12/01/2012

Take A Historical Trip When Looking At The Rock Carving Alberta Parks Preserve

By Lenore Bolton


If one wants to see a historical record of the events around the Blackfoot people in the mists of times, one might go and see a rock carving Alberta region has at their natural reserves. These people recorded special events, hunts and tributes to their gods on the cliffs surrounding the Milk River. There were two styles that were used the first being that they painted on the stone using a mixture of red ocher, which is sometimes considered as a sacred item, animal fat and water. This method of painting is called pictoglyphs.

Etchings embedded into the stone were not written words of any language. They were pictures of people and animals such as Bison, deer and horses. These pictures are called Petroglyphs. There are etchings with people holding hunting paraphernalia and these depict hunting stories and war stories. Of course as there was no written language, interpreting petroglyphs is the only way to preserve the history of the Blackfoot people of Canada.

Most petroglyphs are varied when it comes to the style in which they were etched. Some are static stick figures and others are more robust and filled with movement. One of the most visible types of petroglyph is the person with a shield in front of him. It's very stylized showing just the round shield, the feet, head and hands of the person holding the shield. This was a very good way of depicting a time when shields were invented for self-protection.

This enforced the religious beliefs of the people of the time who believed that the powerful spirits lived in the hoodoos at the time. These outcroppings are where most of the petroglyphs are concentrated carrying the meaning that these were a type of communication to their gods or a tribute to them. As time went by, there were advances in technology such as the shields.

There are specific rocks that have been etched in a specific rib like pattern which has a distinctive name called buffalo rib stone. These are specifically done on boulders that were deposited on the prairie by the glaciers. The etchings themselves depicted various situations that could have told the story of wars between tribes or of hunts that took place.

Most of these petroglyphs can't be dated however; with the advent of horse, guns and European trade goods, the later petroglyphs are dated at about 1720 AD. The theory is that the earliest of the petroglyphs could date back to as early as 3000 BC. Older etchings that could have been made before that could have been eroded or faded away.

As it was unlikely that the language had a written aspect to it, these are the only way that one could have a glimpse of the past. These petroglyphs are thought to have been etched as far back as three thousand years in the past, but they are difficult to date. There are more recent petroglyphs which depict the use of guns, metal, horses and other traded things which could be dated to about 1790 AD when the frontier was being westernized.

Rock carving Alberta Canada hints at a heritage of the Blackfoot nation that spans for thousands of years. The sites that have these marvelous petroglyphs are situated in caves, inside shelters or even on exposed rock faces that are impossible to access. Stone erratic's which are boulders of stone that was deposited from the glaciers on the prairies have a distinctive rib pattern petroglyph. These are called Buffalo Rib stones.




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