August 09, 2009

• mmmm I love the smell of archaeology in the morning. seriously, this is awesome interesting news, thanks for the post!!!
• Interesting, but it seems odd to me that it took them 15 years to determine it was a map. Was the FDA somehow involved?
• Now, THAT map would be hard to fold. Turn left at the antelope. LEFT. Now you're going to have to find a place to turn around. Watch out for the mastodon. You never listen. Oh, you cavemen!
• Just look at the hole that they call the cave. That hole doesn't appear to be carved or incised into the stone at all. It looks natural to me. So if it's part of a map, someone must have thought that the hole resembled the cave, and the rest was added to put in its real world context, more like a snapshot of the scene than a useful map then. After all, the whole stone shows a small area, a single bend in the river. Who needs a map for that much of the world? And the X marks, do they really show a herd of Ibex? On the face of it, that would be silly. These animals moved all over the face of the landscape, for sure. I don't mean to diminish the importance of the find, but again, I submit it's more of a snapshot than a real map, if it's representational at all. But is it art? That would be a question for Plegmund...
• Why wouldn't they put ibex, deer, or sheep on their maps? Maps can be beautiful as well as functional. Early European mapmakers drew fanciful mermaids and dragons on their maps. Shoshone map rock, Idaho, is beautiful with its depictions of different prancing critters. Here's a better pic. This map illustrates the route of the Snake river from the Henry's Lake origination below Yellowstone up past the entrance of the Salmon River to the start of the Columbia River Basin. I don't believe these animals on the map were drawn to illustrate the best hunting areas, but to indicate that this is a good map to use for travel as there is the possibility of food along the way. Current maps of Idaho showing gas-lodging-food riff off the same meme as the Shoshones used. In the case of this new European map, ...the stone, which measures less than seven inches by five inches, and is less than an inch thick... we have something that's fairly portable and certainly able to be hidden. Assuming these are migratory peoples, the old folks are the ones with the best knowledge of the area, and the most likely to die on the trip. Perhaps this was drawn by an oldster about to die, and presented to his son as a memory aid to be kept for the next year, when they returned to the cave. Perhaps it was drawn by someone sitting in the sunshine dreaming of taking a short hunting vacation. Who knows?
• I like that playful explanation best for the little stone map, or sketch. That big map rock in Idaho must be near your ranch, right BlueHorse? It certainly seems more ambitious.
• There is no question in my mind that is a treasure map. I shall embark on a quick trip this weekend. I shall return with riches for all.
• Watch out for them Ibex, bernockle. They is sharp and pointy, and they guard their treasure. Slay them with the Hammer of Bluntness (25/10).