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BASKETRY SHIELDS IN SOUTHWESTERN ROCK ART?
Three shields, Westwater Creek, Grand County, Utah. Photograph Peter Faris, September, 1981.An important component of the rock art in the American Southwest represents images of shields and/or shield...
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PAREIDOLIA AND THE CARVING OF THE GREAT SPHINX:
The Great Sphinx, Giza Plateau, Egypt. Online image, public domain.Yes Alice, it is quite possible that Egypt’s Great Sphinx is the result of pareidolia. One of the most impressive examples of art made...
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THE ROLE OF PAREIDOLIA IN CAVE ART:
Spotted horses, Pach Merle Cave, France. Online image, public domain.The history of rock art research is replete with good ideas that get over-applied. From the original interpretation of “hunting...
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ROCK ART FROM THE LOWER SAND CANYON IN THE MESA VERDE REGION, SOUTHWESTERN...
Sand Canyon petroglyph panel. Photograph from the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.On September 19. 2018, I received an e-mail communication from one Mariette Eaton of the BLM who informed me...
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THE OLDEST KNOWN ROCK PAINTING IN AUSTRALIA:
17,300 year old kangaroo dated with mud dauber wasp nests. Illustration from Finch et al.Back on 20 June 2020, I wrote a column titled “Dating Australian Rock Art With Mud Wasp Nests” about using small...
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HUMAN INTERACTION WITH GIANT GROUND SLOTHS:
Artist's rendition of human interacting with a Giant Ground Sloth. Image from www.extinctanimals.org.One of the iconic megafauna of the Paleolithic period is the Giant Ground Sloth with more than a...
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GEOGLYPHS - GIANT CHALK FIGURE OF HERCULES IDENTIFIED AS SAXON MUSTERING SITE:
Cerne Abbas Giant, near the village of Cerne Abbas, Dorset, England. Online image, public domain.Some of the world’s most famous geoglyphs are the chalk figures found in England. The...
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HORSE PETROGLYPHS AS INDICATORS OF CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION – PART 1:
Horses at Little Bighorn (Custer) battlefield, Montana. Photograph Peter Faris.Every once in a while, inexplicably, some of the columns disappear from RockArtBlog. Now I have no idea if this is done by...
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HORSE PETROGLYPHS AS INDICATORS OF CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION – PART 2:
The Cheyenne acquiring their first horse by trading. Ledger Book art by Howling Wolf (Southern Cheyenne). Online image, public domain.In Part 1 of this series I presented the concept of the early...
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HORSE PETROGLYPHS AS INDICATORS OF CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION – Part 3:
As the use of, and dependence upon, the horse became integral to Indian societies Iconic portrayals continued to be produced in some instances (such as records of visions) but the bulk of these were...
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DID EINSTEIN REALLY INVENT GENERAL RELATIVITY? AN ANCIENT VERSION ON THE...
Petroglyphs in the Purgatory Canyon (Picketwire), Bent County, Colorado, that some people believe resemble Archaic Northern African scripts. Photograph Peter Faris, June 1991.Did Albert Einstein really...
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HORSE PETROGLYPHS AS INDICATORS OF CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION – Part 4:
And now the fourth and final installment:Recording team led by Jim Keyser and Mark Mitchell, Box Canyon Site, 5LA8464, Las Animas County, Colorado. Photograph Peter Faris, August 1999. Jim Keyser on...
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MUSIC AT ROCK ART SITES:
This is a compilation of previous columns from RockArtBlog about sound and music at rock art sites. ROCK ART AND SOUND EFFECTS, 24 February 2010:Black Salon, Grotte de Niaux, Ariege, France. From...
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NAWARLA GABARNMANG - A REMARKABLE ROCK ART SITE IN ARNHEM LAND:
The following account is about the discovery of a magnificent rock shelter in Arnhem Land, Australia, with an overwhelming amount of beautiful rock art. Of course, this ‘discovery’ only means that...
View ArticleResponding to a comment by RyanO
RyanO,All comments come in to me anonymously so I cannot reply to you directly, I do not have an e-mail address for you. You asked if I knew about the stone pillars at Valle Vidal, New Mexico. No I...
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ARCHEOASTRONOMY – POSSIBLE STELLAR ASTERISMS CARVED ON A STONE DISK:
Presumed star chart carved into a stone disc. Molaro and Bernardini, 2023.The whole field of archeoastronomy is interesting, but a little like analyzing Rorsach Blots. What people see is influenced by...
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A NEW AMMOGLYPH (PLEISTOCENE SAND SCULPTURE) DISCOVERED IN SOUTH AFRICA:
The site of the discovery of the new ammoglyph. The arrow points to a human figure for scale. Illustration from Helm et al., 2024, Fig. 2.On May 22, 2021, I wrote about what we might call a completely...
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BRAZILIAN PETROGLYPHS RECORDED NEAR DINOSAUR TRACKS:
Caatinga landscape. Illustration from Wikipedia.Two of my favorite things in the natural world are rock art (which readers of RockArtBlog will have recognized by now), and fossilized dinosaur tracks....
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TWO-HEADED SERPENTS IN MESOAMERICA:
Nlaka’pamux pictograph of Klu’biist (Sisiutl). Illustration from York et al, 1993, p. 115.Nlaka’pamux pictograph panel showing two Klu’biists (Sisiutls), upper left and lower center. Illustration from...
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LIFE-SIZED SAUDI CAMEL CARVINGS REPRESENT AN EXTINCT SPECIES:
A team member above a carved camel on the cliff. Online image, Public domain.On 10 March 2018, I published a column in RockArtBlog titled “Ancient Saudi Guest Artists-In-Residence” about life sized...
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