NORTHWEST COAST ART, AND PICTISH ART REVISITED:

 This is a column that is just for fun. I am not trying to claim any sort of discovery or insight, it is just about a coincidence that I find entrancing.

Line drawing of the 'Pictish Beast.' Internet image, public domain.

On 5 February 2017, I published a column on RockArtBlog titled An Ancient Pictish Water Monster’s Resemblance to the Sea Wolf of Northwest Coast Indian Art. In this column I am going to revisit that subject because the similarity still intrigues me. First, I will state again that I do not see any possibility of contact between the people of ancient Scotland and the tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America. I am not implying any connection between the images, I am just fascinated by their similarities.

'Pictish Beast' carved on the Maiden Stone. Illustration from aberdeenshire.gov.uk.

First, I present the animal symbol known as the ‘Pictish Beast.’ It is found carved in relief on rock slabs known as ‘Pictish Symbol Stones.’

“Pictish symbol stones are of two broad types, long known as Class I and Class II. The symbols on Class I stones are incised, whereas those on the class II stones are carved in relief.” (Cummings 1995:126) These carvings range from a simple line image to wonderfully intricate carved designs with a broad range of content, but the most recognized symbols have been catalogued.

Carved 'Pictish Beast.' Internet image, public domain.

“Some fifty different Pictish symbols have been recognized. These include animal’s heads, birds (eagle, goose), other animals (fish, serpent, boar, bull, dog), and the ‘Pictish Beast’ (often referred to as an elephant, but more probably a stylized dolphin), and a variety of inorganic designs.” (Cummings 1995:126) It would not, of course, be an elephant. Of the dolphins around Scotland the Bottlenose dolphin is common and the shape of its head most closely matches the ‘Pictish Beast.’

Spouting dolphin. Image from Dolphin Watch Cruises.

“The Pictish Beast symbol is characterized by an elongated, sinuous body that typically adopts a horizontal or diagonal orientation, evoking a swimming or serpentine post. Its head features long jaws or a beak-like snout that curls outward at the tip, often accompanied by a lappet indicated by one or two lines. A prominent crest or mane runs along the back in many depictions adding to the creature’s distinctive silhouette. The limbs end in scroll-like or spiraled forms resembling flippers or coiled feet, while the tail is usually drooping and spiral-ended, sometimes reduced to a simple line. The body is frequently infilled with decorative elements such as interlace, fretwork, or spirals, rendered in incised lines of varying depth that contribute to a stylized rather than a naturalistic style.” (Grokipedia vO.2) Assuming that the image can be identified as a Bottlenose Dolphin, what is called the ‘crest’ was probably inspired by the dolphin spouting, the spray of water when it exhales through its blowhole.

The ‘tail’ may be, in fact, the dolphins dorsal fin (or may have been added by the artists because animals have tails), and the ornate coiled legs are the dolphins flippers and flukes.

“On symbol stones, the Beast measures up to 1-2 meters in length, scaled to the slabs dimentions, and appears on both Class I (incised) and Class II (relief) stones.” (Grokipedia vO.2)

Line drawing of Sea Wolves. Nainamo, British Columbia. Internet image, public domain.

Which brings me to Vancouver Island off of the coast of British Columbia in Canada. I have been to petroglyphs sites there that have creatures often identified as Sea Wolves that have a lot in common with the ‘Pictish Beast.’ Generally the resemblances are in the head and the sinuous torso of the animal. Now, let me repeat, I know that they cannot be related in any way, but I love the synchronicity of this. There are images of these from sites on Sproat Lake, Nainamo, and Gabriola Island, five kilometers offshore from Nainamo.

Sea Wolf, Petroglyph Park, Nainamo, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Photograph by Peter Faris, 1997.

Sea Wolf, Sproat Lake, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Photograph by Peter Faris, 1997.

Another wonderful concidence is that the ‘Pictish Beast’ is usually thought to represent a dolphin, and the people who inhabited Vancouver Island, the Kwakwaka’waks, Nuu-chah-nulth, and the Coastal Salish peoples are maritime cultures like the other tribes of the Northwest Coast. Could their Sea Wolf also be a dolphin?

Head of a Sea Wolf, Gabriola Island, off of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Image from Gabriola: Petroglyph Island, by Mary and Ted Bentley, Sono Nis Press, Nelson British Columbia, Canada, 1981, page 26.

I have speculated in the past that the sea wolves might indeed be just that, actual wolves who have adapted to a somewhat maritime lifestyle. But the images identified as sea wolves could equally well be images of dolphins like the ‘Pictish Beast.’

NOTE 1: Some images in this column 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.

NOTE2:  Grok4, cited below as a reference, is a Large Language Model from SpaceXAI.

REFERENCES:

Cummings, W. A., 1995, The Age of the Picts, Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd., Gloucestershire, UK.

Faris, Peter, 2017, An Ancient Pictish Water Monster’s Resemblance to the Sea Wolf of Northwest Coast Indian Art, 5 February 2017, RockArtBlog, https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7760124847746733855/2882785802379020134

Grok4, Pictish Beast, Grokipedia vO.2. https://grokipedia.com/page/Pictish_Beast.

Owen, Kathryn, 2022, Pictish Beasts, 19 September 2022, https://www.livingfield.co.uk/art/pictish-beasts/. Accessed online 19 September 2026.

WASGO/GONAKADET - SEA WOLVES OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST COAST:

Haida Wasgo, from a tattoo image.

Among the pantheon of mythical and legendary animals that populated the belief systems of the tribes of the Pacific Northwest was the Sea Wolf. On July 22, 2012, I published a column titled Native American Astronomy - The Constellation Gonakadet/Wasgo, about the beliefs of North American northwest coast tribes in this creature and concerning a constellation in the heavens that they identified with the sea wolf (Faris 2012). A powerful swimming creature with the head of a wolf and the body of a sea creature, some authors have relegated this creature to the realm of mythology, while others have argued it represents a sea serpent or some other crypto-zoological survivor. 

Cliff at Sproat Lake, British

Columbia. Sea Wolf at lower

left of picture.

Photo Peter Faris, 1995.

Sea Wolf from Sproat Lake,

Vancouver Island, British

Columbia, petroglyph.

Photo Peter Faris, 1995.

Gonakadet/Wasgo has the head of a wolf, and a body based upon that of the killer whale. Various other portrayals of him combine these themes, from showing a wolf with fins, to a sea animal with a wolf's head. The sea wolf is one image from the catalog of creatures commonly portrayed in the various media among the tribes of the North American Pacific Northwest. Gonakadet/Wasgo is carved on totem poles woven into basketry and fabrics, shown as tatoos and decoration on tools and utensils, and carved into the rocks as petroglyphs.

Swimming Sea Wolf, i.pinimg.com.

Well, it turns out that there actually are sea wolves and that a few fortunate zoologists (and of course the Native tribes) have always known about them. Known as Gonakadet by the Tlingit, and Wasgo by the Haida, this coastal sub-species of the gray wolf has adapted to a maritime lifestyle and lives predominately on seafood. "Unlike their inland counterparts that hunt deer and caribou, the sea wolves comb the beaches along B.C.'s iconic Great Bear Rainforest and, by and large feed off the ocean. They can swim for miles between coastal islands and eat whatever the sea serves up. They are known to prey on salmon for several months out of the year with fish making up 25 percent of their diet during the spawning season. They hunt seals and sea lions, chew on barnacles, turn up at the herring spawning grounds and feast on whale carcasses. Some even specialize in digging up clams and turning over rocks to look for crabs." (Talmazan 2016)

The sea wolves have been studied for years by British Columbian photdographer Ian McAllister. "We know from exhaustive DNA studies that these wolves are genetically distinct from their continental kin," says McAllister. "They are behaviorally distinct, swimming from island to island and preying on sea animals. They are also morphologically distinct - they are smaller in size and physically different from their mainland counterparts." (Talmazan 2016)

Sea Wolf petroglyphs at Nainamo

Petroglyph Park, Vancouver Island,

British Columbia.

Photo Peter Faris, 1995.

"Chris Darimont, science director at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, has studied the carnivores' unusual lifestyle for nearly two decades. Coastal wolves live with two paws in the ocean and two paws on land, Darimont says. When hunting for food, sea wolves can swim miles between islands and rocky outcrops to feast on seals and animal carcasses found on the rocks. "Our farthest record [of their swimming abilities] is to an archipelago 7.5 miles [12 kilometers] from the nearest landmass," he says. They once roamed all the way down to California in its former temperate rain forests. Now they only go down to just north of Vancouver", he says." (Petri 2016)

The peoples of the Pacific Coast of North America had a maritime lifestyle, roaming the ocean in their large sea-going canoes. Many of the tribes included whaling in their hunting/gathering inventory and they were used to long ocean voyages. Imagine the experience of a canoe crew a few miles off shore meeting a sea-going wolf swimming by. This story would be told and re-told, perhaps getting embellished in the re-telling, until it became a tenet of their rich and creative mythology.  

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter,

2012 Native American Astronomy - The Constellation Gonakadet/Wasgo, July 22, 2012, http://rockartblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/native-american-astronomy-constellation.html

Petri, Alexandra E.

2016 Meet the Rare Swimming Wolves That Eat Seafood, August 3, 2016, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/sea-oceans-wolves-animals-science/

Talmazan, Yuliya,

2016 Update: Photo of B.C. Sea Wolf Honoured by National Geographic, Sept. 24, 2016, https://globalnews.ca/news/2239088/national-geographic-puts-spotlight-on-b-c-s-enigmatic-sea-wolves/

AN ANCIENT PICTISH WATER MONSTER'S RESEMBLANCE TO THE SEA WOLF OF NORTHWEST COAST INDIAN ART:

Pictish stone, media3.picsearch.com,

public domain.

Pictish stone, www.itraveluk.co, 

public domain.

Every once-in-a-while I find it to be almost irresistible to give in to whimsy. This posting is a prime example of that because I am devoting it to showing a striking resemblance between examples of rock art that cannot possibly be related, from pretty much opposite sides of the world, and probably separated by centuries in time.

Strathmartine Castle Stone,

wikipedia.org

- public domain.

One side of this resemblance comparison is represented by an animal commonly portrayed in the art of the Picts, and is called the "Pictish Beast. "The Picts were a tribal confederation of peoples who lived in what is today eastern and northern Scotland during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval periods. They are thought to have been ethnolinguistically Celtic. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from the geographical distribution of brochs, Brittonic place name elements, and Pictish stones. Picts are attested to in written records from before the Roman conquest of Britain to the 10th century, when they are thought to have merged with the Gails. They lived to the north of the rivers Forth and Clyde.

Pictish petroglyph panel, From Pappas,

Live Science, Jan. 22, 2017

Picts are assumed to have been the descendants of the Caledonii and other tribes that were mentioned by Roman historians or on theworld map of Ptolemy. Pictland, also called Pictavia by some sources, gradually merged with the Gaelic kingdom of Dal Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba (Scotland). Alba then expanded, absorbing the Brittonic kingdom of Strathclyde and Bernician Lothian , and by the 11th century the Pictish identity had been subsumed into the "Scots" amalgamation of peoples." (Wikipedia)

Sea Wolf petroglyph, Nanaimo,

Vancouver Island, British Columbia,

Canada. Photograph Jack and

Esther Faris, 1992.

The other side of this resemblance is represented by the mythical Sea Wolf figure of the First Nations People of Vancouver Island, on the Northwest Coast of North America. One group of these people live in the area of Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island.

The First Nation people of Nanaimo are the Snuneymuxw, a Coastal Salish people. "The Snuneymuxw First Nationis currently located in and around Nanaimo on east-central Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Although the Snuneymuxw now only have a total reserve land base of 266 hectares, divided into small, separated reserves, they once occupied a wide region of south-central Vancouver Island where they lived for more than 5,000 years. Snuneymuxw Territory on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and the Fraser River in British Columbia was in the center of Coast Salishterritory." (Wikipedia)

There are a number of the Sea Wolf depictions at the Nanaimo petroglyph site.

Sea Wolf petroglyph, Sproat Lake,

Vancouver Island, British Columbia,

Canada. Photograph Peter Faris, 1995.

The other group of First Nations People that I looked at are the people who lived in the area of Sproat Lake, also on Vancouver Island. "The Kleh-koot-aht people resided around Kleh-koot (Sproat Lake) (means long stretch of level land). Kleh-koot-aht’s area was between Yaaqis (Prairie Farm) and Sproat Falls and there was a seasonal village located on the Sproat River. This village was a great place for fishing and smoking salmon, picking blackberries, hunting deer and picnicking. Also at this place was a longhouse where they performed several potlatches in the winter season." (Wikipedia) There is a large petroglyph panel found at Sproat Lake which also includes the Sea Wolf figure.

Petroglyph, Gabriola Island,

British Columbia, Canada. From

Bentley, 1981, p. 26.

Remember, as I said above, the Sea Wolf cannot possibly be related in any way to the Pictish Beast. Yet the resemblance between the creatures, especially their heads, is marked, and I find it delightful.  Remember: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (William Shakespeare)

NOTE: Photos of the Pictish Beast were found on the internet with a search for "Pictish Beast public domain". If I recovered any photographs that were not public domain I did so inadvertently, and I apologize for their use.

REFERENCES:

Bentley, Mary and Ted,
1981   Gabriola: Petroglyph Island, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, B.C.

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

Pappas, Stephanie,
2017   Lost Dark Ages Fort Found in Scotland, January 22, 2017, Live Science, http://www.livescience.com/57591-lost-dark-ages-fort-found-scotland.html

·        

·        Wikipedia

UNLIKELY AT BEST – CADBOROSAURUS:

Sea-wolf petroglyph at center-left, Nanaimo Petroglyph

Park, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Photo Peter Faris, 1995.

There is a new program on the National Geographic Channel on our cable that is named The Beast Hunter. The host of the program, biologist Pat Spain, searches for mythological creatures that are unknown to science but recorded in the mythology of peoples around the world. Various episodes have followed him in a search for the Mokele-mbembe in Africa, and Mapinguari in the Amazon. This program seems to be basically an exercise is crypto-zoology but is supposedly given scientific credence by the host’s degrees.

One recent episode concerned a search for the so-called Cadborosaurus in the waters around Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Various crypto-zoologists have suggested that the cadborosaurus actually exists and is descended from a relic population of plesiosaurs or mososaurs. Descriptions by witnesses who claim sightings often include a long neck, a serpentine body seen in two or three loops out of the water, and a vaguely horse-like head.

Sea-wolf petroglyph at center-left, Nanaimo Petroglyph

Park, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Drawing after Indian Rock Carvings, by Beth Hill,

Hancock House Publishers, 1980, p.22.

The host used as part of his evidence for the existence of this creature petroglyphs from the Nanaimo Petroglyph Park on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The petroglyphs illustrated are ones that are usually identified as the “sea wolf” of Northwest Coast mythology. The sea wolf is a mythological sea animal of the Pacific Northwest native cultures of the Haida, the Tsimshian and the Tlingit. This mythological creature that is interpreted in many different forms throughout these diverse cultures often is often portrayed with the head of the wolf and the fins of the killer whale. Native representation of this beast often depicts a long serpentine animal and a dog like or crocodilian head, sometimes with small forelimbs.

Sea-wolf petroglyph, Sproat Lake, Vancouver Island,

British Columbia. Photo Peter Faris, 1995

Is there a “sea wolf”, I certainly cannot say. If such a legendary creature actually is based upon reality it may have been inspired by sightings of the cadborosaurus. Does cadborosaurus exist? I really don’t know although it is hard to picture the existence of such a large sea creature without a little more factual proof. For those of us who enjoy flights of imagination it is an entertaining program, and this episode, at least, provided some really good close-up views of the petroglyphs of Nanaimo which are notoriously difficult to photograph. I suppose that they deserve credit for that.

References

Hill, Beth
1980      Indian Rock Carvings, Hancock House Publishers, Surrey, BC.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/beast-hunter/all/Overview?source=banner_semgngc_170