Rat’s Nest Cave – Pictographs

By Corey Cookson on October 9, 2018

Last year I visited a very interesting site located near Canmore, AB. The Rat’s Nest Cave is accessible through the touring company, Canmore Cave Tours, and can be visited all year round. With the help of my guide, Brent, I rappelled 18 m into the cave and squeezed through many tight water carved gaps and tunnels. Eventually you reach “the grotto” where you can hang out by a crystal clear pool and several beautiful stalagmites and stalactites.

Left: Repelling into the cave.  Right: One of the many squeezes you will experience!

Also in the cave are many animal bones dating to approximately 7000 years ago and, although I didn’t see any while on the tour, several stone tools dating to 3000 years ago. One of the most fascinating aspects of the cave are the pictographs located at the entrance of the cave. Inside the cave, are several small rock paintings that indicate the cave was of cultural significance for the First Nations people possibly for thousands of years. My guide also informed me that there are several pictographs on the outside of the cave above the entrance but due to years of weathering they are not visible to the naked eye.

Assemblage of animal bones found in the cave
One of the rock art images inside the entrance to the cave

Luckily, recent advances in technology allow us to digitally enhance rock art paintings. A process called Decorrelation Stretch or simply D-Stretch is currently being used by archaeologists and rock art researchers to enhance even the faintest of pictographs. The process works by increasing differences in hue and stretching the contrast for each colour variance. When D-stretch is used to enhance the image of the entrance of the Rat’s Nest Cave, a series of handprints can be seen going up the wall.

Left: Normal image of the wall above entrance.  Right: D-Stretch image of wall above entrance
One of the handprints isolated (Photo Credit: Jack Brink)

Related Posts

 

By Corey Cookson

Mountain range, backlit by the afternoon sun

October 17, 2023

International Archaeology Day

What is it? International Archaeology Day is a celebration of Archaeology and it’s contributions to society! International Archaeology Day annually falls on the third Saturday of October (October 21st), and was first celebrated in 2011. The day was originally designed on a national level to help promote public participation and awareness of the important contributions

Keep Reading

By Alyssa Hamza

August 10, 2023

“The Last Great Battle”

Battle of Belly River, 1870 For International Indigenous Day, there are an unlimited number of topics that we could discuss. This year, since Lethbridge is my home and I’m interested in it’s history, I decided to write about “The Battle of the Belly River”, also called the “The Last Great Indian Battle”. One of the

Keep Reading

By Megan Williams

June 1, 2023

The Quarry of the Ancestors

Alberta Oil sands The Alberta oil sands has seen it’s fair share of media attention over the last few decades! Unfortunately, most of it has not been positive… In this blog, we are going to discuss an amazing archaeological discovery from the Alberta oil sands, and how these findings have shaped our knowledge about prehistory

Keep Reading