Bart Nunnelly
(source: 'Rock Art of Kentucky', University Press of Kentucky-1997)
ANCIENT WITNESSES
Edmonson County
It might be considered only logical to ask,
if creatures such as the 'Spottsville Monster' and the 'Beast of LBL' have been
running around Ky for so long, would'nt the indians have known about it? The
answer is yes. Nearly all Native American tribes have their own oral histories
of these dangerous, hairy 'man-beasts'. Unfortunately, what they did not possess
was a written language, but they did convey ideas using both petroglyphs (rock
carvings) and pictographs (rock paintings). In Edmonson County, Ky there is
a placed called the Asphalt Rock Site, where a series of three ancient rock
shelters lie beneath the shadow of a line of cliffs overlooking the Green River.
In he middle of this trio, painted in dull red on the upper portion of the rear
wall in what is one of only two documented pictographic sites in the entire
state, is a bizarre humanoid figure which stands as one of the best examples
of ancient 'Beast Man' images I have seen. The figure is depicted standing up
like a man with its arms above its head and its clawed fingers spread menacingly.
It has a cat-like, apparently muzzled face, hairy body and either horns or pointed
ears. The lower portion of the image is heavily weathered,a testimony to its
great antiquity and authenticity as an actual Native American pictograph. The
only other documented pictographic site in Ky is in The Carter Caves National
Park, an area which also has a history of bipedal Man Beast report.
Bart Nunnelly
(source: 'Rock Art of Kentucky', University Press of Kentucky-1997)