SYMBOLS FOR GEOLOGIC PHENOMENA IN ROCK ART – EARTHQUAKES REVISITED:

"Pictogram representing an earthquake that took place on the year 2 Reeds or 1507. The gloss describes that the pictogram recounts the drowning of 1800 warriors in an unidentified river, presumably in southern Mexico, the termination of the temple of the New Fire, where the ceremony of the new cycle of life was celebrated, and a solar eclipse as a circle with rays emanating from it in the upper right-hand side, below the date sign." Suarez and Garcia Acosta, 2021, Fig. 7, page 5.

On Saturday, October 19, 2013, I posted a column on RockArtBlog titled “An Earthquake Symbol Pictograph” about a pictograph in the Stein River Valley of British Columbia, Canada, that was interpreted by a First Nations informant (Annie York) as a symbol for an earthquake. Now a 2021 paper by Gerardo Suarez and Virginia Garcia-Acosta (see references) has identified an Mesoamerican earthquake pictogram and illustrated a number of instances of its use in codexes (actually codices).

“The first written evidence of earthquakes in the Americas is represented as pictograms in codices and annals drafted in the first few years after the Spanish Conquest. The main source of earthquakes in pre-Hispanic times comes from the codex Telleriano-Remensis. There are 12 earthquakes reported in the Telleriano-Remensis, from 1460 to 1542.” (Suarez and Garcia-Acosta 2021:1)

The earthquake symbol from the preceding illustration.

“The Codex Telleriano-Remensis, produced in sixteenth century Mexico on European paper, is one of the finest surviving examples of Aztec manuscript painting. The Codex Telleriano-Remensis is divided into three sections. – The third section is a history, itself divided into two sections which differ stylistically. Pages 25 to 28 are an account of migrations during the 12^th and 13^th centuries, while the remaining pages of the codex record historical events, such as ascensions and deaths of rulers, battles, earthquakes, and eclipses from the 14^th to the 16^th century, including events of early Colonial Mexico.” (Wikipedia)

Movement (ollin) and Earth (tlalli) symbols. Suarez and Garcia- Acosta, 2021, Fig. 7, page 5.

"An earthquake is shown on the year 2 Reeds or 1507. Between the earthquake glyph and the date is the representation of a solar eclipse depicted by a shadow on the Sun." Suarez and Garcia- Acosta, 2021, Fig. 5, page 4.

Suarez and Garcia-Acosta (2021) describe the earthquake glyphs as follows. “Earthquakes, or tlalollin in the original Nahuatal language, are represented by two associated glyphs: movement or ollin and Earth or tlalli. Thus the two signs depicted together represent an earthquake. The glyph ollin represents movement. It is portrayed as four helices and a central circle or eye. The Earth is represented by one or several layers filled with dots and colored in different hues. The time of occurrence of an earthquake is depicted by the central part of the ollin or eye. For earthquakes occurring during the day, the eye is open; it is shown as closed for other earthquakes occurring at night.” (Suarez and Garcia-Acosta 2021:2-3) Now any definition I can find of the word helix or helices refers to them as spirals in form and the projections from the central circle of the ollin are obviously not helices, I would describe them as projecting forms on either side, each side divided by notches into three portions for a total of six sections.

We take it as an article of faith that the cultures of the American southwest and of Mexico and Mesoamerica knew something of each other, traded with each other, and had some influences of each other’s cultures.

Petrloglyph from Glorieta Mesa, New Mexico. USDA Forest Service photograph.

I have found an image of a rock art symbol at Glorieta Mesa, New Mexico, which actually looks remarkably like this a portion of this earthquake symbol. In 2008 Larry Loendorf wrote of the Glorieta Mesa petroglyphs -“Many circles are simply concentric, but they can also be embellished by rays projecting from their outer ring. In some instances circles are divided into segments by lines radiating from the center, which make s them look like another natural form, the sand dollar. Some concentric circles have smaller, irregularly shaped ‘petals’ at intervals around the outermost ring.” (Loendorf 2008:61)

This symbol from Glorieta Mesa also has central concentric circles with six projections coming from the outer circle. Is this actually intended to be a copy of the Aztec ollin or Earth glyph? I really cannot say, but it is intriguing. It might not deserve the cigar but it is close.

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:

Loendorf, L., 2008, Thunder and Herds: Rock Art of the High Plains, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California.

Suarez, Gerardo, and Virginia Garcia-Acosta, 2021, The First Written Accounts of Pre-Hispanic Earthquakes in the Americas, Seismological Research Letters, www.srl-online.org, Volume XX, No. XX

Wikipedia, Codex Telleriano-Remensis, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Telleriano-Remensis

York, Annie, Richard Daley and Chris Arnett, 1993    They Write Their Dream on the Rock Forever: Rock Writings of the Stein River Valley of British Columbia, Talonbooks, Vancouver, B.C.

AN EARTHQUAKE SYMBOL PICTOGRAPH:

The pictograph panel below includes a fascinating example of a geological phenomenon illustrated in rock art - the earthquake.

York, Annie, "They Write Their Dreams on the

Rocks Forever," 1993, fig. 102, p. 153.

Here we have Annie York commenting on the pictograph panel at EbRk2. Co-author Richard Daley had asked her about the owl-like figure in this panel and she explained that it is not actually the owl, that this was a spirit figure occurring in the dream of the anthropomorph on the right. “Sometimes it’s the owl, but it should be more formed than this one - . Here it’s the same as the last one. These strong powers, when you stand in the mountains long enough they can take the form of a bird, or other forms.” (York 1993:153)

“The long slanting line is the earth, and the zigzag is an earthquake. He’s dreamed that too. And you can see it in the stars too. The legend time of Xwekt’xwektl was when they were forming people and animals. Then the earthquake ended that and devoured them. Afterwards the new people came up and they were smaller like today.” (York 1993: 154)

It is certainly worth noting that British Columbia is on the western part of the North American continent which marks the “ring of fire,” the circle of volcanic activity that outlines the Pacific basin, and causes large numbers of earthquakes at many sites along its length. In more stable areas there was probably no need for the mythologies to explain earthquakes, but the people of the Northwest Coast and associated Interior are intimately familiar with earthquakes and have to include explanations of them in their mythologies. One common cause of earthquakes is fighting between Thunderbird and the whales he preys on for food. Another mythological cause of earthquakes in parts of the Pacific Northwest is underground tunneling by the giant beaver(Castoroides ohioensis). Neither of these would seem to be involved in this instance because none of those protagonists are present in the rock art panel.

Additionally, we have to question as to whether or not the original creator of the pictographs meant that symbol to represent an earthquake, or whether that is a contemporary interpretation by local natives, and whether or not that matters. To a certain extent I have to state that it does not matter what the original intention was (because we probably could never know it anyway). What does matter is that in this time and at this place that symbol means “earthquake,” and that is good enough for me.

REFERENCE:

York, Annie, Richard Daley and Chris Arnett

1993    They Write Their Dream on the Rock Forever: Rock Writings of the Stein River Valley of British Columbia, Talonbooks, Vancouver, B.C.