Zoomorph
Anthropomorph and zoomorph derive from the Greek words morphe, “form”; anthropos, “man”; and zoon, “animal.” Thus, anthropomorphs have human form, zoomorphs have animal form. These words are often used instead of “human” and “animal” in the professional literature to communicate a specific meaning because scientists cannot be sure that the original artist intended a specific figure to represent an actual human (or animal), or merely the concept of humanness, or even the personification of a spirit or other nonliving thing. However, in this book, the terms “human,” “human figure,” “animal,” and “animal figure” are more readily understood, and fine distinctions of meaning are not required.
On the other hand, I have used these two terms when it is obvious that the prehistoric artist did not intend to represent a real human or animal, yet used undeniably human or animal features in a design. Multiple-headed beasts, faces that combine some features of both humans and animals, or otherwise abstract designs incorporating clearly recognizable body parts are categorized as anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, depending on which features are primary. Thus, a grinning human face with a fish tail would be anthropomorphic, while a three-headed animal figure with hands in place of hooves or paws would be referred to as zoomorphic. For the most part, however, if a figure closely resembles a human or an animal (given stylistic conventions), I refer to it using the simpler terms.
Rock Art Style and Rock Art Tradition
Rock art style and rock art tradition are also technical terms with specific meanings. Researchers world-wide define rock art style as a group of recurring motifs or designs (e.g., rayed arc, human figure) portrayed in typical forms (e.g., alternate red and white rays, stickman), which produce basic recognizable types of figures. Usually these various figures are associated with one another in structured relationships, leading to an overall distinctness of expression. Thus, we can define the Yakima polychrome style and easily distinguish classic examples of it from the central Columbia Plateau style, which used the same rayed arc motif and stick figure humans, but in significantly different forms, numbers, and structured relationships.
The characteristics of styles vary across space and through time, however, and some blending occurs between neighboring styles. For instance, some highly abstract anthropomorphic figures that are undoubtedly in the Long Narrows† style are executed as elaborate polychrome paintings more like characteristic Yakima polychrome motifs. Likewise, a few of the rayed arcs characteristic of the western Columbia Plateau style occur in the eastern part of the region, although not as an important motif. This blending occurs to some extent between almost all art styles that are contemporaneous and geographically associated, and sometimes artists will even copy motifs from much older styles, thereby bridging the gap of time.
The greatest blending, however, occurs among styles whose makers are culturally related and who have regular contact with one another. The result is a rock art tradition, extending through time in a defined area, which has two or more styles that are more similar to each other than to any neighboring style. Such is the Columbia Plateau rock art tradition, where stick figure humans, simple block-body animal forms, rayed arcs and circles, tally marks, abstract spirit beings or mythical figures, and geometric forms are combined to produce an art that is recognizably distinct from that of the neighboring areas of the Northwest Coast, Great Basin, or northwestern Plains.
Rock art styles have been generally identified as naturalistic, stylized, and abstract (Grant 1967). Naturalistic art depicts actual things, such as humans and animals, in a reasonably realistic or natural manner. Stylized art renders recognizable forms in a highly conventionalized or nonrealistic manner. Finally, abstract art shows forms that are unrecognizable as naturally occurring things. Of course, no art is composed exclusively of only naturalistic, stylized, or abstract forms, but classification is determined by the type of designs that predominate (fig. 1).
Pacific Northwest rock art is primarily naturalistic, with the exception of the Long Narrows and Yakima polychrome styles localized in the lower Columbia area near The Dalles, Oregon, and a few pit and groove style sites scattered throughout the region. Most Columbia Plateau rock art shows simple stick figure humans and block-body animal figures, rayed circles or arcs, and tally marks. Geometric abstract figures occur in smaller numbers. Frequently, humans and animals are arranged in a composition, often with an associated geometric design such as a rayed arc, circle, or group of dots. The resulting structured composition appears to portray some sort of relationship between naturally occurring objects.
In the lower Columbia area two significantly different art styles—the Long Narrows and Yakima polychrome styles—occur. Dating from approximately the last thousand years, these drawings show an increasing stylization of the human form that culminates in the portrayal of humans and spirit beings as complex mask designs, often with grotesquely exaggerated features. Some animal forms also become more stylized, and polychrome rayed arcs and concentric circles become major components. Apparently Northwest Coast art traditions, which show a somewhat similar evolution of stylization, heavily influenced these two styles. Quite likely, the Columbia River’s use as a major prehistoric trade route from the coast to the interior was partly responsible for the evolution of this stylized art in The Dalles region.
Highly abstract art is not common on the Columbia Plateau. Throughout the region, occasional sites have drawings composed almost exclusively of cupules, dots, and meandering lines; rarely are humans or animals depicted. These sites appear most closely related to the curvilinear abstract art called pit and groove and the Great Basin abstract style that occur throughout the western United States, primarily in the Great Basin area of Nevada and California.
1. Chart of rock art styles
Dating Rock Art
Determining the actual age of most Columbia Plateau rock art sites is difficult to do with certainty, except in instances showing horses or other objects of known historic age. However, a variety of techniques, in combination with the study of stylistic evolution, can sometimes establish relative ages. Six major factors provide clues to general dating of Columbia Plateau rock art: (1) association with dated archaeological deposits, (2) association with dated portable art, (3) portrayal of datable objects, (4) superimposition of designs, (5) patination, and (6) weathering (McClure 1979a, 1984).
Association with Dated Archaeological Deposits
Occasionally, sediment containing dated archaeological items will bury a rock art panel. This may occur in a rock shelter or on an open site where sediment builds up against the rock surface, or when a portion of a rock art panel falls from a vertical surface into an archaeological deposit below. Neither occurrence is especially common, since both require the propinquity of rock art and living areas, rapid deposition of sediment, or partial destruction of the site.
Two examples of buried rock art provide dating clues for the Columbia Plateau. In south-central Oregon, a deeply carved panel of abstract petroglyphs is partially covered by a deposit containing ash from the volcanic explosion of Mount Mazama that formed Crater Lake sixty-seven hundred years ago (Cannon and Ricks 1986). Thus this site demonstrates that Pacific Northwest Indians must have been making abstract petroglyphs before this early date. Of more direct relevance to Columbia Plateau rock art was the discovery—in Bernard Creek Rockshelter in Hells Canyon on the Snake River—of a spall, from the rock shelter wall, that bore traces of red pigment. The painted spall was found in a level that dated between six and seven thousand years ago (Randolph and Dahlstrom 1977). Although it could not be matched to any paintings still visible in the shelter, the fragment does demonstrate that Columbia Plateau Indians have painted pictographs for a very long time.
Association
