ROCK ART AND FOSSILS – FATE BELL SHELTER, A SPECIAL PLACE:

Pictographs, Fate Bell Shelter, Val Verde 

County, Texas. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2004.

In 2004, we had the privilege to tour rock art of Val Verde County, Texas, with Teresa Weedin and a group from the Colorado Archaeological Society, guided by James Zintgraff, who had done so much to protect and study it.

Pictographs, Fate Bell Shelter, Val Verde 

County, Texas. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2004.

A large proportion of the rock art in this area is found in large rock shelters in the limestone bedrock, like Fate Bell Shelter seen here. This limestone is quite fossiliferous, begging the question, is the rock art linked to the fossils in any way? Do fossils interest you? They have always fascinated me, and I think that is the normal reaction of most people to the idea of a shell or other part of a formerly living thing now in solid stone. I would bet that the early native American inhabitants of this area felt the same way.

Ammonite fossil, Fate Bell Shelter, Val Verde 

County, Texas. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2004.

John Felix has suggested that the shapes in the earliest rock art were copied from fossils found in nature (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~feliks/impact-of-fossils/index.html). It is not difficult to imagine a coiled ammonite fossil inspiring the first spiral petroglyph. This is certainly a possibility, although I cannot imagine how we can prove it. We do, however, know of instances where fossils are accompanied by rock art which certainly suggests some link (although the link could just be the rock, but I believe it is more - people are fascinated by fossils).  In this part of Texas it does seem to at least the casual observer that locales with prominent fossils also tend to have rock art. That is certainly the case with some of the major sites displaying Pecos River Style rock art. Some of these sites are Fate Bell Shelter, Halo Shelter, Painted Canyon, and White Shaman.

Watercolor paintings of the pictographs in Fate Bell Shelter.

From W. W. Newcomb, The Rock Art of Texas Indians, 

Paintings by Forrest Kirkland, 1967. 

In this posting I am going to present Fate Bell Shelter in Seminole Canyon State Historic Park, Val Verde County, Texas. “The site was first excavated by the University of Texas between October 20 and November 18, 1932, by a crew of five men led by James E. Pearce and A. T. Jackson. The 1932 expedition was the only major excavation of the shelter. A smaller excavation was carried out by Mark Parsons in 1963 as part of the salvage operations prior to the construction of Amistad Dam. Various projects since then have documented the Indian rock art extant in Fate Bell Shelter and in the surrounding area.” (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bbf01)

“Fate Bell Shelter is best known for its pictographs, which are among the best documented and best preserved of the Pecos River Style. This Style, which may date between three and four thousand years before the present, is generally considered the oldest of the types found in the Lower Pecos area. This would place the art in the middle Archaic period. The Pecos River style is a polychrome style that is considered a manifestation of the shaman cult. The central characters of the pictographs are faceless anthropomorphic figures, elaborately dressed and often holding a variety of accessories such as atlatls, darts, and fending sticks. The figures are often depicted with their arms outstretched, and in later pictographs the shamans’ arms are increasingly stylized and seem to be more akin to wings than arms. At one end of the shelter there are also examples of Red Linear figures – a Late Archaic Period style characterized by very small stick figures engaged in various activities.” (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bbf01)

 Fossils in limestone block, Fate Bell Shelter, Val Verde

County, Texas. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2004.

The remarkable thing about the fossils in Fate Bell Shelter is that some of them are displayed prominently in a large, roughly cubical, block of limestone. This limestone block was placed in the shelter in a location that suggested it had been moved there from elsewhere (there was no corresponding void in the ceiling above suggesting to me that it had fallen). It had many fossils that I believe to be Elimia tenera (in the family Pleuroceridae) shells showing on its surface, and the upper surface was quite polished. It looked like it had been oiled and burnished, perhaps by butt polish or intentional preparation. In his 1933 report on his studies at Fate Bell, Pearce stated: “On the surface, at the outer edge of the shelter, is a boulder of limestone that evidently was used in working down and polishing bone and wood implements. The upper surface of the stone is 60 by 37 inches. The entire surface is worn exceedingly smooth and some portions, around the rims of old eroded depressions, are as slick and shiny as glass. In addition, there are several hundred grooves with sharp, well-defined edges. The depths of the grooves vary from 1/16 to ½ inch and the lengths range from ½ to 10 inches. The presence of numerous bone implements in the midden deposit explains the use of this stone.” (Pearce 1933:37-38) You can see by this that Pearce believed that the polish was caused by abrasion from sharpening awls and other artifacts. This struck me as unlikely because the smoother the boulder became the less effective as a sharpening stone it would become. I think that the job would have been abandoned long before it achieved its present state of polish. Remember too that it has sat there for many centuries, it must have been even more polished originally. More interestingly, Pearce did not mention the fossils showing on this block. Either he considered them unimportant, or perhaps he was discussing a different block of stone, but then why did he not discuss the one we saw? I can only assume that Pearce, as a traditional archaeologist, had no interest in fossils and did not bother to mention them in depth. A final point is that limestone is a soft rock and would not have been very effective as a sharpening stone.

To me, it was hard to escape the conclusion that there was some sort of correspondence or connection between the pictographs and the fossils at Fate Bell Shelter. Both were prominently placed, both took a lot of work to put in place and prepare, and both are examples of things that the people would have found special and meaningful. Also seen at Fate Bell Shelter was a fossil ammonite in the bedrock. I am certain that a detailed search would have turned up many more fossils.

In his 1933 report of the excavations of Fate Bell Shelter Pearce listed two fossils found in burial contexts. However, he did not identify the type of fossils they were, and careful reading of the inventories in his burial descriptions only yielded mention of one fossil found. This example of one (or two) fossils included in grave goods seems to me to reinforce the significance of fossils and thus, the relationship of those fossils to the rock art of Fate Bell Shelter.

The 1930s excavation of Fate Bell Shelter also produced samples of the paint that were used to create the pictographs. I will take this up in a separate posting at a future date. Additionally, material items found in the rock shelters in this region often include painted pebbles, and this was certainly the case at Fate Bell Shelter. I will focus on the painted pebbles in a future posting as well.

REFERENCE:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~feliks/impact-of-fossils/index.html

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bbf01

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.

DIGHTON ROCK - THE FIRST ROCK ART PHOTO IN NORTH AMERICA:

Seth Eastman on Dighton Rock, daguerreotype, 1853.

On February 1, 2014, I posted a column entitled "Dighton Rock - North America's Oldest Rock Art Report" about how this petroglyph boulder is the first known rock art site in America to be reported about. Dighton rock, however, holds another distinction in addition to being the subject of the first known rock art and archaeological site to be reported in writing. It may also be the subject of the first photograph taken of rock art in North America. 

On May 4, 2013, I posted a column entitled "The Oldest RockArt Photograph", in which I discussed a letter in Charles Darwin’s correspondence that mentioned an 1874 photograph of a bear pictograph from Picketwire Canyonlands that had been sent to Darwin. At that time I posited that it may be the oldest known rock art photograph, certainly in North America (although the photograph has not been located in Darwin’s correspondence).

                           Seth Eastman on Dighton Rock,
                               daguerreotype, 1853.

Now, I have another candidate for the title of oldest North American rock art photograph. In his 1991 book Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia) Stephen Williams showed an 1853 daguerreotype of Dighton Rock in Berkley, Massachusetts. Williams described it as follows: “I believe that it (Dighton Rock) is the first American archaeological artifact to be captured by photographic means. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, whom we encountered some pages ago with reference to the Grave Creek Stone, had as his major artist for his monumental six-volume work a young West Pointer named Seth Eastman. His busy army career took him from Minnesota to Texas and finally to the Seminole Wars in Florida.

Eastman, a talented artist, carefully documented Indian life on the frontier while on these military travels between 1829 and 1849. Though much of his work for Schoolcraft was studio-done on artifacts and the like, he did travel to New England, where he drew both the Dighton Rock and the Newport Tower. These drawings are all fine and good, but Eastman made archaeological history in 1853 when he sat atop Dighton Rock on shirtsleeves and a silk vest, with the inscription “enhanced” by chalk, and had a daguerreotype image made of the scene. What a way to be immortalized.

Schoolcraft used Eastman’s drawing of the Rock in his 1854 work.” (Williams 1991:215-6)

Online searching has turned up two versions of the photo; in one Eastman wears a top hat, and in the other version he is bare-headed. There are also variations that have the image reversed. In any case the early date of 1853 makes these daguerreotypes an excellent candidate for the title of Earliest Rock Art Photo!

REFERENCES:

Williams, Stephen

1991    Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

Near Craig, Colorado. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2007.

You know how sometimes you see a rock art panel, or image, or something that you do not understand, but just cannot get out of your mind? One of mine is this boulder from northwestern Colorado, visited on one of the field trips after the 2007 Colorado Rock Art Association Rock Art Symposium and Annual Meeting in Craig, Colorado.

Near Craig, Colorado. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2007.

Our guide led us to a site that looked down on this large boulder with a series of apparently perfect holes abraded or drilled into it in roughly two concentric circles. To the best of my memory there were 28 holes, roughly a lunar cycle. Additionally, many of the holes had round stones placed in them although obviously that could have been done at any time. To the best of our ability to judge the holes had smooth walls and showed no overt sign of pecking so they appeared drilled or abraded, and they were a number of inches deep.

Near Craig, Colorado. Photograph: Peter Faris, 2007.

The obvious suggestion was the connection to the lunar cycle; a stone could be moved from hole to hole each day to keep track of the cycle. There are a number of problems with that beginning with you do not have to move stones in holes to track the lunar cycle, you only have to look up at the moon. Another problem with that theory is the large scale of the panel, it would be very difficult to reach the holes at the top without a scaffold or a ladder, a smaller scale panel would have worked much better.

Near Craig, Colorado (quarter for scale).

Photograph: Peter Faris, 2007.

Thinking about the total amount of rock removed from all the holes I am tempted to think that modern machinery had to be involved in its creation, but for what reason? All in all I am mystified about this panel – any suggestions? 

DIGHTON ROCK - NORTH AMERICA’S OLDEST ROCK ART REPORT?

Dighton Rock at mid-tide, in its original location.

http://www.dightonrock.com/dightonrockits

musuemanditspark.htm

When was the first report of a rock art inscription filed? Well, the first one to be reported that I know of was done in 1680 A.D. about Dighton Rock, in Berkley, Massachusetts. Kenneth Feder, in his Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology, From Atlantis to the Walam Olum (2010:80-81) explained it as follows:

Rev. Danforth's drawing, 1680. British Museum.

“The earliest extant record of the petroglyph-covered boulder dates to 1680, when an English settler Rev. John Danforth, produced a drawing of the images. Unfortunately for those who believe that the marks on Dighton Rock represent the equivalent of graffiti left by ancient European (or African or Asian) seafaring visitors to America’s shores, it should be pointed out that Danforth’s drawing of the markings he saw look virtually nothing like what can currently be seen there today.” (Feder 2010:80)

Dighton rock, en.wikipedia.org, public domain.

The Dighton rock is described in Wikipedia as - “ a 40-ton boulder, originally located in the riverbed of the Taunton River at Berkley, Massachusetts (formerly part of the town of Dighton). The rock is noted for its petroglyphs ("primarily lines, geometric shapes, and schematic drawings of people, along with writing, both verified and not."), carved designs of ancient and uncertain origin, and the controversy about their creators. In 1963, during construction of a coffer dam, state officials removed the rock from the river for preservation. It was installed in a museum in a nearby park, Dighton Rock State Park. In 1980 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

The boulder has the form of a slanted, six-sided block, approximately 5 feet (1.5 m) high, 9.5 feet (2.9 m) wide, and 11 feet (3.4 m) long. It is gray-brown crystalline sandstone of medium to coarse texture. The surface with the inscriptions has a trapezoidal face and is inclined 70 degrees to the northwest. It was found facing the water of the bay.” (Wikipedia)

Reverend Danforth produced a drawing of the petroglyphs in 1680, which still exists in the British Museum, although his drawing is considerably different from others that followed, and from what can today be seen on the rock. (Wikipedia)

“Ten years after Danforth drew the markings, the famed Rev. Cotton Mather noted the existence of the marked stone and said about the petroglyphs:

“Among the other Curiosities of New-England, one is that of a mighty Rock, on a perpendicular side whereof by a River, which at High Tide covers part of it, there are very deeply Engraved, no man alive knows How or When about half a score Lines, near Ten Foot Long, and a foot and half broad, filled with strange Characters: which would suggest as odd Thoughts about them that were here before us, as there are odd Shapes in that Elaborate Monument.”” (Feder 2010:80)

We all know that much of what is seen in rock art depends upon the sympathies of the viewer. In the case of Dighton Rock, however, the range of what is seen reached the extreme.

Sewell's drawing, 1764.

“Several other sources for the Dighton Rock petroglyphs have been cited, all of which depend on the assertion that European, Asian, or African explorers were present in New England at some point before the arrival of English settlers in the seventeenth century. A long-standing suggestion is that the markings were left by the Portuguese explorers Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real. Brown University professor Edmund Burke Delabarre became convinced that among the admitted hodgepodge of scratches, X’s, lines, circles, geometric shapes, and whatnot, there was an actual written message in Portuguese: “Miguel Cortereal by will of God, here Chief of the Indians.” - -

Others look at the same rock and see completely different messages in completely different languages. Danish writer Carl Rafn saw the name of Thorfinn Karlsefni, whose name also shows up in the Norse sagas about the discovery of Newfoundland.

Gavin Menzies (2002, 333-35) looks at exactly the same series of markings and proposes that they were left by Chinese world explorers.” (Feder 2010:81)

Rhode Island Historical Society drawing, 1830.

Now Feder’s inclusion of Dighton Rock in his Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology has nothing to do with questioning its authenticity, he was writing about the many outlandish interpretations it has inspired. I previously had read Cotton Mather’s account of Dighton Rock, but did not know of Rev. Danforth’s record until reading this book. We all know that much of what is seen in rock art depends upon the sympathies of the viewer, and we often see what we expect to see. Perhaps people should expect less, and study the facts more! In any case, until I see an earlier record of North American rock art I will list Reverend Danforth's drawing as the earliest North American rock art record.

NOTE: Dighton Rock has been moved into a small museum built for the purpose, and is now Dighton Rock State Park, at Berkley, Massachusetts.

REFERENCES:

Feder, Kenneth L.

2010    Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum, Greenwood, Santa Barbara, Denver, and Oxford.

Wikipedia

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.

WHERE BARRY FELL – PURGATORY CANYON, COLORADO:

Purgatory Canyon, south of the bear, Bent County,

CO., Photograph: Peter Faris, June 1991.

I had actually thought that I was probably through with Barry Fell but I ran into another couple of examples of Barry Fell’s inaccurate methods. This one can be found detailed in the interesting 1996 private publication by Phillip M. Leonard and William R. McGlone titled A Study of Script-Like Petroglyphs in Southeast Colorado, Mithras Inc., Kamas, Utah. This 70 page booklet outlined their multi-year studies comparing abstract figures or symbols found in southeast Colorado with old-world scripts, especially scripts from the Arabian Peninsula. In this posting I will present the case of one single row of figures found south of the famous bear panel in the Purgatory river canyon.

Leonard and McGlone, Fig. 8, p. 14.

The row of symbols in question is found high above the present ground level due to erosion of the valley bottom (described below). This portion of the cliff face is currently unreachable without a ladder or some other artificial aid. The arrangement of markings on this very interesting cliff can be likened to the stratification of a traditional archaeological excavation because the older markings are high up and were later unreachable. More recent petroglyphs are found lower down on the cliff with some examples of Plains Biographic Style images down just a few feet above the ground. Apparently some early devotee of epigraphic interpretation did go to the trouble to carry a long ladder in because the particular symbols in question have actually been painted in with aluminum paint to make them legible from the ground (personal observation).

Detail, dated trident symbol on right.

Leonard and McGlone, Fig. 8-A, p. 14.

One symbol from this line of characters was dated by Ronald Dorn using cation-ratio dating (this must have been done before the aluminum paint was added but I am not aware of the actual dates of either the testing or the painting). The trident-like character on the right side of subgroup-A dated to 1,975 years plus or minus 200 years BP (before present). (Dorn, McGlone, and Leonard 1990:23-36). It should be noted that Dorn subsequently withdrew the results of all of his dating work citing possible contamination of specimens. I maintained to him that this particular date, given the fact of the stratification on this cliff of rock art by age and height, presented additional evidence that this age may well be accurate.

Detail, dated trident symbol on right.

Photograph: Peter Faris, June 1991.

Leonard and McGlone described it as follows: 

“In the fall of 1981, we visited a well-known petroglyph site in southeast Colorado where there were hundreds of glyphs in an assortment of styles on the base of sandstone cliff faces 80 feet high. Some of the panels are 20 feet or more above the present ground level owing to progressive erosion of the valley floor as evidenced by mineral deposits on the cliff wall. Many of the glyphs are in the Pecked Abstract Style and are so old and heavily patinated they are difficult to see clearly even when the light is favorable. Others, in the Plains Biographic Style, appear to be much more recent, judging from their lack of patination and weathering.

One set of signs in a row (Figure 8A) was published as a “What is it?” in the December 1983 issue of Western Epigraphy with the hope that someone could explain its script-like appearance. Greg de la Castro of Conifer, Colorado, responded, saying he thought they were letters of the Sabaean alphabet. When Barry Fell was informed of this a few months later, he agreed. Although the sequence was short, both correspondents saw the presence of two different pitch-fork-shaped characters as pointing toward Sabaean.” (Leonard and McGlone 1996:13-15)

“On a later trip to the site, we saw that only a portion of the line of characters had been included in the original transcription. A search for Native American styles with similar long sequences of signs was unproductive. Study of the complete set (Figure 8B) and comparison to many alphabets world-wide convinced us that the glyphs corresponded more closely to North Arabian than South Arabian (Sabaean) letters - . When we advised Fell of this  and sent him a better photograph, he sent back a translation using the Safaitic (North Arabian) alphabet. The reading was published in McGlone and Leonard (1986) in order to establish priority of discovery and to stimulate comment." (McGlone and Leonard 1996:15)

This translation was accepted by McGlone and Leonard and published in 1986. It read: "Stayed here to trade, then departed after negotiating an augmented trade agreement - Fasih" (p.202) With the word "Fasih" supposedly representing the signature of either the trader, or the inscriber of the passage. McGlone and Leonard later returned to the site and the story is picked up again in their book from 1996.

"When we returned to the site and carefully recorded the full inscription, we found that the transcription developed by Fell from our photograph omitted two signs, improperly included some from a line below, employed natural rock inclusions as letters, and generally mis-applied the Arabic language in the translation. We asked him not to publish the faulty reading and proceeded to study the regional script-like signs ourselves. Our approach has been to collect groups of the signs and send them to knowledgeable specialists for evaluation and comment.” (McGlone and Leonard 1996:15) 

I have previously criticized Barry Fell for his unscientific method and basing his interpretations on improper evidence and falsified data. In this instance we have published testimony of his errors by two of his (at that time) collaborators. This conclusion is backed up by subsequent statements made to me by Bill McGlone on more than one occasion, that he could no longer abide by Fell’s work due to such errors (purposeful or otherwise) and that he regretted his previous association with Fell (private communication). I pointed out above that this row of symbols has been highlighted with aluminum paint. Bill McGlone always maintained that he and Phil Leonard had nothing to do with that and I have no reason to doubt his veracity. I do not know who applied the aluminum paint to the symbols but it was assuredly done by one of Fell’s collaborators (nobody else has really been interested in those particular symbols) so we can point that back at Barry Fell as well. 

The main thing here is that many of these characters are indeed like characters in Old World alphabets, I do not deny that. This does not mean, however, that this is anything more than a coincidence. I do not accept it as actual writing in any Old World script. McGlone and Leonard were interested in the apparent correspondence between many symbols in southeast Colorado and characters from Old World scripts, but their methods were scientific, and they seldom made claims that they could not substantiate. Fell on the other hand - - - ?

REFERENCES:

Dorn, Ronald I., William R. McGlone, and Phillip M. Leonard

1990    Age Determination of Petroglyphs in Southeast Colorado, Southwestern Lore, 56(2), 23-36, Colorado Archaeological Society, Denver.

Leonard, Phillip M., and William R. McGlone

1996    A Study of Script-Like Petroglyphs in Southeast Colorado, Mithras Inc., Kamas,               UT.

McGlone, William R., and Phillip M. Leonard
1986    Ancient Celtic America, Panorama West Books, Fresno, CA.

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.