Martin shares his passion for ancient rock carvings

April 22, 2015 · 0 Comments

Dr. Hans Martin shows off some of his unique stone rubbings of ancient petroglyphs.
By Mark Pavilons
Humankind’s odyssey is a remarkable one. It makes for some really good reading, if you can find some ancient texts.
Messages about early life on this planet abound all around us. In the absence of written documents, stories are nestled in the natural landscape, in ancient rock carvings.
Canada has its fair share, with tales from our Native ancestors dating back centuries. The rocks do speak, but much of the meaning has either been lost or remains a mystery.
That makes it even more intriguing for King’s Dr. Hans Martin.
Dr. Martin is one of the world’s leading scientists on acid rain, climate change, toxic chemicals and other air issues. He has advised both national and international governments. He worked for Environment Canada and most recently for Foreign Affairs before retiring.
You can add studying ancient petroglyphs to his long list of “hobbies.”
Martin will deliver a talk about the extraordinary First Nation petroglyphs (rock engravings) of Peterborough and other places in Canada and abroad. The presentation will take place Sunday, May 3 from 2-4 p.m. at the King Township Museum.
Martin’s interest was sparked by Winnipeg researcher Jan Cameron in the early 1980s, when his brother sent him a petroglyph article about Cameron in the Winnipeg Free Press. He phoned Cameron and they talked for a few hours. Coincidentally, two days later, a researcher at the Canadian Conservation Institute called Martin and asked him if acid rain impacted ancient rock carvings.
The more he learned about petroglyphs, the more excited he became. He and his brothers had enjoyed aboriginal culture, costumes and traditions since they were children.
Martin recalls taking his own children to Lake of the Woods during summer holidays, scouring the woods for these ancient marvels. He admitted they were “bored silly,” but he wasn’t deterred and after his first site visit he was “hooked.”
It became his passionate pastime. His work with Environment Canada took him all over Canada and Europe and every chance he got, he explored local petroglyphs. He saw some amazing sites, particularly in northern Italy and Norway. In Canada, he and Cameron documented together the Peterborough site and the huge sites on Gabriola Island, British Columbia. She was his mentor.
“The history of the country is carved in the rocks,” he said, adding the European sites are all accessible to the public. Not so in most of Canada. In North America vandalism is a serious risk.
Martin’s fascination soared during his first visit in the 1970s to the nearby Petroglyphs Provincial Park near Peterborough.
It has the largest collection of ancient First Nations petroglyphs in Ontario. The carvings represent aspects of First Nations spirituality, including images of shamans, animals, reptiles, and, possibly, the Great Spirit itself.
The stone is generally believed to have been carved by the Algonkian or Iroquian speaking people between 900 and 1100 AD., if not somewhat earlier during the Archaic. Today, the First Nations people of Ontario call the carvings Kinomagewapkong, meaning “the rocks that teach” or “the Teaching Rocks.”
Originally two to three inches deep, the 1,200 carvings were made using gneiss hammers to incise human figures, animals, etc. The immediate area of the petroglyphs has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada.
The petroglyphs were first recorded in 1965 and 1968 by Joan and Ron Vastokas. Their book, “Sacred Art of the Algonkians,” is considered by rock art scholars the most definitive study and interpretation to date.
There, Martin honed his rubbing skills – using cloth and heel ball wax to make impressions of the carvings. This method, while painstaking, is the least invasive and doesn’t cause any damage.
A dominant figure, whose head apparently represents the sun, caught Martin’s attention, something he’s called the “sun god.” He believed its location and shape had a deeper meaning and he set out to prove it. Martin has been fascinated with astronomy and the ancient cultures’ methods of using the stars to create early calendars.
After several visits to the main and secondary sites, he used a tool he created (solar compass) to measure alignments of the sun, structures or rocks and mountains to within 1 degree.
Sure enough, the sun god indicates the summer solstice sunset, thus aiding the aboriginals in marking time and the planting seasons. It also gave them a sense of continuity and security.
“It blows your mind,” Martin said. “It’s a compelling place.”
Martin has visited many sites in the southern U.S., including Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. All of these sites have been both “stunning” and “moving.”
During a trip to Alta, Norway in the early 1990s, he made rubbings that were later reproduced for the Alta Petroglyph Museum as numbered silkscreen prints.
While some believe they have figured out the meaning of these ancient messages, Martin won’t be so presumptuous.
“Unfortunately we don’t know and our Native neighbours remain silent,” he said. “The beauty of the stuff still just grabs me.”
The public is encouraged to hear Martin’s tales during his May 3 talk.