Considering that the oldest dated image in Pictograph Cave is 2,149 years old, it is surprising that even 15 of the 103 original ochre and charcoal images of warriors and animals are still visible.
The question now confronting Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which manages the site as a state park, is whether to try to preserve the art and slow the decay of the cave, or let nature take its course as the art fades inevitably into oblivion.
Jannie Loubser, an archaeologist and rock art expert from Atlanta, surveyed the site on Friday to help the state decide what to do, or not do, next. With the help of Sara Scott, of FWP’s heritage resource program, Loubser took detailed measurements and notes on the current condition of the cave.
“Whatever can be done to protect the place and increase its lifespan, most people would agree that’s the way to go,” Loubser said. “But we need to be kind of minimalist about it.”
Wet weather this winter and spring has helped speed deterioration in the large cave southeast of Billings. Water has seeped into cracks and the porous sandstone, which then freezes and can break off. A broken-off piece is how one pictograph of a turtle was dated as 2,149 years old.
The decay of the lower portions of the cave has also been accelerated by the excavation of the cave floor between 1937 and 1941, which removed several feet of dirt and left the lower cave walls exposed.
“The whole thing is shifting like an eggshell that you broke the bottom off of,” Loubser said.
All of the water that has seeped into the sandstone walls has hidden some of the pictographs under a patina of built-up minerals as the moisture evaporated, said Jared Kostrba, an FWP ranger at the site. That process was likely accelerated in the 1970s when an adjacent landowner built a stock pond atop the cave, keeping the area wet year-round. The pond was removed in the 1990s and the site reclaimed, but moisture remains a problem.
“There are days out here that the whole back of the cave looks like it’s been hosed down with water,” Kostrba said.
When that happens, though, some of the pictographs actually are easier to see.
“The first time I came up here, I couldn’t believe it,” he added. “They’re still here, and under the right conditions at the right time, you can see them.”
Loubser said the creators of the rock art may have wanted their depictions of shielded warriors, thunderbirds and elk to be visible only at certain times of the day or year or under certain conditions.
“They may have wanted to show the spiritual entities coming out of the rocks, showing how the rock hides the spirit and then reveals them,” he said.
Loubser said people can’t think of the pictographs as comparable to works of art hanging in a gallery, where they should be visible at all times.
Scott said that, even if nothing is done to preserve the site, the work by Loubser will be a record of what’s happened over time and in this moment. Loubser will write a report with his suggestions that will be turned over to FWP for consideration. FWP would work with tribal representatives and others to decide what actions, if any, to take.
“We have to proceed very cautiously,” Scott said. “I think Jared said it best when he said that what’s happening now is just part of the life cycle of the cave.”
Doug Habermann, FWP’s regional park manager, agreed, adding that the art is only one part of the story of Pictograph Caves.
“The visitor center can continue to interpret them,” he said. “My take is the pictographs are just one feature of the people who used to live up here.”
Loubser noted that conservation is a profession of slowing the clock of decay, but it can’t be stopped or reversed. Attempts to clean the art so it would be more visible to visitors could have the opposite effect of making them disappear more rapidly, he added.
“These are things that have to be considered,” he said. “You have to realize it is a gamble. In the long term, you run the risk of minimizing the resiliency of something.”
Author: Brett French | Source: The Billings Gazette [June 19, 2011]
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| Rock art specialist Jannie Loubser makes a map at Pictograph Cave State Park as part of a study on how best to conserve the images on Friday [Credit: Casey Page/Billings Gazette] |
Jannie Loubser, an archaeologist and rock art expert from Atlanta, surveyed the site on Friday to help the state decide what to do, or not do, next. With the help of Sara Scott, of FWP’s heritage resource program, Loubser took detailed measurements and notes on the current condition of the cave.
“Whatever can be done to protect the place and increase its lifespan, most people would agree that’s the way to go,” Loubser said. “But we need to be kind of minimalist about it.”
Wet weather this winter and spring has helped speed deterioration in the large cave southeast of Billings. Water has seeped into cracks and the porous sandstone, which then freezes and can break off. A broken-off piece is how one pictograph of a turtle was dated as 2,149 years old.
The decay of the lower portions of the cave has also been accelerated by the excavation of the cave floor between 1937 and 1941, which removed several feet of dirt and left the lower cave walls exposed.
“The whole thing is shifting like an eggshell that you broke the bottom off of,” Loubser said.
All of the water that has seeped into the sandstone walls has hidden some of the pictographs under a patina of built-up minerals as the moisture evaporated, said Jared Kostrba, an FWP ranger at the site. That process was likely accelerated in the 1970s when an adjacent landowner built a stock pond atop the cave, keeping the area wet year-round. The pond was removed in the 1990s and the site reclaimed, but moisture remains a problem.
“There are days out here that the whole back of the cave looks like it’s been hosed down with water,” Kostrba said.
When that happens, though, some of the pictographs actually are easier to see.
“The first time I came up here, I couldn’t believe it,” he added. “They’re still here, and under the right conditions at the right time, you can see them.”
Loubser said the creators of the rock art may have wanted their depictions of shielded warriors, thunderbirds and elk to be visible only at certain times of the day or year or under certain conditions.
“They may have wanted to show the spiritual entities coming out of the rocks, showing how the rock hides the spirit and then reveals them,” he said.
Loubser said people can’t think of the pictographs as comparable to works of art hanging in a gallery, where they should be visible at all times.
Scott said that, even if nothing is done to preserve the site, the work by Loubser will be a record of what’s happened over time and in this moment. Loubser will write a report with his suggestions that will be turned over to FWP for consideration. FWP would work with tribal representatives and others to decide what actions, if any, to take.
“We have to proceed very cautiously,” Scott said. “I think Jared said it best when he said that what’s happening now is just part of the life cycle of the cave.”
Doug Habermann, FWP’s regional park manager, agreed, adding that the art is only one part of the story of Pictograph Caves.
“The visitor center can continue to interpret them,” he said. “My take is the pictographs are just one feature of the people who used to live up here.”
Loubser noted that conservation is a profession of slowing the clock of decay, but it can’t be stopped or reversed. Attempts to clean the art so it would be more visible to visitors could have the opposite effect of making them disappear more rapidly, he added.
“These are things that have to be considered,” he said. “You have to realize it is a gamble. In the long term, you run the risk of minimizing the resiliency of something.”
Author: Brett French | Source: The Billings Gazette [June 19, 2011]