Late Pleistocene petroglyph traditions on the North American Plains

• Autores: Alice M. Tratebas
• Localización: Préhistoire, art et sociétés: bulletin de la Société Préhistorique de l'Ariège, ISSN 1954-5045, Nº. 65-66, 2010-2011 (Ejemplar dedicado a: L'art pléistocène dans le monde), págs. 108-109
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Three well defined petroglyph traditions are present on the northwestern North American Plains in the Late Pleistocene. Two traditions focus on pecked animal images and likely belong to related but geographically separated cultural entities. The third tradition, which may predate them by several thousand years, has abraded, incised, and pecked glyphs. The images include animals, bear paws, vulvas, and abraded grooves. The strong divergence between the third tradition and the pecked animal traditions suggests major cultural differences at the level of language families ¯essentially they likely reflect different cultural lineages. The antiquity of the petroglyphs was explored using experimental varnish dating methods. The most reliable method, varnish microlaminations, shows clearly that all three traditions were present at the end of the Pleistocene.