Another Gabriola petroglyph
Here’s another one of Gabriola’s petroglyphs. What animal do you think it represents?
It looks like a cheery dog to me, and I know that the Snuneymuxw did keep dogs… so?
On the other hand, it’s not like I know much about Snuneymuxw rock art, so somebody else is bound to have a better answer.
Filed in First Nations,Gabriola Island,history 4 Comments so far
4 Responses to “Another Gabriola petroglyph”
Michael Mehta on 20 Jan 2010 at 9:53 am #
It could be an alien from the planet “Hugh Hefner Omicron 1″ [with those bunny-like ears and all].
qmackie on 20 Jan 2010 at 3:09 pm #
The “ears” have been interpreted by some as being “rays” of shamanic power or spirit power – power which in some instance is recorded as arriving or manifesting in the form of disembodied heads. There are a number of other petroglyphs on Gabriola which show clearly human heads with these arc-shaped rays extending from their head. While we know very little about these petroglyphs and the intentions of their makers Newcombe, a respected “early Anthropologist” does record the spirit power hypothesis and he may have been closer than most to talking to those who might know. There seems to be a widespread belief amongst archaeologists that the inland petroglyphs are related to shamanism and/or vision questing and the acquisition of a spirit helper, but one would probably want to really drill down into where these beliefs come from – sometimes archaeologists or anthropologists express a hunch, and then 50 years later, because the paper is yellowing, the hunch has become a fact! The fact is archaeologists know very little about these and the First Nations may know more but may not be talking about things which are meant to be private or secret or are too powerful to unleash.
Dan Leen has a discussion that touches on this as well. Dan knows the rock art from a catalogue perspective better than almost anyone else:
http://danielleen.org/petroglyphs.html#central_salish_sites
Compare to the leftmost picture labelled “Hartstene Island” on his page — the upper figure has very similar rays emanating from the head.
Gabriolan on 20 Jan 2010 at 9:45 pm #
Michael — Heh. Just think: if you’d typed up that suggestion 50 years ago, the paper would be yellowing by now, and perhaps all the respected authorities would be going about the place promulgating your theory about the petroglyph based upon the alien from the planet Hugh Hefner Omicron 1. :-)
Gabriolan on 20 Jan 2010 at 9:53 pm #
qmackie – Another very helpful contribution; thank you. I didn’t know that anybody had interpreted things that look –to me- like ears as rays. (This reminds me of another Gabriola petroglyph I photographed; must remember to post that next week.)
Dan Leen’s site kept me happy and busy for a very long time. Fascinating!