Wednesday, July 24, 2019

NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA—CBC News reports that petroglyphs carved with a metal knife have been discovered in a subterranean crevice in eastern Newfoundland's Conception Bay North by a local resident. The Roman-style letters and images, thought to be the first indigenous petroglyphs discovered on the island, depict two human figures, an animal-like figure, and fertility motifs resembling those made by Algonquian-speaking peoples who lived in northeastern North America. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised that there are many throughout the province,” said archaeologist Barry Gaulton of Memorial University. He thinks these carvings were made as a personal piece of artwork sometime between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. To read about dating rock carvings in Nevada's Winnemucca Lake basin, go to "North America's Oldest Petroglyphs."