IOP PUBLISHING                                                                  
                                                 
AUTHORS PROOF 

Phys. Scr. T131 (2008) 000000 (13pp) 

Evidence for an intense solar outburst in prehistory 
 A L Peratt (1, 2) and W F Yao (3, 4) 

(1) Applied Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos,
NM 87545, USA

(2) Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA

(3) IEEE Computer Society, Albuquerque New Mexico Chapter, Albuquerque,
New Mexico, 87122, USA

(4) Library and Technology Division, Albuquerque Public Schools,
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87122, USA

E-mail: alp@ieeetps.org 

Received 10 June 2008 
Published 5 December 2008 
Online at stacks.iop.org/PhysScr/T131/014048 

Abstract 

A past intense solar outburst and its effect on Earth was proposed by Gold
(1962 Pontificiae Acad. Sci. Scr. Varia 25 159) who, along with others,
based his hypotheses on strong astronomical and geophysical evidence. The
discovery that objects from the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age carry
patterns associated with high-current Z-pinches, as would result from an
intense plasma impinging Earth,  <--- note

provides a possible insight into the
origin and meaning of these ancient symbols produced by humans. Peratt
(2003 Trans. Plasma Sci. 31 1192) dealt with the comparison of graphical
and radiation data from high-current Z-pinches to petroglyphs, geoglyphs
and megaliths. Peratt (2007 Trans. Plasma Sci. 35 778)  focused primarily,
but not exclusively, on petroglyphs of some 84 different morphologies;
pictures found in laboratory experiments and carved on rock. These
corresponded to mankind's visual observations of ancient aurora as might
be produced if the solar wind had increased at times between one and two
orders of magnitude, millennia ago (Gold 1962 Pontificiae Acad. Sci. Scr.  
Varia 25 159). In Peratt (2007 Trans. Plasma Sci. 35 778), the data were
given on the source of light and its temporal change from a
current-increasing Z-pinch or dense plasma focus aurora.

Orientation and field-of-view data are given as surveyed and contributed
from 139 countries, from sites and fields containing several millions of
these objects, the latest data coming from a 300 km survey along the
Orinoco river basin in Venezuela. In this paper, we include additional
petroglyph figures derivable from experiment and computer. This
information allows a reconstruction of the auroral form presumably
associated with extreme geomagnetic storms and shows, based on existent
geophysical evidence, relativistic electron flow  <--- note

inward at Earth's south polar axis  <--- note

and hypervelocity proton impacts around the north polar axis.

PACS numbers: 52.58.Lq, 52.65.Rr, 52.35.Py, 52.77. j, 94.05. a, 95.90.+v 

(Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version.) 

1. Introduction 

The discovery that objects from the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age carry
patterns associated with high-current Z-pinches provides a possible
insight into the origin and meaning of these ancient symbols produced by
humans [1]. This work dealt with the comparison of graphical and radiation
data from high-current Z-pinches to the images of petroglyphs, geoglyphs
and megaliths.

This reference focused primarily, but not exclusively, on petroglyphs of
some 84 different morphologies; those found in laboratory experiments that
are similar to those carved on rock. As the same morphological types are
found worldwide, the comparisons suggest a type of single visible source.
The striking similarity of petroglyphs to plasma experiments would
indicate that they are reproductions or parts of reproductions of intense
electrical phenomena, an obvious high-energy visible source that would be
external to the Earth, such as the solar wind aurora we observe today.  
However, laboratory experiments, when compared to ancient recordings,
suggest the occurrence of an intense aurora, as might be produced if the
solar wind had increased between one and two orders of magnitude,
millennia ago.

A past intense solar outburst and its effect on Earth were proposed by
Gold who, along with others, based their hypotheses on strong astronomical
and geophysical evidence [2].  According to Gold,

	"The question I would like to tackle is whether solar outbursts of
the present day are representative of all that has happened in geologic
times or whether much greater outbursts have occurred from time to time.  
Our evidence that nothing very violent has taken place in historic times
is concerned with such a short span of time only that it cannot answer the
question.

	"For one big outburst every ten thousand years, for example, . . .
The earth's magnetic field could clearly not hold up the incoming gas, and
it would indeed drive down to the atmospheric level . . . This breakdown
would be in the form of a series of sparks, burning for extended periods
of time and carrying currents of hundreds of millions of amperes.  One
might search whether there is any geological record of surface fusing and
vitrification of rock or sand which cannot be accounted for by volcanic or
meteoritic events.

The answer to Gold's question seems to come from an unlikely source:
magnetized plasma from intense solar discharges striking the Earth's space
environment as recorded by mankind in antiquity.

In [1], direct comparison was made of some 40% of data carved on rock to
that recorded in laboratories and in high-explosive, high-energy tests
with current magnitudes similar to that found in auroras today. The
sources of these patterns were magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities
from intense Birkeland currents, a Z-pinch, flowing to the Earth [3, 4].
Other patterns could be attributed to, and found to replicate
Rayleigh­Taylor instabilities as found experimentally and in computer
particle-in-cell (PIC)  simulations when a relativistic electron beam
(REB) impacts the upper atmosphere [3].

Figure 1. Top: basic characteristic of a very thin plasma sheath of 
relativistic electrons and ions flowing along a longitudinal (vertical) 
magnetic field; the sheath filaments into 56 current elements. 
Center: PIC time evolution of two adjacent filaments, as shown by 
the cross sections of the plasma. Bottom: rendition of 56 filaments 
converging to 28, 6, 5 and 4 as current increases. 

Figure 2. Red auroras were considered a sign of ill omens during 
medieval times and pilgrimages were organized to avert the wrath of 
Heaven. Brilliant displays have frightened people as recently as this 
century in regions where aurora sightings are rare (courtesy of S-I 
Akasofu, Institute for Geophysics, Fairbanks, Alaska). 

2. Salient properties of an intense aurora

In an intense aurora, the giga-ampere current flow and concomitant strong
magnetic field produces a major change 
in the auroral-height profile. <---- note

Because of the intense plasma flow and strong longitudinal magnetic field,
the plasma forms a thin but dense sheath or plasma column in its
propagation toward Earth. <--- note

Hence, <--- note

the in-flowing plasma is a Z-pinch, and
as a result, Z-pinch instabilities form as well as intense radiation from
the relativistic electrons. The intense radiation consists primarily of
x-rays and synchrotron radiation in the visible.  The synchrotron
radiation is that of well-known Z-pinch instabilities in the plasma column
[1]. Mankind in antiquity accurately recorded this colorful display of
bright lights in many ways. Here, we shall concentrate on the petroglyph
and pictograph data recorded worldwide from fields containing about 4
million markings. Unexpectedly, of those petroglyphs accurately surveyed
and GPS logged, it was found that the light was observed totally from the
direction of the south axial pole of Earth.
 

Experimentally, the tendency for very intense charged particle beams
flowing along a magnetic field <--- note

to `hollow' into a thin cylinder [5] then
filament into 56 currents is a characteristic of the plasma produced in
multi-terawatt pulse-power facilities [6, 7]. Both experiment and
three-dimensional PIC simulations verify this phenomenon.  For example,
interactions between various numbers of current filaments as a source of
electromagnetic radiation sources have been studied [8].

Figure 1 is a mixture of conceptual and recorded evolution of a
multi-filament REB with increasing current conducted. Because of the
Biot­Savart force law, the currents can come together in twos or threes,
on their way to forming a 28-filament structure as found worldwide. Thus,
filamental patterns as carved on rock may have 47, 39, 33, etc, rays.  By
far the most prominent rayed pictographs and petroglyphs show 56, 28, 7,
6, 5 and 4 rays or filaments.  Bright filaments running across the sky are
rare, but not unknown phenomena,  <---- note

having been recorded for centuries and
even millennia from all parts of the Earth (figure 2). `Swords,' `spears,'
`white vapor,' `like glossed silk penetrating it,' `candles in the sky,'
were terms used to describe the aurora during an intense-corona outburst.

In the strong coronal mass ejection event of 1859, observers reported
`figures in the sky as if drawn with fire on a black background'.

Here, it is important to delineate between the various auroral phenomena
that mankind has seen in the sky. When an intense coronal mass ejection
occurs (1017 g, 400­ 1000 km s 1)  near the center of the solar disk and
its strong magnetic field is oriented southward, the power of the solar
wind­magnetosphere generator may exceed 10 TW.  Simultaneously, the
magnetic field produced by the auroral discharge current produces an
intense geomagnetic storm ultimately heating Earth's upper atmosphere.
When oxygen atoms collide with heated atoms, the atoms emit a dark red
light (the `red glow') seen high in the aurora curtain, generally 250­1000
km in altitude (figure 2).

Figure 3. Partial marking of known petroglyphs/pictograph sites in
Venezuela.  Top center: Caracas. Top left: San Estaban National Park.  
Top right: unprocessed petroglyph sites. Center right: Canaima. Center:
Orinoco river from Puerto Ayacucho (lower red marker) to Caicara del
Orinoco (upper red marker) (figure 4). The straight blue lines are our
airplane routes flown.

Thus one has a high-altitude red plasma glow, white bands overhead that
are Birkeland currents wrapping around the Earth, and finally, for
stronger auroras, fiery plasma instability figures usually in association
with the incoming plasma current column. Because of the latter's
orientation at the south axis, all archaic petroglyphs have at least one
polar south viewpoint.

The properties of intense aurora appear to be similar to the properties of
a column of plasma conducting giga-amperes of current rather than
mega-amperes [2]. It is to these current magnitudes that [1, 6] pertain.  
To verify the occurrence of an intense aurora millennia ago, we
reinvestigate petroglyphs in the Orinoco River basin where they were first
discovered in the Americas (by Europeans) as a topic of importance in
natural philosophy.

3. A survey of the Orinoco river basin 

Among the first of the Europeans to treat petroglyphs as a topic of
scientific inquiry was the Prussian explorer and naturalist Alexander von
Humboldt, who between 1799 and 1804 explored much of Central and South
America.  In the Orinoco river basin, Humboldt, studying electricity, is
credited with discovering the first animal that produces electricity,
Electrophorus electricus, the electric eel.

Figure 4. Survey region, Puerto Ayacucho (bottom left) to Caicara del
Orinoco (top right). The `cu' symbols mark the road between the two towns,
through the savannah to the right of the Orinoco river.

Von Humboldt mentions in his "Reise in die Aequatorial-Gegenden des neuen
Continents", his discovery of a petroglyph from the region of Caicara on
the Orinoco, el Sol [9, 10]. This was one of only two petroglyphs known to
archaeologists and ethnologists in this specific region until the early
1900s.

Located at the geographic core of continental Venezuela, the Middle
Orinoco area contains one of the largest concentrations of rock paintings
and petroglyphs in northern South America (figure 3). Petroglyphs are
present throughout the country wherever suitable rock formations and
orientations are found. Currently over 1000 rock art sites are known; a
small fraction of what is most likely to be present given the lack of
visibility of deeply carved petroglyphs on dark granite and forage
overgrowth.

From the Columbian border to the south and across the river at Puerto
Ayacucho, the Orinoco river in Venezuela runs primarily through quaternary
sedimentary rocks to Caicara; the savanna forest along the river
transitioning to the east by Paleozoic­Mesozoic igneous and metamorphic
rock.  This region defines the northwest extent of the Guyana shield, a
Precambrian geological formation underlying Guyana, Suriname, French
Guiana, and parts of Colombia, Venezuela and northern Brazil.  To the east
of the Orinoco is an overwhelming landscape of black granite in all sizes,
from boulders, to hills, to mountains.  Along the Orinoco the basalt is
primarily gray and black granite (figure 5).  Thus the region consists of
pocked gray rock, usually unsuitable as petroglyph palettes, to smooth
texture gray and black granite ideal for deep petroglyph carving but often
difficult to see.

Because of the plethora of petroglyph-suitable basalt (palettes) found
everywhere, petroglyphs are spread throughout the Orinoco basin (as well
as in Caracas, a Mesozoic metamorphic rock region). Canaima is located in
a Precambrian metamorphic region with many rivers and waterfalls, again
with gray granite palette rocks. Rock art is found in a variety of
contexts ranging from isolated boulders in the river or shores of the
Orinoco river, on hilltops and large walls, on the face of granite
hillsides, and in rock shelters of all sizes created by the superposition
of large boulders.

When rediscovered in 1908­1909, Bendrat remarked about el Sol, `The figure
is deeply carved in a comparatively hard granite rock that rise about four
feet above the ground and is entirely hidden from view by dense
undergrowth' [9].  Today, the town of Caicara del Orinoco has surrounded
el Sol. Because it weighs many metric tons, el Sol has not been moved and
therefore retains its valuable orientation data.

Other petroglyphs mentioned by Bendrat are gone, most likely crushed or
removed for housing development. Currently el Sol is protected in the
backyard of a small museum built adjacent.  Up a dirt road four hundred
meters south of el Sol, lie several other petroglyphs deeply carved in
bedrock. The orientations and angles of inclination are identical to that
for el Sol, determined by the height of the same mountain ridge further
south shielding observers from the intense synchrotron light from polar
south (figure 6).

Figure 5. Black basalt close to the Orinoco river. 

Unknowing of intense auroras, Bendrat, as did von Humboldt, attributed the
nature and construction of the petroglyphs to a once more advanced
civilization in South America. He also connected them to similar carvings
in Nubia, Abyssinia and northern Asia. But neither explorer could foresee
that growing populations could endanger such large monuments.  
Venezuela's first national monument, Monumento Nacional Alejandro de
Humboldt near Caripe, is the largest cave in Venezuela and among the most
important in the world. El Sol is likely Venezuela's least recognized
`national monument' of archaeological and space plasma importance.

While most rock art is found along basalt escarpments or carved on
boulders, rock caves are particularly desirable in determining with high
accuracy the field-of-view (FOV)  of the rock artist (provided such a view
is available) as the location of petroglyphs and pictographs tend to be
located just inside the entrance of a south-facing cave. Petroglyphs and
pictographs within the cave are marked on ever decreasing areas aligned
towards the light at the cave entrance, ceasing entirely where the view
outside no longer exists. Cave sites surveyed in our study include Lava
Beds National Monument in California, several in Idaho, along and close to
the Columbia river in Washington state, and others throughout the
southwestern portion of the United States [6].

Because the boulders along the Orinoco are overlaid, caves with openings
in all directions and inclinations are found along the length of the
river. But as is the case of caves at higher northerly latitudes,
petroglyphs were found only in those with a well-defined FOV within a few
degrees of polar south. In addition, information about light-shields,
their necessary inclination or vertical blockage of intense synchrotron
light, was recorded. Figure 7 shows the location of several petroglyph and
pictograph caves at Laguna Los Tres Cerr along the Orinoco.

About a dozen deeply carved petroglyphs were found in the cave shown in
figure 8. The separatrix-type, an instability that occurs in an intense
Z-pinch column (figure 21 of [1]) is carved just inside the cave entrance
on the west wall aligned 179.5 . The entrance to the cave is blocked by a
large boulder such that the FOV within the cave is a `square window' with
an inclination off horizon of 27.4 . The extent of the FOV is about 1.5
centered on polar south ending about 5 m into the cave.

Figure 6. Top left: el Sol. Top right: orientation of el Sol. The black needle 
points magnetic-south (magnetic declination 11 24 E, 
21 September 2007). Bottom right: inclination of el Sol (25.7 ) taken standing 
on the boulder with the top of the gauge sighted onto a 
ridge polar south 1 km distant (ridge not seen in photo at this camera 
placement). Bottom left: digital enhancement of el Sol reveals that it 
belongs the family of 28-ray, three-point, accented nose and eyebrow facemask 
petroglyphs found in large numbers worldwide (figure 16). 

Ten meters east of the cave shown in figure 8 is a smaller enclave, a
natural hole at the side of the basalt hill with pictographs painted on
the back wall and ceiling.  Figure 9, top left is a picture of one of the
authors taking measurements where the original artist had drawn the
pictures.  Each petroglyph/pictograph surveyor carries two varieties of
GPS receivers. Forestry quality compasses and inclinometers are preferred
where the terrain makes accessibility to a site difficult. For greater
accuracy, mining transits and clinometers mounted on tripods are used
where portability is less of an issue. Laser range finders are used to
measure and mark the insides of caves.

Figure 7. Distribution of petroglyphs and pictographs in polar south
openings of the caves at Laguna Los Tres Cerr. (Quickbird satellite
photos.) Top: view of the Tres Cerr area. Bottom: close up of the
petroglyph/pictograph cave locations.

A number of computer applications, commercial and proprietary, are used to
map the measured data onto two-dimensional and three-dimensional areas of
the Earth.  Generally, data are taken every 1 m along a wall panel or
boulder covered with petroglyphs. In order to resolve this information,
color digital orthophotos of the survey area of interest on a nominal
scale 1 : 10 000 with a pixel resolution of approximately 1 m at ground
level, are obtained when they exist. For other areas, Quickbird satellite,
color, cartographically corrected, 0.6 m resolution imagery is utilized.

While figure 9 has a FOV 70 wide determined by boulders in front of the
enclave, the pictographs are centered on polar south (180 )with an
inclination of 26.5 .

4. Computational results; the Nazca-Palpa plains 
in Peru 

At a compass reading of 214 and 2660 km across the equator S-SW of
Caicara, Venezuela (7.64 N, 66.17 N), lie the lines and geoglyphs on the
Palpa/Nazca plains of Peru (14.24 S, 75.58 W). There could hardly be more
difference between the two locations; Caicara located alongside a large
river in a savannah setting and Nazca located on a desert plain, the
driest location on Earth.

However, because of these differences and with other recordings around the
globe, an example of which was shown in section 3 of this paper, when
treated as symbols with different exact FOV information, large
computational resources make it possible to reconstruct the shape of the
south axial current pinch [6]. As shown in figure 10, the reconstruction
shows two egg-shaped plasmoid pinches at 206 000 km and 306 000 km,
respectively, while the plasma column flares out as shown, 701 000 km from
Earth.

With this information on a digital Earth, it is possible to reconstruct
what mankind saw in antiquity with regards a coronal mass ejection of
Gold's magnitude. Figure 11 illustrates the synchrotron light seen looking
obliquely up into the plasma column. Our southernmost data suggests that
the column bent, swinging around the Earth as if a mill-handle, making
images such as these visible to most places on Earth.  The details of
these observations will be published in another paper.

The intense synchrotron light from the Birkeland filaments cast white
light onto the ground surface. These lines come together at
human-constructed mounds rising above the plain called `line centers'.

Figure 8. Petroglyph cave at Laguna Los Tres Cerr. Upper left: outside
view into cave. A number of petroglyphs are located slightly inside the
opening of the cave and at the far back wall. Upper right:  separatrix
petroglyph at cave entrance on right looking out.  Lower left: 27.4
inclination off horizon measurement. Lower right: FOV, east wall, 181 .
FOV, west wall 179.5 .

Figure 10. Virtual image of the intense auroral plasma column as 
determined from FOV directivity, viewing angle of inclination, and 
GPS surveys of petroglyphs worldwide, treated as `pixels' in this 
reconstruction. The column base is directed towards Antarctica. 
Not to scale. 

The Nazca-Palpa lines, by their orientation, contain significant data. In
chapter II `Order in the Nazca Lines' Aveni reports [11]: `Line Centers
consist of one or several natural hills or mounds topped by one or more
piles of boulders from which several lines of various widths eminate'.
`All seem to be situated on quite prominent headlands from which one can
see a considerable distance.'

The data from our surveys of lines and geoglyphs on the Palpa and Nazca
plains differ in no way from any other petroglyphs on Earth [6] (figure
12). All are located so that each has at least one south field-of-view
(SFOV) with the constraint that no object to the south subtends an
inclination off horizon to the observer of more than 31 ; nearly all fall
within the angles 24 ­31 . The lower value assures that the bright
synchrotron radiation at direct polar south is shielded from the
observer's eyes. This can be a southern mountain range or a local boulder.

Figure 13 also shows that the 28 Birkeland filaments were not in strict
synchronization with Earth's rotational velocity as they do not all fall
at the same positions. Nevertheless, the synchronization lasted long
enough for the synchrotron radiation lines shone on the Earth to allow
kilometer long lines to be marked and constructed. Clearly shown is the
convergence to four filaments, running approximately 238 ­58 and 165 ­342
(SW­NNE and SSE­NNW). A model of the final 4 current filaments flowing
towards Antarctica is depicted in figure 14. Shown in the center of this
picture is a representation of the constantly changing,
quadrupole-trapped, plasma.

Figure 9. Pictograph enclave. Top left: one of the authors recording FOV
information where the pictograph artist(s) worked.  Bottom left:
inclination measurements. Inclination 26.5 at left-of-center towards polar
south. Right: enclave pictographs.

An estimate for the currents in an intense aurora can be obtained from
[12]. For a strong circular aurora of diameter 5000 km, the total current
is about 7 MA. If this pertains to 28 filaments, each filament conducts
250 kA. Hence, the Bennett pinch criteria [1] are satisfied, and the
currents remain as pinched filaments.  A thousand-fold increase in current
in Gold's catastrophic scenario is 7 GA, or for 28 filaments, 250 MA
carried by each filament.  When reduced to four filaments, each conducts
1.75 GA.

Figure 15 shows two frames from a three-dimensional PIC code whose
geometry is that shown in figure 14. As the current increases, the
self-magnetic field around each filament produces a quadrupole trap into
which interstellar plasma is captured and heated (interstellar densities
are given in [3]). The white dots are the intense synchrotron light
sources. Time runs from left to right so that the `concave four-pointed
star' so recognizable to petroglyph surveyors, is shown to morph into
another familiar shape, the `dotted cross' quincunx at later time. Below
are quincunx petroglyphs found almost everywhere on Earth. The quincunx is
the most prolific symbol found in Meso-America.

Figure 11. Left: northern hemisphere petroglyphs from the Columbia River
Basin, 45.65 N, 121.95 W. Center: Oblique ground view into the plasma
column. Right: often depicted picture on a ceremonial cup from Ica, Peru
(date unknown).

Figure 12. Top: trapezoids and lines of the Palpa and Nazca plains at
350­500 m altitude. Bottom: view upwards into the plasma column shown in
figures 10 and 11 from a `camera' placed at the surface of the digital
Earth at latitude/longitude 14.24 S, 75.58 W (Nazca, Peru).  Photographs
by A Peratt.

Figure 13. In this figure, over 300 Nazca lines out of a total dataset of
1500 have been collected from their line centers and overlaid at a single
point. South at bottom.

While it is unknown if the quadrupole plasma ever reached fusion
temperatures, world mythology is replete with stories about a `hero
warrior' shooting an arrow (electrical discharge)  to extinguish it, thus
saving the parched land below.

Thus, we have an intense Z-pinch plasma initiated by a very large coronal
ejection whose relativistic electrons entered Earth's south axial pole and
hypervelocity protons impinging upon Earth's north axial pole [1, 6]. Like
the laboratory and computer simulations, the hollowed Z-pinch filamented
into 56 individual currents. Because of the Biot­Savart force law for
currents flowing in the same direction, the 56 filaments converged to a
quasi-static state of 28 thicker filaments. These wrapped around the
Earth, eventually converging to four ([6], figure 67).

The four currents produced a number of petroglyph morphologies not
discussed in [1] or [6], that is quincunx's, or in the simulation
terminology, 4-point symmetric patterns.  While the PIC simulation was run
for tens of thousands of cycles with some 32 million particles (scalable
at some point to real time), totally unexpected was the transition of the
4-point symmetric patterns to recognizable 3-point symmetric patterns.

Figure 16 left, shows a photograph of an incised stone collected from a
cache of others from a cave in the Nazca region. While only one of some
dozen stones we have examined, it is noteworthy in several aspects. The
incisions have repatined considerably indicating that the artwork is very
ancient. Across the head (headband) are 28 vertical lines, the number that
would have been seen at Nazca with its southern observation. The `face' on
the stone is that found in tens of thousands of artifacts from antiquity
at locations around the Earth such as on the Orinoco river (figure 6). The
face is often `stylized' by the local culture and appears to be
`sacrosanct' as one crafted and purchased in the 21st century most likely
has the same picture as one unearthed deep underground at an excavated
temple site.

Figure 14. Model of the orientation of the four Birkeland currents whose
self-magnetic fields produce a quadrupole trap that shapes, confines and
heats interstellar plasma within. Electrons in the direction of the
arrows; ions oppositely directed.

A comparison of a large number of these 3-point faces will be published
elsewhere but all have the same characteristics: a triangular face
(3-point) with long squinting eyes, and a very thin mouth (with or without
teeth). Perhaps the most prominent feature is the unique nose shape.  
Variations include ears, a mouth either frowning or smiling, and a body,
most usually of the Easter Island variety, and filaments or lines such as
hair and beards.

With regard to concurrently occurring disruptions at the north axial pole;
unlike the relativistic electrons tied to the Birkeland currents, the
hypervelocity protons are not constrained and would shower the arctic
region. While there is no geological reason to look for such impacts, the
north faces of rocks in the arctic should show signs of this bombardment,
the obliqueness of impact increasing as the northerly latitude decreases.

5. Conclusion 

A survey of petroglyph/pictograph sites containing some 4 million pieces
of rock art in 139 countries is found to show data concomitant with those
seen in multi-giga-ampere currents such as would be produced if a coronal
mass ejection 1 or 2 orders of magnitude of those measured today, as
suggested by Gold, were to have occurred in antiquity [2]. Corroboration
has been made with high-energy density plasma experiments and PIC computer
simulations.  Treating the worldwide surveyed data as pixels allows a
reconstruction of the current form: an intense Z-pinch whose relativistic
electrons were directed towards Antarctica and hypervelocity protons
towards the Arctic.

Figure 15. Top: interstellar plasma (center) confined within a quadrupole
trap produced by four parallel Birkeland currents (white dots, synchrotron
radiation from the four REBs directed outward). Time increases from left
to right. The quadrupoles self-magnetic fields are faintly seen around
each current. Bottom: associated quincunx's observed and carved by mankind
in antiquity. The white dots on the lower right figure highlight the
carver's indentations.

Figure 16. Left: incised stone found in a cave cache near Nazca. Right: 3D
PIC simulation of the plasma contained in a magnetic quadrupole geometry
at late simulation time. The contours represent isophotes of synchrotron
radiation, the intensity denoted by color variance.

Acknowledgments 

We thank the Mainwaring Archive Foundation, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in
association with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of
Pennsylvania, for supporting portions of this research and to the United
States Department of Energy, Defense Programs, for allowing access to
energy sources of magnitude equal to that of an intense aurora and the
computer facilities necessary to model it.  We also thank Professors P
Martin and J Puerta for their invitations to the VII and XII Latin
American Workshops on Plasma Physics, Caracas, Venezuela, and their
encouragement to write this paper.  We also express our gratitude to A
Chataing for twice making arrangements to travel to Bolivar and Amazonas
states in eastern Venezuela to document petroglyphs/pictographs in the
Canaima region and the Orinoco basin.

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