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CAVE ART AS A REPOSITORY FOR THE SPIRITS OF HUNTED ANIMALS:
Animal frieze from Chauvet Cave, France. Online image, public domain.An approach that turns the old idea of cave art as ‘hunting magic’ on its head imagining the art after the fact instead of before...
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Answer to a comment by Ross McNair. Ross, comments made on RockArtBlog cannot be answered directly because they come to me anonymously - without return address. I will address your question here. Yes,...
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GAME BOARD PETROGLYPHS IN INDIA:
Petroglyph rock and water hole at the site. Photograph Kumar, 2021-22, Figure 1.Over the years I have posted a number of columns about petroglyphs apparently created as game boards in various parts of...
View ArticleANSWER TO A COMMENT BY ANONYMOUS:
Anonymous sent in a question; "Is the cave on what used to be trac 12 on the Pajarito plateau? Or where the lab is today?"It is not a real cave, it is a cavate, a room excavated back into the soft...
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ANOTHER UNDERWATER DRIVELINE – THE DROP 45 SITE IN LAKE HURON:
About a utilitarian geoglyph for hunting animals.North American Laurentide ice sheet. Illustration from Pinterest.Laurentide ice sheet, Illustration from smithsonianmag.com.Map of the Cordilleran and...
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RESCUING THE AMMOGLYPH:
Over the past few years I have written two previous columns about Ammoglyphs (click on ammoglyph in the cloud index at the bottom of the page). This newly designated form of rock art consists of a...
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MUSIC AND DANCE IN ROCK ART - THE TORO MUERTO PETROGLYPHS:
Dancers from Toro Muerto, Peru. Image from Toro Muerto Archeological Research Project Archives.A huge number of petroglyphs can be found at a site called Toro Muerto in Peru. Although Toro Muerto is...
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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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A 16,800 YEAR OLD PALEOLITHIC DWELLING FOUND IN LA GARMA CAVE:
The dwelling floor inside the Cave of La Garma. Photograph from the government of Cantabria.Another Paleolithic dwelling has been discovered, this one in a decorated cave in Spain – La Garma.Stenciled...
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BOLSHOI ZAYATSKY GEOGLYPHS - ENIGMATIC ISLAND OF LABRYNTHS:
The black arrow points to the location of Bolshoi (Big) Zayatsky Island. Internet image, public domain. The arrow points to the location of the island.New Agers and other Fringies impart great...
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STONE BLINDS AND DRIVELINES REVISITED – BALTIC SEA ‘BLINKERWALL':
Rollins Pass Driveline, Grand County, CO.,1 mi. of fence, 174 pit blinds & 184 cairns, ca. 6,000 - 3,000 BC, Photograph Peter Faris, 25 July 1987.One interesting facet of the study of geoglyphs is...
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PETROGLYPH BOUNDARY MARKERS?
One question frequently heard in rock art studies is “are these border markers?” Rock art is often proposed to have been placed in a certain location as a sign post to other people than the area’s...
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A NEW CANDIDATE FOR THE WORLD’S OLDEST KNOWN ARTWORK:
Back in 2021 (February 13) I published a column titled ‘A New Candidate for the Oldest Pictograph – the Sulewesi Pig.’ This was based on reports of newly dated painted images found in a cave on the...
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DNA ANALYSIS FROM CAVE PAINTINGS:
DNA from sediment reveals history of Denisova Cave. Image from phys.org.For some time now it has been possible for scientists to extract DNA from the sediments in caves, including human...
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THE DANGER TO COSQUER CAVE ART:
Location of Cosquer Cave. Image from thearchaeologist.org.Diagram of Cosquer Cave. Image from thearchaeologist.org.Rising sea levels – that, in a nutshell, is one of the greatest dangers to the...
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BOAT PETROGLYPHS IN THE DESERT OF SUDAN:
Map of the study area. Cooper and Vanhulle, 2023, Fig. 1.Recent rock art surveys in the eastern desert of Sudan in the Sahara desert have found quite a lot of rock art indicating that back during the...
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PALEOLITHIC THAUMATROPES, KIDS TOPS? RONDELLES REVISTED:
Paleolithic rondelles, online image, public domain. On 20 April 2019, I wrote a column in RockArtBlog titled “Prehistoric Animation – Paleolithic Thaumatropes?” It discussed one possible purpose for...
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AMAZON DROUGHT REVEALS NEW BRAZILIAN ROCK ART:
Praia das Lajes, Brazil. Image from wikimedia.org.Online image, public domain.Rock art that had been submerged in Brazil’s Rio Negro river has now been exposed because of a serious drought in that...
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THE SKY SERPENT IN THE ART OF BAJA CALIFORNIA:
In the American southwest as well as down through Mesoamerica there are found ancient traditions around the spiritual significance of snakes, including the famous Plumed Serpent of Mexico and the...
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