PETROGLYPHS— STEWARD ^.H 



River, was the subject of a bitter dispute which concerned not its 

 authenticity but its proper translation and which culminated in scur- 

 rilous personal remarks and the challenge to a duel. 



Finally, there are many peculiar designs on rocks which are not 

 petroglyphs at all but simply discoloration produced by variations 

 within the rock, differential weathering, or lichens. Although care- 

 ful scrutiny will quickly reveal the natural source of these mark- 

 ings, they are often convincingly artificial to the untrained eye. 



It should be remarked at this point that the mere recording of 

 entirely genuine petroglyphs is usually fraught with possibilities of 

 errors. A good photograph of the untouched inscriptions is best. 

 Often, however, when it is impossible to procure a clear photograph, 

 it is necessary to chalk in the lines if the design is carved. This 

 introduces a real possibility that the person will chalk so as to 

 idealize or that he will see what is actually not there. The greatest 

 danger is in copying, in which one tends unconsciously to record what 

 he thinks the petroglyph is intended to be, not what it really is. 

 Distortions in hand drawings are particularly patent in the many 

 reproductions of Dighton Rock, each person slightly falsifying the 

 real inscriptions to fit his preconceived idea of what they represent. 



SOME EXPLANATIONS OP PETROGLYPHS 



It is no doubt entirely clear by now that petroglyphs are not in a 

 class by themselves, having some uniquely mysterious significance. 

 Obviously, it would be absurd to suppose that of all possible mediums 

 for the execution of artistic and ideational concepts, the mere re- 

 cording on rock invests them with special meaning. Pictures, sym- 

 bols, and designs draw^n on stone have no less variety of meaning, 

 purpose, and style than those drawn on wood, skin, bone, or other 

 materials. Modern advertising, for example, has the same intent 

 whether on magazine pages, billboards, or roadside stones. It is 

 futile to seek a single explanation of petroglyphs, for this art differed 

 widely in purpose and style in each period and area. 



Learned opinion has tended to divide into opposing schools of 

 interpretation — the idle markings school, which bravely holds that 

 petroglyphs are mere random fancies created in leisurely moments, 

 and the serious purpose school which w^eightily proclaims that all 

 petroglyphs have deep historical or symbolical meaning. 



In favor of the first theory is the undisputed fact that since the 

 coming of the white man, Indians have made hundreds of petro- 

 glyphs of men, horses, railroad trains, houses, boats, and other things 

 of civilization (pi. 1, A) . And, in view of the great trouble which 

 white men frequently take to deface rocks and trees with names and 

 initials, especially where other persons have done so before them, it 



