Regardless of how much we research, we will never be able to reconstruct a complete version of how the early Native Americans lived day to day. Nor will we be able to hear the various languages they spoke. For instance, did all of the Clovis groups speak the same dialect? I doubt this was the case because what we feel sure were Clovis sites spanned across almost all of North America and even up into portions of Canada. There are subtle differences in their weapons and tools from region to region so why not at least some language barriers. None of the groups left any evidence of a written language, however in some of the dryer regions where rock shelters and caves have been discovered, art work is very prevalent usually referred to as rock art. In some sections of Central Texas, rock art has been found on large boulders and rock faces. Several members of the Texas Archeological Society have spent hundreds of hours documenting each figure at a specific archeological site in an effort to preserve the rock art on paper and film. Vandalism in some regions has been terrible. For some unknown, stupid reason, some hunters think the animals or human figures depicted in the rock art offer them ideal targets for their rifles. In other areas, graffiti has been placed on top of some of the rock art. Needless to say, rock art is not renewable and once it has been damaged or destroyed altogether, it is gone forever. Several scholars of rock art are constantly trying to interpret what each character represents and how it was connected to a certain culture. Some of the rock art has been successfully dated by several different methods and the researchers have found some of the examples to be quite old. Even though there are a number of limestone faces exposed along various parts of Pisgah Ridge, I have not heard of any examples of rock art in this area. I do know of one site in East Texas where some rock art was discovered but rock outcrops in the Piney Woods are almost non-existent.

Generally speaking, caves and rock shelters have been the most productive for finding rock art. Once more I will mention the fact there are several rock shelters located on Pisgah Ridge but I am not aware of any rock art within any of these shelters. Another reason rock art has not been found on Pisgah Ridge may be due to the absence of any good paint pigments available locally. Yet that does not mean rock art did not exist here because there was always a chance some had been painted on the rocks but over the years, the limestone weathered enough to cause the outside face of the rock to sluff off, removing any evidence of the art work. In a few instances in Central Texas, I have seen examples of rock art whereby the Native Americans carved their designs into the rock rather than painting them.

What do the figures mean in the rock art? Did they have something to do with a religious belief or were the figures trying to depict a story for members of the culture who had placed them there or were they meant to tell something to another wandering band. Some researchers have tried discussing the rock art with several of the existing tribes today but in most cases, the current Native Americans don’t know the message each cluster of rock art is trying to convey. Or, the Native Americans may not want outsiders to understand the meaning of the rock art because we have been making treaty after treaty with many of the tribes ever since we started settling North America and in most cases, the treaties turned out to be nothing more than worthless pieces of paper. Why should they tell us what the meaning of the rock art pertains to?

In some of those dryer caves and rock shelters, fragments of basketry, textiles and cordage materials have been discovered and since these artifacts were fashioned out of a growing, living plant, Carbon 14 dating can be accomplished, dating the material. Surprisingly, some of the artifacts are extremely old. In one cave in Pennsylvania known as Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Andrews and Adovasio reported in 1996 a single element of a birch-like bark was intentionally cut and was recovered during the excavations of some of the deepest levels within the site. This fragment was found in a stratum much deeper than the Clovis occupation of the site. Dating of this deep stratum was 19,600 plus or minus 2,400 years before present (B.P.). The 2,400 years plus or minus is a very wide range of dates but even if you subtracted 2,400 years from 19,600, you still have a date of 17,650 B.P. This date is at least 4,000 years older than Clovis. Once more, there is another site telling archeologists there are older cultures in North America than what we have always considered to be first, namely the Clovis people. Dr. Adovasio, who is the head of the Archeological Research Survey program at Mercyhurst, Pa., was also the head of the Archeological Research program at SMU during the final years before SMU closed down the program. The last archeological project researched by the archeologists from SMU was the Superconducting Super Collider in Ellis County. Their final report is one of the largest publications I have ever received. I worked with one of his graduate students on the Cooper Lake project near Paris, Texas, and the student told me one of the requirements of Dr. Adovasio was they had to cut the grass almost to bare ground around any excavation unit with scissors before any photographs were taken.

At the Meadowcroft site, further evidence of birch bark basketry was also recovered from some of the shallower units.

Danger Cave in Utah in the eastern part of the Great Basin was reported by Jennings in 1957 to have examples of netting and cordage from some very deep deposits. Again dating was done and the results came back for the specimens between two dates for the strata where the materials were recovered, one at 11,151 plus or minus 570 years B.P. and the other date was 10,270 plus or minus 670 years B.P. Another site in the northern region of the Great Basin known as the Rock Fort Cave site in Oregon was reported in 1942 to contain cordage of several simple styles recovered in the basal levels. This stratum is dated to around 11,000 years B.P. but there is some controversy concerning the dates. Next week I will discuss some other sites which have produced perishables.