Petroglyphs in Brazil
The following is an abstract from a paper by J. Whitfield on Rock Inscriptions in Brazil, in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1874, Vol. III, p. 114:
The rock inscriptions were visited in August, 1865, during an exploring expedition for gold mines in the province of Ceará. Several similar inscriptions are said to exist in the interior of the province of Ceará, as well as in the provinces of Pernambuco and Piauhy, especially in the Sertaõs, that is, in the thinly-wooded parts of the interior, but no mention is ever made of their having been seen near the coast.
In the margin and bed only of the river are the rocks inscribed. On the margin they extend in some instances to fifteen or twenty yards. Except in the rainy season the stream is dry. The rock is a silicious schist of excessively hard and flinty texture. The marks have the appearance of having been made with a blunt heavy tool, such as might be made with an almost worn-out mason’s hammer.
The situation is about midway between Serra Grande or Ibiapaba and Serra Merioca, about seventy miles from the coast and forty west of the town Sobral. There are not any indications of works of art or other antiquarian remains, nor anything peculiar to the locality. The country is gently undulating, and of the usual character that obtains for hundreds of miles extending along the base of the Serra Ibiapaba.
The native population attribute all the ‘Letreiros’ (inscriptions), as they do everything else of which they have no information, to the Dutch as records of hidden wealth. The Dutch, however, only occupied the country for a few years in the early part of the seventeenth century. Along the coast numerous forts, the works of the Dutch, still remain; but there are no authentic records of their ever having established themselves in the interior of the country, and less probability still of their amusing themselves with inscribing puzzling hieroglyphics, which must have been a work of time, on the rocks of the far interior, for the admiration of wandering Indians.
Pictographs in Peru
Dr. J. J. Von Tschudi mentions in his Travels in Peru during the years 1838-1842, [Wiley and Putnam’s Library, Vols. XCIII-XCIV, New York, 1847,] Pt. II, p. 345-346, that the ancient Peruvians also used a certain kind of “hieroglyphics” which they engraved in stone, and preserved in their temples. Notices of these “hieroglyphics” are given by some of the early writers. There appears to be a great similarity between these Peruvian pictographs and those found in Mexico and Brazil.
The temptation to quote from Charles Wiener’s magnificent work Pérou et Bolivie, Paris, 1880, and also from La Antigüedad del Hombre en el Plata, by Florentine Ameghino, Paris (and Buenos Aires), 1880, must be resisted.
Objects Represented in Pictographs
The objects depicted in pictographs of all kinds are too numerous and varied for any immediate attempt at classification. Those upon the petroglyphs may, however, be usefully grouped. Instructive particulars regarding them, may be discovered, for instance the delineation of the fauna in reference to its present or former habitat in the region where the representation of it is found, is of special interest.
As an example of the number and kind of animals pictured, as well as of their mode of representation, the following Figures, 4 to 21, are presented, taken from the Moki inscriptions at Oakley Springs, Arizona, by Mr. G. K. Gilbert. These were selected by him from, a large number of etchings, for the purpose of obtaining the explanation, and they were explained to him by Tubi, an Oraibi chief living at Oraibi, one of the Moki villages.
Jones, in his Southern Indians, p. 377-379, gives a résumé of objects depicted as follows:
Upon the Enchanted Mountain in Union County, cut in plutonic rock, are the tracks of men, women, children, deer, bears, bisons, turkeys and terrapins, and the outlines of a snake, of two deer, and of a human hand. These sculptures—so far as they have been ascertained and counted—number one hundred and thirty-six. The most extravagant among them is that known as the footprint of the “Great Warrior.” It measures eighteen inches in length, and has six toes. The other human tracks and those of the animals are delineated with commendable fidelity. * * *
Most of them present the appearance of the natural tread of the animal in plastic clay. * * * These intaglios closely resemble those described by Mr. Ward [Jour. Anthrop. Inst. of N. Y., No. 1, 57 et seq.], as existing upon the upheaved strata of coarse carboniferous grit in Belmont County, Ohio, near the town of Barnesville.
The appearance of objects showing the influence of European civilization and christianization should always be carefully noted. An instance where an object of that character is found among a multitude of others not liable to such suspicion is in the heart surmounted by a cross, in the upper line of Figure 1, page 30 ante. This suggests missionary teaching.
The following is the explanation of the figures:
Fig. 4. A beaver.
5. A bear.
6. A mountain sheep (Ovis montana).
7. Three wolf heads.
8. Three Jackass rabbits.
9. Cottontail rabbit.
10. Bear tracks.
11. An eagle.
12. Eagle tails.
13. A turkey tail.
14. Horned toads (Phryosoma sp.?).
15. Lizards.
16. A butterfly.
17. Snakes.
18. A rattlesnake.
19. Deer track.
20. Three Bird tracks.
21. Bitterns (wading birds).
Instruments Used in Pictography
These are often of anthropologic interest. A few examples are given as follows, though other descriptions appear elsewhere in this paper.
Instruments for Carving
This includes etching, pecking, and scratching.
The Hidatsa, when carving upon stone or rocks, as well as upon pieces of wood, use a sharply pointed piece of hard stone, usually a fragment of quartz.
The bow-drill was an instrument largely