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chapter 6 Prehistoric Pictographs`ose familiar with the climate of the southeastern Unites States are well aware that the environment is unkind to exposed surfaces. If prehistoric pictographs ever existed on exposed rock surfaces in South Carolina, as surely they must have, they have not been reported and were probably long ago destroyed by forces of nature. Only three pictographs believed to be prehistoric have been discovered in South Carolina. Two are located in Pickens Couny, and the third is located approximately 110 to 120 miles southeast in the sand hills of Kershaw Couny near the fall line. `eir continued existence may well be axributed to their locations inside rock shelters that aford uncommon protection rom the elements. Because these shelters are dry and relatively dark, no lichen or mosses, which might have destroyed the drawings, grow within these recesses. Another shared axribute of these particular shelters is that their interior rock surfaces show no evidence of exfoliating, a condition that we observed in most of the shelters that we investigated and that perhaps contributes to an explanation of why so few South Carolina pictographs now exist. However, the fact that we recorded three pictograph sites among the relatively few rock shelters that we investigated , gives reason for optimism that others may yet be found.`e Pictograph at Site 38PN102 More than a century ater James Mooney’s initial report of a pictograph in northern Greenville Couny in 1891, Andrew Carroll, a geolon student at Furman Universiy , found a pictograph in the late fall of 1999 while conducting a geological 0eld study in the general area of Mooney’s discovery. Created with yellow-orange ocher, Carroll’s discovery includes a circle with seven evenly spaced ouward radiating lines. Near the end of each line a 0gure is drawn (plate 12a). `e lower portion of the pictograph is more weathered than that nearer the shelter ceiling, so the 0gures located nearer the ceiling are more visible.`ree 0gures are discernible to the naked eye. One is a quadruped with antlers, probably representing a deer or an elk. Another appears birdlike and is somewhat similar to the thunderbird symbol more commonly found in the western and the Prehistoric Pictographs 113 north-central United States. A third 0gure appears to be a 0sh or some aquatic animal. Ater digital enhancement of less-visible 0gures to allow a clearer view of their forms (plate 12c), one appears to be an arrow (or perhaps a sylized human), and another has a treelike form. Two 0gures were so faded and smudged that we were unable to do more than con0rm their presence. Carroll’s discovery is just inside the Pickens Couny line. It cannot be argued that Carroll’s 0nd is the same as Mooney’s, but considering the isolation of the area where the wo counties join, it is possible that Mooney may have guessed incorrectly at which couny he was in. At an elevation of approximately wo thousand feet, site 38PN102 is the highest pictograph site we recorded.`e Pictograph at Site 38PN134 In the early spring of 2003, another Pickens Couny pictograph site was discovered. Dr. Cato Holler Jr., a dentist whose hobby is the study of insects living in caves and rock shelters, found the site on one of his excursions. On the vertical rear wall of a large west-facing shelter are eight 0gures drawn with reddish-brown ocher (plate 13a). Seven of the 0gures could represent almost any animals with long tails, including cats, foxes, dogs, or squirrels. One other motif is located relatively low on the wall, and even when digitally enhanced, it is too eroded to identid its intended form with certainy. Two other 0gures are so small and faded that they are di2cult to see with the naked eye, but digital enhancement of the photographs, make them quite easy to observe (plate 13c). Water dripping rom the edge of the shelter roof is eroding a small portion of the earthen loor, and prehistoric poxery and thermally altered chipped stone was found in this eroded area. Indisputable association for these artifacts and the pictographs cannot be made, but evidence for historic use of the shelter is totally absent. Because ocher is inorganic, it was impossible to date these drawings through radiocarbon dating, but they are believed to be prehistoric.`e Pictograph at Site 38KE281 When surveying nearby archaeological sites, I had visited the Kershaw Couny rock shelter that is now site 38KE281 on several occasions without discovering its...

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