Wildest Mammoth in the West

Submitted by coldrum on Sunday, 20 March 2011 Page Views: 1128

High on a cliff overlooking the floodplain of the San Juan River, rock art specialists Ekkehart Malotki and Henry Wallace have examined several highly stylized images carved into the rock face including what they believe to be the first example of prehistoric Native American rock art to show a mammoth. While such images are common in the caves of Europe, they are surprisingly unknown in the New World.

To be sure, many other American mammoth images have surfaced in the past two centuries, but until recently all had either disappeared or been shown to be forgeries. In 2009 however a bone from Vero Beach, Florida surfaced with a detailed engraving of a mammoth, and several tests and expert opinions have so far supported its authenticity. Here too though, further tests are needed before a final verdict is reached.

Well aware of this history of promise and disappointment, Malotki and Wallace set out to verify this most recent find.

Is It Really Old?
Using a simple hand lens, they examined the engraving for evidence of recent creation or alteration. Their first conclusion was that there was no evidence that the engraving was made by modern metal tools, since there were no sharp edges or metal shavings to be seen. The next was that the weathering of the engraved lines and the amount of repatination (changes to the color of an exposed rock surface) were greater than those observed on other nearby carvings from periods of history more recent than the Ice Age, leading them to conclude that this carving really is of very ancient origin.

Convinced that the image is not a forgery, they then set out to confirm that it also isn't an accident.

Is It Really a Mammoth?
Anyone familiar with finding animal shapes in the clouds knows that you can often pick out a picture where none was intended. Awkwardly misinterpreting the identity of images in a proud child's drawing can teach a similar lesson. In the case of the San Juan River mammoth, Malotki and Wallace found several key distinguishing marks that convinced them the artist truly intended this image to portray a mammoth.

The researchers make one final argument as well. Most modern forgeries have been stand-alone, single images. The San Juan River mammoth is just one image on a panel of several engravings, all showing a similar style and comparable weathering, indicating they were all made about the same time. Malotki and Wallace have also now announced the identification of another mammoth in the same panel, to be described officially in a paper later this year.

For more, including photographs, see Andrew Howley's "Wildest Mammoth in the West" Found? The location of this rock art is not described in any detail. This link shows the general course of the San Juan River through southeast Utah.

Note: Does Utah Rock Art Show Mammoth? More evidence for Human - Proboscidean interaction in Prehistoric North America?

Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

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