FERTILITY, OR WEALTH:

Vulva symbols? Winnemucca Lake,

Nevada, Larry Benson, used with

permission.

The symbol of the "vulva", originally found in Paleolithic art, has long been assumed to represent fertility. This identification was originally made, I assume, by the early students of the cave art in France, who were French. Leave it to the French!

This is now the automatic assumption worldwide when we see these symbols carved or painted onto the rock. What I wonder is if there was ever any attempt to analyze these symbols to see if they could represent anything else? They have been found literally all over the world, representations by diverse and widespread ancient cultures have used this theme. Of course, human fertility is found all over the world, but what else might it represent? What else do all of these cultures have in common? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is cowrie shells. Perhaps most commonly used in adornment; i.e. necklaces, bracelets, or decorating clothing, the cowrie shell was known and prized by many diverse cultures, all over the world, and down through time.

Early Chinese shell money,

3,000 BCE, June 20, 2017,

Smithsonianmag.com.

Writing on Smithsonian.com, Chapurukha Kusimba posited that "Objects that occurred rarely in nature and whose circulation could be efficiently controlled emerged as units of value for interactions and exchange. These included shells such as mother-of-pearl that were widely circulated in the Americas and cowry shells that were used in Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia." (Kusimba 2017) So for so many ancient cultures the cowrie shell represents wealth, wealth that is to be displayed for personal aggrandizement. What better way to symbolically display your wealth than to carve it into, or paint it on, the rock, on a cliff, a boulder, or the walls of a cave?

Deer cowrie shells, 

pinterest.com,

Public domain.

Midewiwin shell symbols,

Rajnovich, Reading Rock Art,

p. 53, Fig. 41.

There are examples of this symbol that can be documented as representing something other than vulvas. A very different aspect of the shell, at least here in North America, was found in the Midewiwin Society of the Algonkians.Writing on the Midewiwin Society of the Algonkians, Rajnovich stated: "The Midewiwin was widespread among the Algonkians, practised by the Ojibway, Odawa, Miami, Menominee, Illinois, Shawnees, and others. Archaeologist Charles Callender suggested we cannot rule out the possibility that aspects of the Midewiwin go back 2,500 years among the Indians of Ohio. The symbol of the society and of the power of the medicine itself is a tiny white seashell, often a marginella originating on the southeast coast of the United States. These shells, called megis by the Mides, are shown in Midewiwin picture writing in various forms (Fig. 41), including a small oval figure with radiating power lines, and it may be on the rock paintings as well, possibly at Burnt Bluff (Figure 39). The people of the Shield travelled great distances to obtain the shells. The Odawa(the word means "trader") journeyed throughout the Great Lakes and surrounding areas, covering vast distances in their bark canoes, exchanging goods including the shells among the many Algonkian groups." (Rajnovich 1994:52-3)

Vulva Symbols, Patterson, p. 203,

A Field Guide To Rock Art Symbols,

Petersborough, Ontario.

Linnea Sundstrom apparently agrees that on the Great Plains this symbol originated with the Algonkians, although she also assumes that it may represent fertility as she ascribes its creation to girl's puberty rituals. "Track-Vulva-Groove style rock art clearly had its origins in the Algonkian and Siouan territories east and southeast of the plains (figure 8.13). It is more difficult to determine who made this rock art in the Black Hills country and why. Perhaps some was made by girls as part of a puberty ritual. In other parts of the West, girls sometimes made abraded grooves for other kinds of petroglyphs as part of their puberty rites." (Sundstrom 2004:88) This suggests an Algonkian influence in inland North America that could have brought ideas about the shell to the middle part of the country.

Do these images represent shells, or vulvas? Well, I don't really know but it seems to me that we owe it to ourselves to thoroughly analyze all the possibilities before we blindly relegate a whole category of rock art symbolism to definition by a French assumption. Fertility, display, or wealth, you tell me?

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet after 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:

Kusimba, Chapurukha

2017 Making Cents of Currency's Ancient Rise, June 20, 2017, https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/6b/de/6bde6880-df7b-4c03-b2d6-26023d72a2fb/file-20170619-28475-4rc2o7.jpg

Patterson, Alex

1992 A Field Guide To Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest, Johnson Books, Boulder, Colorado

Rajnovich, Grace

1994 Reading Rock Art: Interpreting the Indian Rock Art of the Canadian Shield, Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc., Toronto, Ontario

Sundstrom, Linea

2004 Storied Stone: Indian Rock Art In The Black Hills Country, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

PYRAMID LAKE PETROGLYPHS MAY BE OLDEST IN NORTH AMERICA:

Winnemuca Lake petroglyphs. Photograph: Larry Benson.

A recent scientific investigation of petroglyph boulders on the west side of the Winnemucca Lake basin in Nevada has yielded hard dates on the age of the petroglyphs.

Paleoclimatologist Larry Benson (an emeritus scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey who does research for the University of Colorado and its Museum of Natural History) had noticed that the symbols are much whiter than the gray rock they're carved into.

Winnemuca Lake petroglyphs. Photograph: Larry Benson.

Benson needed permission from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe to sample the rock coating. He did finally get permission to sample the coating on rocks near the petroglyphs although he has not yet been allowed to sample any of the ancient rock art.  The whitish coating proved to be Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and had been deposited when rising lake water lapped over the lower portions of the petroglyph boulder.

Winnemuca Lake petroglyphs. Photograph: Larry Benson.

His paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science, 40 (2013), 4466-76, Dating North America’s oldest petroglyphs, Winnemucca Lake Sub-basin, Nevada, by L.V. Benson, E.M. Hattori, J. Southon, and B. Aleck, outlined the reasoning involved. Benson was aware that Carbonate crust could not have been deposited in the petroglyphs from the lake water unless they were actually underwater at some period. This period was determined using two methods. Laboratory analysis "determined the amount of Calcium carbonate in layers of lake sediment over time. When the amount was close to zero, the lake covered the lower part of the mound below 1206m and the petroglyphs below this level. When the value was relatively large, the lake had fallen below the mound and the petroglyphs and made them accessible for carving." (Benson)

Additionally, they detected a fresh-water plankton (Stephanodiscus hantzschii) found today in lakes in British Columbia in those layers proving that a large quantity of fresh water was injected into the lake water. During those periods water level would have been high and the rocks partly covered, thus the carbonate. They also assumed that the petroglyphs were carved during a period when water was low and people could walk to the site. This is, of course, a very simplified explanation and readers are encouraged to refer to the original paper for the scientific details. The second method of age determination was to ¹⁴C date the carbonate layer itself. Fifteen carbonate samples were taken near the petroglyphs and  were ¹⁴C dated at the University of California-Irvine W.M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory.

Winnemuca Lake petroglyphs. Photograph: Larry Benson.

The results in Benson’s words were “to provide a minimum age for carving of the low-elevation (1202-1206 m) petroglyphs, we dated the carbonate crust that coats the petroglyphs. The six carbonate-crust samples from the petroglyph site (WDL12) exhibited an age range of 10.23-9.77 ka with one outlier at 8.69 ka. As the sample abrasion process did not always reach the inner (oldest) part of the carbonate crust, we conclude that initial deposition of the carbonate crust occurred at 10.2 ka and continued until 9.8 ka, a conjecture consistent with the TIC data discussed in Section 3.5, which indicates that lake level was constrained by overflow at 1207 m until 9.3±0.1 ka. (Benson 2113:4473)

Additionally, the time frames indicated by the sediment coring supported that by indicating “the TIC records resulting from the two age models indicate that the base of the petroglyph site was subaerially exposed between 15.0 and 13.2 ka and was subject to the carving of petroglyphs. However, the TIC records resulting from the two age models indicate different times of possible subaerial exposure after 13.2 ka. One age model (Fig. 5A) indicates that the base of site WDL12 was subaerially exposed between 11.3 and 10.5 ka and the other age model (Fig. 5B) indicates that the base of site WDL12 was subaerially exposed between 11.5 and 11.1 ka.” (Benson 2013:4473) Applying another age model gave Benson an age range of 11.3 – 10.5 ka. (Benson 2013:4476)

By combining the date ranges from sediment coring and ¹⁴C testing on the carbonate layer Benson could state “We, therefore, conclude that the petroglyphs were carved sometime between 14.8 and 10.2 ka.” (Benson 2113:4473)

I asked Benson some questions based upon my own observations (and lack of detailed knowledge). First, I could imagine Calcium carbonate molecules floating around in the lake for hundreds or thousands of years until rising water brought them to a position to be deposited upon the petroglyph rocks, “wouldn’t that give an excessively ancient date?” Benson explained that the inrush of fresh water that raised the lake level to cover the base of the petroglyphs also flushed the bulk of the preexisting carbonates out of the lake (remember the fresh water plankton indicating that the brackish water had been greatly diluted and/or displaced. (personal communication). I also asked about the appearance of sharp edges on the lines of some of the carvings. “Did they exhibit any evidence of more recent additions or modifications?” Benson answered that some of the sharp-edged lines actually showed carbonate deposition on their surfaces proving that they had not changed since that event (personal communication). This is seemingly iron-clad, with the results of more than one type of test providing results that agree like this. Indeed, this is significant enough that Archaeology magazine named it one of the Top Ten Discoveries of 2013. (Powell 2014:28)

So, thank you Larry Benson. Bringing the knowledge of different disciplines to work on rock art questions can provide surprising benefits. And while I am at it, thank you Archaeology for including a rock art analysis in your Top Ten list for 2013.

NOTE: I am grateful to Larry Benson for taking the time and effort to correspond with me about this, and for providing a copy of their paper and photographs for my use, and to illustrate this. If any of the technical details above are incorrect it is entirely due to misunderstanding on my part, not any lack of consideration and generosity on Larry's part.

RERERENCES:

Benson, L. V.

2013    Dating North America’s oldest petroglyphs, Winnemucca Lake, Subbasin, Nevada, Journal of Archaeological Science, 40 (2013) 40 (2013) 4466-76.

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/16/212569006/n-americas-oldest-known-petroglyphs-discovered-in-nevada

Powell, Eric A.

2014    North America’s Oldest Petroglyphs: Winnemucca Lake, Nevada, from Top Ten Discoveries of 2013, Archaeology, January/February 2014, Vol. 67, No. 1, p.28.