Columbia Plateau Rock Art: An Alternative Theory Rorschach

Are you unsure what kind of alternative theorist you are? Can't decide between ancient astronauts and pre-Columbian Chinese voyagers? Here is a Rorschach test for you: When you look at the rock art of the Columbia Plateau in Oregon and Washington State, what do you see?

Image: Culture Watch Northwest

Image: Oregon Archaeological Society

Image: Oregon Archaeological Society

So, having viewed some of the rock art, which of the following do you think it best represents?

• Runes documenting Viking colonization circa 1000 CE
• Lunar calendar records of explorers from East Asia
• Coded writing of Irish monks from the early Middle Ages in the Ogam script
• Depictions of ancient astronauts in space gear
  

Oh, right, I forgot one: petroglyphs of hunting, battle, and shamanic scenes drawn by the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. No, wait, it can't be that one.

All of the above bulleted theories have been proposed to explain the Columbia Plateau rock art, beginning with Oluf Opsjohn in 1919, who first argued the Viking rune theory. Simply logic would suggest that if alternative explanations had any validity the "researchers" proposing them should be moving toward the same alternative explanation, not an ever-widening set of mutually-exclusive theories. Obviously coded Irish Ogam script cannot also be a Chinese lunar calendar. This strongly implies (though of course does not prove) that such explanations exist entirely in their advocates' imaginations. Had they objective truth, we should find convergence among researchers and increasing amounts of supporting evidence, both of which are lacking.