# Ancient Petroglyphs discovered in Canada?  Or scratches on a rock?



## feralimal (Nov 28, 2021)

I just read this article:
Bison in Canada Discover Ancient Petroglyphs, Fulfilling an Indigenous Prophecy



> Just months after they arrived, after almost 40 years of human-led archaeological excavations, the bison unearthed the park’s first petroglyphs. “We’d found the detritus of everyday living: broken stone tools and debris from the manufacture of stone tools, bones, charcoal, potsherds, seeds and things like that,” Walker says. “But [we] didn't find ideas. [We] didn’t find emotions. The petroglyphs brought that. They’re that other dimension. … *They’re a glimpse into somebody’s hopes and dreams.*”


"They’re a glimpse into somebody’s hopes and dreams."  Hmm..



> Instead of picking, abrading or engraving a whole bison onto a rock—a process that would be difficult and time consuming—practitioners of the hoofprint tradition simply engraved a recognizable feature of a chosen animal, such as hooves. In the case of the ribstone, Walker explains, “The ribs are metaphorical. Those ribs represent a bison.”


"In the case of the ribstone, Walker explains, “The _*ribs*_ are *metaphorical*. Those ribs represent a bison.”"



> “You know, we don’t really know our history. We have oral history,” he says, “... but all the books were written after contact. [The petroglyphs] show us more. _We had a good life_. Our children need to *know* that so they can go forward.”


Do the petroglyphs show 'a good life'?  Can the children now _know_ that?

It has the following pictures in it.  The claims are:
a/ that these are engravings, ancient carvings/artwork crafted on the stone.
b/ are 1000 years old (perhaps as old as 1800 years, or as young as 300).

But all I see are some scratches!
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Apparently they were created with this tool - 'a stone knife':
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Am I wrong - are there 'metaphorical ribs' denoting a bison there, or is it scratches?

If I'm honest, I suspect this as another example of real-time history creation.  Mainstream historians are very busy, these are exciting times - as a phd has previously told us.  They have a lot of work on!

SH Archive - Ask Pro | - Questions for History Professionals


> "2. There are certainly historians who are set in their ways, but _I don’t think that as a discipline history is stagnant_. Actually, _it is a really exciting moment to be a historian right now_. The amount of new work that is being done to _recover_ what are called ‘*subaltern voices*’, the histories of people who have been traditionally excluded from historical narratives like women, LGBT+ people, people of colour, people in poverty, etc., means that the discipline is changing very rapidly and new vistas of opening up all the time. The reason I love being a historian is that every day I work with documents and objects that give me insights into the lives of people who have been systematically ignored, and *whose stories I have the chance to bring to light*."



"subaltern voices".  Is this _*his*_tory or *ze*story??!


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## Will Scarlet (Dec 2, 2021)

Another great post,  I'm really surprised some university professor hasn't popped up out of the woodwork to translate the scratches from ancient Hebrew into the ten commandments. Did they give the Bison a PhD?

This 'subaltern voices' is another example of jargon and the mutilation of language, just like the misappropriation of the word 'gay'. It's obviously intended to give birth to a meme.

Nobody listens to the subaltern voices of the bison though do they?

"Is this what you're looking for? Good, then  off and leave us alone!"


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## feralimal (Dec 2, 2021)

Will Scarlet said:


> This 'subaltern voices' is another example of jargon and the mutilation of language, just like the misappropriation of the word 'gay'. It's obviously intended to give birth to a meme.



I love the way the professor says he is "recovering" the subaltern voices.  I think "recreate" would have been better.  But "create" would be most accurate.


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