Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T21:46:56.762Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The death of a pterodactyl

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2015

Jean-Loïc Le Quellec ,
Paul Bahn  and
Marvin Rowe
Jean-Loïc Le Quellec
Affiliation:
Institut des Mondes Africains (IMAF), Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Brenessard, St-Benoist-sur-Mer 85540, France (Email: jllq@rupestre.on-rev.com)
Paul Bahn
Affiliation:
428 Anlaby Road, Hull HU3 6QP, UK (Email: pgbahn@anlabyrd.karoo.co.uk)
Marvin Rowe
Affiliation:
Office of Archaeological Studies, 7 Old Cochiti Road, Santa Fe, NM 87507, USA (Email: marvinrowe@gmail.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The pictograph discovered at Black Dragon Canyon, Utah, in the late 1920s, is a classic example of the Barrier Canyon style, dating probably to AD 1–1100. Creationists, however, have argued, from the incomplete preservation of the motifs, that it depicts a winged monster or pterosaur. A new study using portable X-ray fluorescence refutes this ill-founded interpretation and reveals a scene characteristic of Barrier Canyon style, featuring an anthropomorphic figure. By removing interpretational bias, the new technology finally lays to rest the Black Dragon Canyon pterosaur.

Keywords

UtahBlack Dragon Canyonfirst millennium ADBarrier Canyon styleX-ray fluorescence
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 346 , August 2015 , pp. 872 - 884
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barnes, F.A. & Pendleton, M.. 1979 . Canyon country prehistoric Indians: their cultures, ruins, artifacts, and rock art (Canyon Country 13). Salt Lake City (UT): Wasatch Publishers.Google Scholar
Beckwith, F. 1931. Some interesting pictographs in Nine Mile Canyon, Utah. El Palacio 31: 216–22.Google Scholar
Burrows, K.D. 2002. The serpent motif of Barrier Canyon: ritual and symbolism in ancient American rock art. Unpublished MA dissertation, Virginia Commonwealth University.Google Scholar
Castleton, K.B. 1984. Petroglyphs and pictographs of Utah. Volume one: the east and northeast. Salt Lake City: Utah Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Castleton, K.B. 1987. Petroglyphs and pictographs of Utah. Volume two: the south, central, west and northwest. Salt Lake City: Utah Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Chaffee, S.D., Hyman, M. & Rowe, M.W.. 1994. Vandalism of rock art for enhanced photography. Studies in Conservation 39: 161–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/sic.1994.39.3.161 Google Scholar
Chapot, M.S., Sohbati, R., Murray, A.S., Pederson, J.L. & Rittenour, T.M.. 2012. Constraining the age of rock art by dating a rockfall event using sediment and rock-surface luminescence dating techniques. Quaternary Geology 13: 18–25. http://doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2012.08.005 Google Scholar
Cole, S.J. 2004. Origins, continuities, and meanings in Barrier Canyon Style rock art, in Matheny, R.T. (ed.) New dimensions in rock art studies (Occasional Paper Series 9): 7–78. Salt Lake City (UT): Museum of Peoples and Cultures/Brigham Young University.Google Scholar
Cole, S.J. 2009. Legacy on stone: rock art of the Colorado plateau and four corners region. Boulder (CO): Johnson Books.Google Scholar
Coulam, N.J. & Schroedl, A.R.. 1996. Early Archaic clay figurines from Cowboy and Walters caves in southeastern Utah. The Kiva: 401–12.Google Scholar
Firnhaber, M.P. 2007. Experiencing rock art: a phenomenological investigation of the Barrier Canyon tradition. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University College London.Google Scholar
Grant, C. 1967. Rock art of the American Indian. New York: Crowell.Google Scholar
Grant, C. 1992. Rock art of the American Indian (2nd edition). Dillon (CO): VistaBooks.Google Scholar
Gunn, R.G., Douglas, L.C. & Whear, R.L.. 2014. ‘Interpreting’ polychrome paintings using DStretch© . Rock Art Research 31: 101–104.Google Scholar
Isaacs, D. 2010. Dragons or dinosaurs? Creation or evolution? Alachua (FL): Bridge-Logos.Google Scholar
Jastrow, J. 1899. The mind's eye. Popular Science Monthly 54: 299–312.Google Scholar
Koenig, C.W., Castañeda, A.M., Boyd, C.E., Rowe, M.W. & Steelman, K.L.. 2014. Portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy of pictographs: a case study from the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, Texas. Archaeometry 56: 168–86. http://doi:10.1111/arcm.12060 Google Scholar
Le Quellec, J.-L. 2007. Perceptions et attentes dans les études d’art rupestre. Les Cahiers de l’AARS 11: 113–24.Google Scholar
Le Quellec, J.-L., Harman, J., Defrasne, C. & Duquesnoy, F.. 2013. DStretch® et l’amélioration des images numériques: applications à l’archéologie des images rupestres. Les Cahiers de l’AARS 16: 177–98.Google Scholar
Manning, S.J. 1990. Barrier Canyon style pictographs of the Colorado Plateau. Part one: hypothesis and evidence for the existence of post-circa AD 1300 panels. Utah Archaeology 3 (1): 43–84.Google Scholar
Manning, S.J. 2013. A major advance in rock art dating: an analytical date for the Barrier Canyon style. Vestiges. Monthly Newsletter of the Utah Rock Art Research Association 33 (3): 3–6.Google Scholar
Morss, N. 1931. The ancient culture of the Fremont river in Utah, report on the explorations under the Claflin-Emerson Fund, 1928–1929. Harvard (MA): Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology.Google Scholar
Nelson, V. 2011. Dire dragons. Untold secrets of planet earth. Red Deer, Alberta: Red Deer Press.Google Scholar
Pederson, J.L., Chapot, M.S., Simms, S.R., Sohbati, R., Rittenour, T.M., Murray, A.S. & Cox, G.. 2014. Age of Barrier Canyon-style rock art constrained by cross-cutting relations and luminescence dating techniques. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1405402111.Google Scholar
Reagan, B. 1933. Some notes on the snake pictographs of Nine Mile Canyon, Utah. American Anthropologist 35: 550–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1933.35.3.02a00320 Google Scholar
Schaafsma, P. 1970. Survey report of the rock art of Utah. Report prepared for University of Utah Archaeological Laboratory, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Schaafsma, P. 1971. Rock art of Utah. (Peabody Museum Papers 65). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Senter, P.J. 2012. More “dinosaur” and “pterosaur” rock art that isn’t. Biological Science Working Papers 2. Available at: http://digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/bio_wp/2 (accessed 22 April 2015).Google Scholar
Simonson, J. 1947. Black Dragon Canyon. Utah Magazine 9 (1): 24–25, 45.Google Scholar
Stokes, W. & Madsen, J.H.. 1979. The environmental significance of pterosaur tracks in the Navajo Sandstone (Jurassic), Grand County, Utah. Brigham Young University Geology Studies 26: 21–26.Google Scholar
Stokes, W.M. & Stokes, L.. 2002. Messages on stone. Selections of native western art. Salt Lake City (UT): Starstone Publishing.Google Scholar
Swift, D. 1997. Messages on stone. Creation Ex Nihilo 19: 20–3.Google Scholar
Warner, J. & Warner, J.E.. 1993. To slay a dragon. American Indian Rock Art (San Miguel [CA] American Rock Art Research Association) 12: 1–13.Google Scholar