Four legs? Check.
Sharp claws? Check.
Scary face? Check.
Long tail? Check.
Yep. Absolutely perfect representation of a mountain lion.
on a mountain? debatable
Drawing hands/feet is always so tricky.
It’s the tickle lion!
the Blue Mesa area in Petrified Forest National Park
This is in Arizona, USA, for context. It was carved near the now-ruins of Puerco Pueblo around the 13th Century by the Ancestral Puebloan Native Americans. The petroglyph was removed and is in the museum in the park’s visitors center (or maybe in the Painted Desert Inn?) for protection.
I’m actually rather digging how they didn’t understand it’s comparative anatomy. They gave it both five “finger” claws like their hand and a dewclaw when it’s four finger claws and a dewclaw as a thumb.
Typical prehistoric AI-slop.
Petroglyphic polydactyly
There are cats born with extra toes though… Maybe this is why they had to capture the moment
#ImSorryThrog
“It’s my artstyle”
I wonder if these things were more like warning signs than art. “Here be lions.”
I would err towards teaching aids. Though they likely gained some ceremonial usage from that. Almost all are likely lost to time. We only see the odd exceptions put in difficult to reach places.
I personally like the idea that it was a teacher desperately practicing, in the back of the cave, where no one would likely see it.
MFW I realize I’m all thumbs!
what if they are accurate o_o
See it in 2 months wherever you get your memes 😎
“Near a tree by a river, there’s a hole in the ground,
Where an old man of Aran goes around and around…”
