MAMMOTH 1
UPPER SAND ISLAND ROCK ART SITE

SOUTH EASTERN UTAH
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COPYRIGHT FEBRUARY 28, 2015 PETER A. BOSTROM

    This picture shows an area of "rock art" on the Upper Sand Island Rock Art site in south eastern Utah. The pattern is thought to be very early and date to sometime between the Pleistocene-Holocene transition period, approximately 13,300 to 12,500 years ago. It represents a portion of a cluster of petroglyphs that are described as a panel. Although the highlighted area in this picture appears "insect-like" there are specific reasons why the image may represent a mammoth. The highlighted image is designated as mammoth 1 because it was the first of two mammoth designs that were discovered in the panel group. The design above mammoth 1 is described as a bison. Both the mammoth and bison were formed by pecking, incising, and scraping. They measure approximately 87cm (34.25 inches) from the tip of the mammoth's tusk to the tip of the bison's tail. The cut marks are significantly weathered  and re-varnished over most of their surfaces. A comparison to more recent Ute horse petroglyphs located nearby show an obvious age difference between the two. Magnification of the cut marks indicate that the mammoth and bison were not recently made or altered and that the bison was made after the mammoth.
    Mammoth 1 has several design characteristics that suggests it may represent a Columbian mammoth (
Mammuthus columbi). The most obvious features are the domed head, tusks, and trunk. The domed head is clearly formed with a concentrated area of pecking marks. The raised area behind the head may represent a raised shoulder that is also a descriptive trait of mammoth anatomy. Mastodons did not have these two identifiable features. Mammoth 1 also has two parallel tusks that extend outward from an area lower on the head, unlike horns that would attach higher up near the top of the head. The trunk is impressive for its length and for the fact that it does have a bifurcated end that may represent "fingers." Many Old World Paleolithic cave sites, such as Chauvet in France, illustrate the ends of woolly mammoth trunks with one long and one short grasping "finger." The shorter one is referred to as the thumb. Although not very impressive, mammoth 1 has one front and two back "stick-like" legs. If there was a tail, it appears that it may have been removed by the addition of the above bison image.
    Mammoth 1 has one design trait that does seem odd. The vertical body segmentation makes the image look insect-like. Linear style quadrupedal figures in both horizontal and vertical forms are known in the area. But this style dates much later to the Middle Holocene and is not similar to the design pattern in mammoth 1.

Mammoth 1 from Upper Sand Island Rock Art site, Utah.

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