seems worth noting that a number of the painted pebbles from Site No. 1, Seminole Canyon, and from other nearby rock shelters bear evidence of having been scratched and pecked in spots.” (Pearce 1933:83)

Painted pebbles, Val Verde County, TX, From Newcomb, 

1967, The Rock Art of Texas Indians, paintings

by Forrest Kirkland, Plate 67, p. 106.

“The design elements present and the number of times each was employed in the decoration of these pebbles are as follows:

Horizontal lines……………………….….24

Geometric figures………………….…..15

Ladder symbols………………………..…12

Scrolls……………………………………..….10

Vertical lines………………………….…..10

Sun Symbols …………………………..…..8

Projectile shafts …………………….…..7

Serpents …………………………….….…..5

Cross…………………………………….………5

Dashes, or enumeration dots.……..5

Human faces………………………….………5

Moon symbol s………………………………4

Trees or plants ……………………………4

Lightning symbols ……………….…..…4

“Death counts” ………………………..…3

Human figures ………………………..….2

Crosshatch………………………………....2

Bird …………………………………………….1

Animal or insect………………………….1

Blanket-like figure ……………..…….1

Tepee-like figure ……………………….1” 

(Pearce 1933:84)

Now many of these categories strike me as problematical and arbitrary, especially since they were not accompanied with any sort of index to the meanings of these designations.  It is worth noting that Pearce footnoted this table with the disclaimer - “This tabulated study of designs is the work of Mr. A. T. Jackson. His co-author is dubious about some of his identifications of elements but accepts most of them. J. E. P.” (Pearce 1933:84)

“This study of the designs on painted pebbles is not intended to be exhaustive. Many more specimens must be secured, studied, and compared before any definite conclusions can be arrived at as to their significance. Their number, character, and distribution indicate that they were an important element in the life of the early men who lived in this shelter. They are suggestive of the churingas of Australia and were almost surely sacred objects.” (Pearce 1933:87)

Of course they were not “almost certainly sacred objects” as Pearce stated (the underline is mine). They are just as likely to have been gaming pieces, toys, or practice for the important job of painting on the shelter walls. They might even have been intended for juggling, in some sort of prehistoric Pecos vaudeville act, or for all we know a Pecos magician might have pulled them from some child's ear in an example of prehistoric prestidigitation. They were, however, obviously important for some reason because there are so many of them, and so many of those are quite neatly made with carefully delineated lines and patterns, not just splashed or smeared. Painted pebbles have been found in many other locations from throughout human history, including Paleolithic sites in Europe. Whatever else they were, they were certainly a widespread human cultural phenomenon, and they are worth looking at for that reason alone.

REFERENCES:

Newcomb, W. W., Jr.

1967    The Rock Art of Texas Indians, paintings by Forrest Kirkland, University of Texas Press, Austin and London.

Pearce, J. E., and A. T. Jackson,

1933    A Prehistoric Rock Shelter In Val Verde County, Texas, Anthropological Papers of the University of Texas, Vol. 1, No. 3, Bureau of Research in the Social Sciences, Study No. 6, University of Texas, Austin.

A POSSIBLE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN IN ROCK ART?

Total solar eclipse, 1999. Wikipedia.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun. This is a spectacular sight, even to our modern society which understands the scientific reason for such an occurrence. It was surely even more impressive to our ancient ancestors who did not have our understanding of it. This is another of the subjects that I cannot imagine would not have been commemorated in rock art somewhere, but I personally know of no such proven examples (although I suspect some examples - explained below).

        Solar Eclipse of  Aug. 7, 1869, portrayed by Lone Dog (left) and

The Swan (right). From Greene and Thornton,

The Year The Stars Fell, Smithsonian, 2007.

There are examples of Native American images of total eclipses that may allow us to speculate what a total eclipse might look like in rock art. These consist of a number of examples from Lakota Winter Counts portraying the total eclipse of August 7, 1869. The line of totality for that eclipse crossed Lakota territory, and obviously impressed them enough to result in these images.  In each known example they portray it by showing the obscured sun as a black disk and in each case a couple of bright stars are shown, reflecting the fact that in the darkened sky during totality bright stars may be visible. Greene and Thornton (2007) illustrate a few examples in their fascinating book The Year the Stars Fell; Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian. “An Eclipse of the Sun, a drawing by the winter count keeper Lone Dog (Greene and Thornton 2007:264), commemorates the blackening of the sun on August 7, 1869 and accompanying visibility of otherwise invisible stars in the darkened sky.”

Pecos, Texas rock art, Photo Teresa Weedin, 2004.

Painted Cave, Bandelier, Los Alamos

County, NM. Photograph: Russ Finley.

I stated above that I suspect some rock art may indeed represent a total solar eclipse. My candidate for this would be the solar portrayal with projecting rays from the four quadrants that is known as the Zia sun symbol. The Zia Indians of New Mexico regard the Sun as a sacred symbol. Their symbol, a red circle with groups of rays pointing in four directions, is painted on ceremonial vases, drawn on the ground around campfires, and used to introduce newborns to the Sun. (Wikipedia) The examples illustrated above come from the Pecos region in Texas, and a personified Zia sun symbol toward the left of the panel from Painted Cave at Bandeliere, New Mexico. 

New Mexico automobile license plate.

Most recognizable from the automobile license plate from the state of New Mexico, the Zia sun symbol is actually a good representation of the moment of totality in a solar eclipse when the corona of the sun becomes visible and the sharp-eyed viewer can see the prominences in the solar atmosphere (see the first illustration of a total eclipse). Indeed, that is the only time one can see this phenomenon with the naked eye, and this suggests that any sun symbol with points, rays, or projections beyond the outer circle might be a representation of a total eclipse.

Also, representations of the sun with triangular projections around the rim could well be attempts to illustrate this phenomenon. What candidates do you know of?

REFERENCES:

Greene, Candace S. and Russell Thornton (editors)

2007    The Year the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

http://www.eclipse.aaq.org.au/

Wikipedia

SECRETS OF THE WHITE SHAMAN:

An article (p.51-57) by Will Hunt in the May, 2012, issue of Discover Magazine, entitled “Secrets of the White Shaman” attempts to explain the meaning behind one of the truly iconic panels of Pecos Style rock art in Texas. Hunt is writing about the theories of Carolyn Boyd who purports (at least according to Hunt) to be able to read the hidden messages in the panels of rock art. According to Hunt; “working like a detective, she discovered a symbolic code that reveals narratives in the paintings, which she believes can be read, almost like an ancient language (p.51).” By the end of the article we have learned that Pecos rock art can all be explained by the S-Word (Shamanism).

White Shaman, Val Verde County, TX.
Photograph Peter Faris, March 2004.

“Archaeologists, she (Boyd) read, believed the paintings were related to shamanism, the common religious practice among tribes in the region. The shaman was a tribe’s liaison with the spirit world (p. 52).”  In  truth there is a broad range of opinions among archaeologists about the relationship between rock art and Shamanism. While some amateur aficionados of rock art ascribe all rock art to Shamanism, many students of rock art prefer to be much more careful with the term, and purists point out that the term Shamanism technically should only be used to describe the spiritual beliefs of Siberian tribes (where the word originated).  According to Wikipedia: The term "shaman" is a loan from the Turkic word šamán, the term for such a practitioner, which also gained currency in the wider Turko-Mongol and Tungusic cultures in ancient Siberia.  Shamans were known as "priests" in the region of where Uralic languages, Turkic, or Mongolic languages are spoken.”  To designate the beliefs of a people of a different time and culture, to say nothing of thousands of miles away from Siberia, shamanic, just seems to be too much of a stretch for me. I am much more comfortable admitting that the belief systems of the old Pecos inhabitants may have had things in common with shamanism, or may have had shamanic-like elements, especially as so little of their culture is known. I just cannot say they are the same any more than, on the basis of present cultural evidence, I could say that Baptists and Unitarians believe alike, even though they are both Protestant Christian religions. 

Red deer, White Shaman panel, Val Verde County, TX.

Photo Peter Faris, 2004.

Other examples of leaping to unwarranted conclusions can be found. On page 54 we learn that “This was a pattern: Nearly every tribe in the region envisioned a serpent as the divider between the earthly and the spiritual realms, explaining the wavy lines on the Lower Pecos rocks.”  Really? Which tribes, and what are the boundaries of the region? And on page 56; “Next to the underworld was an isolated red deer: this had to be the sacred deer that led the humans on the journey east. (Note: The red deer on the opposite page may be facing west, but the ancient rock artists always depicted west on the right side of a pictogram).” (the underline is mine). What can I say, I have studied rock art for  35 years and I missed that west is "always" on the right side of a pictograph  – how embarrassing!

Also on page 56 is one of the best quotes of the whole article.  “Retired University of Texas archaeologist Solveig Turpin, who began researching in the Lower Pecos in the 1970s believes connecting 4,000-year-old paintings to a contemporary tribe (the Huichol) is unwarranted. ‘You’re reaching across thousands of years and hundreds of miles,’ she says. ‘It just doesn’t hold up.”  Right on Solveig.

Now I actually don’t want to be too harsh on Boyd. First, I have to admit that much of her supporting data is real, some of the images are like images in Huichol art and belief, but there is little proof other than the images themselves that there is any connection. Second, I believe it’s possible that Hunt may have exaggerated Boyd’s case because of enthusiasm. This is heady stuff, translating messages from a people lost for 4,000 years, no wonder he is enthusiastic!  I would personally love to make a discovery of this magnitude, and find so much proof that I am right. Finally, the exaggerations may have come from the editors at Discover Magazine.

So I fear that I will have to remain a skeptic for the present. But by all means look up the article, if only for the pictures. There are some great photographs of some of the truly outstanding rock art in North America, if not the world. And if future study lends credence to Boyd’s theories I will happily eat my words and congratulate her. 


Also, I recommend Boyd's book Rock Art of the Lower Pecos, Carolyn E. Boyd, Texas A & M University Press, College Station, 2003. While I do not agree with some of her conclusions, I did find it full of information (and some good pictures) about the amazing rock art of the Lower Pecos, and even some of her supporting evidence is interesting and worth knowing.


NOTE:  These things come up regularly. I would like to refer readers to previous RockArtBlog postings on Ogam in North America (April 20, 2009), and A Misplaced Reliance on Statistical Analysis (January 25, 2011) which addressed a report that statistical analysis proves that symbols painted on cave walls in Europe constitute a written language.

HANDPRINTS IN ROCK ART:

Hand prints, Pecos trip, Texas, Jan. 2004.

I believe that all students of rock art are fascinated by the symbol of the hand print – I certainly find them intriguing. They come from all ages, from Paleolithic caves in Europe, Aboriginal rock shelters in Australia, and North American rock art panels from all periods. They have been created in many forms; pictographic and petroglyphic, and in all degrees of realism. Some of the pictographic versions seem to have been made by pressing a painted hand against the rock. Some others found have been spray painted by blowing a mouthful of paint around the hand carefully held flat against the rock. Other hand prints are outline or solidly pecked petroglyphs. It is common to think of them, especially the painted hand stamps, as a sort of a signature by the creator of the image, a statement that “I was here.” This is an example of interpretation through empathy. We believe this because it makes sense in our common humanity with the artists. We see it as something they would do because it is something that we would do. We can also think of them in this sense because many of them reveal individual, identifiable traits. In some cases variations in size may determine that some hand prints were left by children or adolescents. Many Paleolithic examples in some of the caves of Europe show missing fingers or joints. These are speculated to be victims of frostbite, or cases of digits cut off in grief as in known examples from the Great Plains tribes of North America so many years later.

Larry Loendorf, in his recent book Thunder and Herds wrote that “adult human beings seem not to have abandoned the innate fascination with their hands. In the rock art record from the earliest to the most recent of times the hand is the most common stylistic element. Red hand stencils and prints occur in panels dated between 30,000 and 36,000 years ago at Chauvet cave in France. They occur in large numbers in complex, painted arrangements in caves in Borneo and Argentina, and as single petroglyphs – associated with spirals – at sites at Zuni and La Cienega, New Mexico.”

The more realistic, exact and accurate, hand prints, whether painted by hand stamping, spraying, or pecking after outlining the person’s real hand on the stone, bring up another fascinating possibility – determining the gender of the creator of the image. There is an interesting difference between the hands of most men and most women. Statistically, most male hands have a 3rd (or ring) finger that is longer than the 1st (index) finger. At the same time, statistically, more women show the opposite, an index finger that is longer than the ring finger. Not all, this is not a universal trait, but the larger proportion of a study group should show this.

In the example shown from the Pecos region in Texas, the 3rd finger appears noticeably longer than the 1st finger to me. Therefore, I interpret this to mean that the maker of the hand prints was probably a male. A researcher at the site could perform careful measurements to prove this one way or another. Another possible way of adding to our knowledge about the makers of the rock art.