SPEECH, WIND OR SMOKE SCROLLS IN ROCK ART - REVISITED:

Chaco Canyon, trail to Penasco Blanco, San Juan county, NM Photograph Peter Faris, May 1994.

On December 6, 2014, I posted a column titled “SPEECH SCROLLS IN ROCK ART?” In this I likened a petroglyph in Chaco Canyon along the trail to Peñasco Blanco trail to the wind or speech scroll of Mesoamerica. In this column I wrote “A familiar convention in Mesoamerican art is the speech scroll, a curved line or shape in front of the mouth used to indicate that the possessor is speaking. We do know that the rock art creating peoples of Mesoamerica, including Aztec, Maya, and Zapotec, all had symbols to represent speech or sound.” (Faris 2014)

I continued “Examples exist in stone sculpture, on painted pottery, and in the few remaining books that survived the Spanish destruction, the codexes. We also know that these peoples had influence on the cultures and rock art of the American southwest. With this in mind I have kept an eye out for the general shape of a Mesoamerican speech scroll in rock art.” (Faris 2014)

Visiting Chaco Canyon in 1994 I had noticed the distinctive curved shape carved into the cliff while hiking to Peñasco Blanco in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

Petroglyph Park, Albuquerque, MN, Bernal County, NM. Photograph Peter Faris, September 1988.

Close-up, Petroglyph Park, Albuquerque, Bernal County, NM, Photograph Peter Faris, September 1988.

I have now recognized the same symbol in a slide I took at Petroglyph National Monument in September 1988 at Albuquerque, New Mexico. This composition consists of a sort of cartouche; a horizontal rectangle containing a vertical double scroll in the center flanked by four-pointed stars, and a pair of horizontal double scrolls above the rectangle. These double scrolls are nearly identical to the wind symbols recorded by Taube (2001) and also resemble the wind scrolls illustrated emitting from a cave by Pazstory (1998). In conjunction with the four-pointed stars this would seem to reinforce the possibility that the double scrolls are meant to be seen in a sky context, i.e., the wind. However, there is always the possibility that these are meant to refer to speech scrolls as I mentioned in my 2014 posting.

           

Olmec speech scroll, Karl Taube, 2001, Figure 75, page 107.

Aztec wind symbols coming from a cave, Karl Taube, 2001, Figure 73, page 106.

For the ancient Olmec “the double spiral represents the dynamic combination of clouds and swirling wind.” (Taube 2001:107)

Aztecs discussing a map. Internet photograph, Public Domain.

Another possibility for this double scroll, based upon Aztec imagery, would be as a representation of smoke, another sky symbol. “The speech – indeed the breath – of Mexica deities was connected in mythical terms to the creation of the earth and sky. Parallel to this idea, smoke for the Aztecs was believed to be divine breath, and the glyph that scribes used to depict smoke was volute-shaped, very similar to speech scrolls.” (Mursell) This is, of course, virtually identical with North American First Peoples beliefs that the smoke of tobacco, sage, or other significant herbs, could carry thoughts and prayers to the gods. If this were the case, then this symbol engraved upon the rock might represent a permanent prayer or supplication.

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:

Faris, Peter, 2014, Speech Scrolls in Rock Art?, 6 December 2014, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/speech%20scroll

Mursell, Ian, Is There a Name for the Aztec Speech Glyph?, , https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/ask-us/is-there-a-name-for-speech-glyph, Internet reference accessed 17 June 2021.

Pasztory, Esther, 1998, Pre-Columbian Art, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Taube, Karl, 2001, The Breath of Life: the Symbolism of Wind in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest, pages 102-123, The Road to Aztlan: Art From a Mythic Homeland, edited by Fields, Virginia M., and Victor Zamudio-Taylor, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles.

PALEOLITHIC CAVE PAINTING - A PRECURSOR TO WRITING?

La Pasiega inscription, Spain.

http://channel.national

geographic.com/origins

The perennial question of the origin(s) of writing has been long debated and argued over. Perhaps the earliest nominee for the title of earliest writing is a row of symbols found in La Pasiega Cave, in Spain.  This was discussed by Genevieve von Petzinger in her 2016 book The First Signs, Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols, from Atria Books, New York.

 Close-up, La Pasiega inscription, Spain.

http://channel.national

geographic.com/origins

"The 'La Pasiega inscription' is probably the most unusual sequence of signs found anywhere in Palaeolithic art. La Pasiega is part of the same mountain complex where we find El Castillo and several other important Ice Age sites, but even in this company, features like its grinding stone and purple bison make it unusual. And these pale in comparison to the strange row of signs situated high on a wall of their own, deep inside the complex, multileveled warren of passageways that make up La Pasiega. With the dark-red paint of the characters still standing out starkly from the pale, sloping wall, these abstract images are over twelve feet above floor level - the artist would have had to scramble up a steep, slippery incline to even create this series of signs.

What first struck me when I saw these images was how organized and purposeful they looked: they seem to be organized into three closely spaced units. The most complex is on the left and consists of a pair of horizontal lines with other markings extending upward vertically from this base. There is a symmetry to the arrangement: in the center is a single line, flanked on either side by two stacked circles, with a pair of lines on each end. The center unit consists of two images that have been described as 'stylized feet' and are made up of oval shapes each topped with five short lines extending upward (kind of like the toes on a foot). And, finally, on the right is a single sign most easily described as a reversed capital E, but with two lines in the center instead of one. Henri Breuil described these markings as 'cabalistic figures' after visiting La Pasiega in 1913, and was one of the first pre-historians to refer to it as an inscription. Whether these signs should be considered as part of a writing system is something that continues to generate discussion and is really part of the larger question that I'm about to try to answer for you, namely: "Is it writing?" (Von Petzinger 2016: 182-3)  

La Pasiega inscription, Spain.

Wikipedia.

" So in answer to the question 'Is it writing?' I'm afraid the answer is no. However, I do feel confident that Ice Age rock art was meaningful to those who created it and did have communicative properties; it's just that no clear recording of language is evident yet. Does this make the sequence of signs at La Pasiega an accidental occurrence? I certainly don't think so. In fact, I lean in the opposite direction. My guess is that those particular abstract markings represent an early attempt to string multiple signs together in order to create a more complex message. And while it does show that at least some Paleolithic people already understood the potential of combining signs, when it comes to the 'writing question,' the problem is that this row of geometric images was a highly unusual occurrence, not part of a flourishing system.

The question now, of course, is: If the signs were meaningful and meant to transmit information, then exactly what were they trying to say?" (Von Petzinger 2016: 189-90)

For me, the most significant part of Von Petzinger's analysis is her phrase "those particular abstract markings represent an early attempt to string multiple signs together in order to create a more complex message." (p. 189-90). It seems to me that any serious observer would have to conclude that this string of signs were purposely carefully planned and executed for exactly that purpose, to create a more complex message. I do not know if the two foot/paw prints(?) and the backward-E shape are intended to be included with the grouping on the left. Von Petzinger apparently does lump them all together based upon their proximity and identical pigment shade and color. Here, in North America, the two footprints would probably be considered to be bear paw prints, the symbol on the right I wouldn't know about. What really interests me is the grouping on the left.

First, notice that the symbols in that group on the left are lined up on top of a large rectangle as if on a stage or pedestal for a special presentation, but better than that, if they were a word precursor (that is, a group of symbols that represent an object, idea, or concept) they would be a palindrome - the same when read from either side (such as madam, or race car) - and that, I am quite sure, is no accident. From which ever side you start you have a double vertical line, truncated figure 8, a single vertical line in the middle, another truncated figure 8, and another double vertical line. Whatever these symbols represent, it is certain that their creation was the result of a deliberate and complicated cognitive process. They represent something, I just do not know what it is.

Genevieve Von Petzinger has presented her ideas in a Ted Talk, available through the following link (copy the following address and paste it into your browser):

https://www.ted.com/talks/genevieve_von_petzinger_why_are_these_32_symbols_found_in_ancient_caves_all_over_europe

I do recommend the Von Petzinger book, The First Signs, Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols, it is an interesting and fun read.

NOTE: Illustrations in this column were retrieved by a Google 10 search of the Internet for La Pasiega Inscription Public Domain. If any results were used that are not meant to be public domain I apologize and will be happy to give credit if you let me know.

REFERENCES:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/origins-the-journey-of-humankind/videos/inventing-graphics-on-cave-walls/

Von Petzinger, Genevieve,

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

Wikipedia

ROCK ART SYMBOLS FROM HORSE PAINTING:

Of the many symbols found in rock art inscriptions it would indeed be strange if none of them were found in other contexts of Native American art.

Hicklin Springs, 5BN7, Bent County, Colorado.

Photograph: Peter Faris, May 1992.

Panel # 3.B2, Hicklin Springs, 5BN7, Bent County,

Colorado. Drawn by Peter Faris, 25 Sept. 1993.

At site 5BN7(Hicklin Springs) in southeastern Colorado’s Bent County one of the petroglyph panels (Panel# 3.B2) carved in the cliff face shows a grouping of short curved lines - semicircles (horseshoes) in four vertical columns.

My field sketch of the panel allows us to count 26 of these symbols on the panel. This is a relatively common symbol in rock art in southeast Colorado and the west, but this is a particularly good grouping of them. According to Thomas Mails if this symbol is painted upon a horse it represents a horseshoe or horse track and symbolizes a horse taken from an enemy in a horse stealing expedition or a fight. Now my grandfather taught me that when you hung up an actual horseshoe for good luck you hung it this way, with the open side up so the good luck would not run out - the way the semicircles are oriented on the rock art panel at Hicklin Springs. Notice that with the Mails and the Bad Heart Buffalo examples the horseshoe is presented the other way around, with the opening down.

Thomas Mails, 1972, Mystic Warriors of the Plains, Barnes and

Noble Books, New York. Pages 220 (left) and 222 (right).

In his book Mystic Warriors of the Plains (1972), Thomas Mails illustrated a number of such symbols that he identified as being used in horse painting. “Painted exploit symbols used on horses. a, war party leader. b, enemy killed in hand combat. c, owner fought from behind breastworks. d, hail. e, coup marks. f, horse raids or number of horses stolen. g, mourning marks. h, medicine symbol.” (Mails 1972: 220)

Writing in Ledger Book Art: A Key to Understanding Northern Plains Biographic Rock Art, James D. Keyser (1989:92) called Ledger Book Art a “lexicon” for Biographic rock art. In this he was pointing out that Ledger Book art, and Plains Biographic rock art as well, are usually records of specific events and that the symbolism used extends to both media.

Amos Bad-Heart Bull, p. XV, in Wind on the

Buffalo Grass, Leslie Tillet, 1976.

“Amos Bad Heart Buffalo’s drawing of himself as a cowboy, done Dec. 3, 1900. The inscription, translated by Helen Blish reads, “Oglalas from White Clay district herding their cattle.” The sketch at upper left is of a cattle ranch of that time, and the label above it reads, “Chenney River S. Dak. Squn Hamper Creek.” (Tillet 1976: XV) Even though he seems to have reconciled to living the white man’s life, he still has his horse painted with traditional symbols, a holdover of the traditional attitudes and ways.

Amos Bad-Heart Bull, p. 34, in Wind on the

Buffalo Grass, Leslie Tillet, 1976.

Also by Amos Bad Heart Buffalo, this panel from a warrior parade shows a horse painted with symbols denoting successful horse raids. “Warrior parades – provided the audience with another means of measuring prestige. Each detail in his drawings gives clues to the particular warrior society that the Indian belonged to. “(Tillet 1976:32)

Does the difference in orientation between the rock art panel and the other examples negate any comparison or assumption of similarity? With a symbol this simple and common my feeling is no, it is recognizable from any angle and is probably not changed by changes in orientation. Perhaps some of the other shapes and symbols in rock art had similar meanings to the artist’s who produced them. Many of Mail’s other symbols are fairly common in rock art of Colorado and the West. Keep your eyes open, it’s at least worth thinking about.

REFERENCES:

Keyser, James D.

1989    Ledger Book Art: A Key to Understanding Northern Plains Biographic Rock Art, p. 86-111, Rock Art of the Western Canyons, edited by Jane Day, Paul D. Friedman, and Marcia J. Tate, Denver Museum of Natural History and Colorado Archaeological Society, Denver.

Mails, Thomas E.

1972    Mystic Warriors of the Plains, Barnes and Noble Books, New York.

Tillet, Leslie

1976    Wind on the Buffalo Grass: The Indians’ Own Account of the Battle at the Little Big Horn River, & the Death of their life on the Plains, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York.

HORSE DECORATION IN ROCK ART – PAINT:

Warriors of the Plains horse tribes painted their horses for special occasions. These painted markings and symbols were not so much an identifier in the nature of the Angle horse brand as they were an enhancement, visual or spiritual, of the horse’s and the rider’s presence. Some of the symbols represented specific accomplishments and so could be read like a biography of the warrior. Other symbols conferred spiritual powers and abilities that had been shown to the warrior on a vision quest. Some examples of painted horses can be seen in rock art and other Native American art forms, and some of these messages can still be read in the painted markings.

Symbols from painted horses, Thomas E. Mails, 

Mystic Warriors of the Plains, 1991, p.220.

Thomas Mails illustrated a number of commonly seen marks in his book Mystic Warriors of the Plains (Mails 1991:220) and examples (including variations) of some of these symbols can be seen in examples of Native American art. “Painted exploit symbols used on horses. a, war party leader. b, enemy killed in hand combat. c, owner fought from behind breastworks. d, hail. e, coup marks. f, horse raids or number of horses stolen. g, mourning marks. h, medicine symbol.” (Mails 1972: 220)

Picture Canyon, Baca County. Photograph: Peter Faris.

Close-up of symbol on the horse from Picture

 Canyon, Baca County, Colorado.

In Picture Canyon, Baca County, Colorado, a horse figure that is faintly drawn in black and also lightly incised into the cliff face has markings carved into his front shoulder that might represent a variation of Mail’s marks for coup counts. An extremely faded rider can be made out and the shapes of tipis in the background are now almost invisible.

A coup count, Dog Soldier Ledger, pl. 91, p. 189.

Detail, A coup count, Dog Soldier Ledger, pl. 91, p. 189.

Coup count symbols can be seen on the horse illustrated in one of the plates in the Dog Soldier Ledger (p. 91, p. 189) in which an unidentified warrior has dismounted to count coup with a strike of his bow on a wounded soldier.

Keyser, James D. and Michael A. Klassen,

2001, Plains Indian Rock Art,p. 237.

An incised panel from Joliet, Montana, is illustrated in James Keyser’s and Michael Klassen’s 2001 book Plains Indian Rock Art (p. 237). The large horse in the center of the illustration carries an “H” on his hip which might represent an Anglo brand, but the horse also shows a open-bottom rounded symbol on his front shoulder which is quite possibly Mail’s symbol for horse raids and/or horses stolen, a could possibly actually refer to the capture of the horse illustrated by its rider.

White Bird lancing a soldier, a circle is painted

on the hip of his horse. Dog Soldier Ledger,

plate 100, p. 203. 

Another illustration from the Dog Soldier Ledger (p. 100, p. 203) shows White Bird lancing a white man. White Bird’s horse is painted with a circle identified by Mails as signifying fighting from behind breastworks or from some sort of defensive position. Additional illustrations of White Bird in the same publication show the same symbol on his horse.

“A warrior often painted his favorite war horse with the same pattern and colors he used for his own face and body. And when he was preparing for ceremonial events or for journeys into enemy territory, he painted his horse at the same time as he painted himself. – The main thing to bear in mind is that the painted horse always carried a message about his owner, hence sometimes the quality of the horse bearing the marks – although the painted horse might not always be the one the owner had ridden on the raids described.” (Mails 1991:219)

The value and importance of the horse painting is illustrated by George P. Horse Capture and Emil Her Many Horses in their 2006 book “Song for the Horse Nation”. “Siya’ka said that on one occasion when he was hard pressed on the warpath, he dismounted, and, standing in front of his horse, spoke to him saying: “We are in danger. Obey me promptly that we may conquer. If you have to run for your life and mine, do your best, and if we reach home, I will give you the best eagle feather I can get – and you shall be painted with the best paint.”” (Horse Capture and Her Many Horses 2006:41)  “The best paint” presumably is paint made with the rarest, or hardest to acquire, pigments, the value being due to the effort or expense of acquisition.

A range of motives and reasons led to painting of their horses by Native American Plains warriors, and many of these motives and reasons were of such importance that the same symbols were occasionally portrayed on rock art of horses. Indeed, many of these symbols can often be found independantly painted or pecked into the rock as well, but that is a subject for a later posting.

REFERENCES:

Afton, Jean, David Fridtjof Halaas, and Andrew E. Masich

1997    Cheyenne Dog Soldiers: A Ledgerbook History of Coups and Combat, Colorado Historical Society and University Press of Colorado, Denver.

Horse Capture, George P., and Emil Her Many Horses

2006    A Song For the Horse Nation: Horses in Native American Cultures, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., and Fulcrum Press, Golden, Colorado.

Keyser, James D. and Michael A. Klassen

2001    Plains Indian Rock Art, University of Washington Press, Seattle.

Mails, Thomas E.

1991    Mystic Warriors of the Plains, Barnes and Noble Books, New York

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.