Chandre, I just put gimp on another computer, and I see I left out a step. When you run the program for the first time, you have to set up the palette selection.
Double click the eyedropper tool. Now the words "Color Picker" will show up down just below your main set of tools.
Just to the right of the words "Color Picker" there is a little arrow pointing toward "Color Picker."
Click on that little arrow.
This will bring up a drop down menu.
On the drop down menu, go to the selection: "Add Tab."
In the new group that pops up, go down to the selection: "Palettes" and click on that.
Now, just choose the most colorful palette at the top of the group of palettes, and double click on that.
Now your palette will appear and you can select a color by clicking on whichever one you like.
Later, when you come back and double click on the eyedropper/color picker tool, a little palette icon will appear just over the words "Color Picker." You can just click on that when you need to change colors, then double click from amongst the variety of palettes offered - then select your color.
Sorry I left this out, but I rarely use gimp, and didn't realize that I had already set up the palette.
My pleasure Can you explain to me how you do the colour highlighting bearing in mind I only have 'Paint' I've tried everything but I can't get it right and I want to colour-code the whole image to show you what I am thinking....
marsrocks, The pink highlight is brilliant, your image clarifies what I am seeing. I think the rock behind it split off at that point and the decoration would form part of a frieze on a pillar similar to the cave in India. The pink decor seems to correspond with an elevated area on the rock behind it and I think the bit of highlighted yellow decoration would have been on a capstone on top of it.
The glyphs you have highlighted I had not noticed as I had included them as part of the decor on the stone around the head, but you may be right and they are part of an inscription. I have highlighted the glyphs I am referring to as best I can....you will see that they seem to match the are just above the demons head and would have formed a solid carved inscription.
These are two crops taken from your original image.
This one has an interesting decorative looking carving
This one has three clear glyphs
The first glyph in in the middle of the two shadows and looks like an x, the second looks a bit like a palm tree and the third like an elongated number 3
The quality is still good even when enlarged. They are hauntingly similar to some of our own ancient scripts but not exactly the same so its hard to match them. Interesting though.....
Chandre, I'll take a stab at what you see with a caveat that this may be enlarged too much to really rely on what we see at this level. The first is a combined AN - then an A - then an r or a greek g.
My pleasure marsrocks. May I also suggest that you may want to be examining the glyphs on the rock behind the demons head. There are three clear characters there that deserve further discussion. I am including some earth-based glyphs as comparison.
Chandre, thanks for your input on this one. The images you have posted are more interesting the more I consider them - very interesting comparison. Thanks!
Marsrocks, well spotted on the flaps and protrusion from the eye. Your image is far more detailed than the one I am working with....
As for the demon/goddess image, I would like to supply you with some food for thought and a suggestion that you may be able to search the image for some of these details....
The legend is about the Goddess Durga and goes like this...
Durga is portrayed as the sixteen-armed slayer of a buffalo inhabited by the fierce demon Mahisha. A threat to the world, Mahisha was invincible. Even the Hindu gods who had challenged him could not kill him. In desperation they created the goddess Durga to be their champion and gave her their weapons. A missing right hand held the spear with which she is about to stab Mahisha. In her other right hands she holds an arrow, sword, chisel, hammer, thunderbolt, elephant goad, and war discus. The objects in her left hands are a shield, bow, bell, mirror, and noose. Durga has just severed the buffalo's head with her many weapons. Mahisha, in the form of a tiny, chubby man, his head backed by snake heads, emerges from the buffalo's decapitated body and looks up admiringly at the warlike but beautiful Durga even as his toes are being bitten by her lion. Durga smiles serenely as she hoists Mahisha by his hair and treads gracefully on the buffalo's body
The Statue this refers to is below
But I think you may prefer the image take from the cave dedicated to this battle (pay special attention to the demons shape of his head and headdress) ....
Chandre, thanks for the warm welcome from you and other forum members! It's pretty obvious we have common interests in trying to understand what we are seeing on Mars, and I am glad to get a chance to contribute my thoughts to the conversation.
I agree that the skull may well be composed of different structures, but even if so, they are all extremely close together.
One thing I noticed on the left-right views is that there appears to be triangular flap like structures in relation to each eye - one pointed up and one pointed down. Marked in green here:
There also appears to be a tiny object in front of or possibly projecting out of the eye closest to us:
I think that the nose is rounded with two nostrils, but it is warped off center, with one nostril much lower than the other. There is a slight angled flat area in front of the eye that may be considered a platform, but keep in mind, any part of the image showing as white probably represents lost detail, so it can't necessarily be interpreted as flat.
On the demon head, what gets me is that it seems to be a separate object on top of the larger object. How could it have remained there unless it is affixed somehow to the larger rock - especially if one assumes the geological explanation that these objects ("rocks") were ejected from a volcano and flung some distance to land here. If so, how did they stay together? There is so much symmetry in it from the crowned hat to the long chin attachment, it seems more of a crafted object than a rock.
Interesting take on the female face. If you come across some good comparison images, please post them. Thanks, again!
Wow marsrocks, excellent work (and the soundtrack rocks too)
Your work on the skull has made something apparant to me, although this is a 3d rounded object it does not appear to be a skull. The right 'eyesocket' appears to be some sort of a platform and the 'nose and chin' appear to be a seperate structure in front of the 'skull'.
Is it my imagination or had you also noticed that ?
The carved images you highlighted are clearly raised. I think CSI labs use a point system of some sort to identify a human face, I think someone on the forum raised the point that the tampering removes just enough of those to make it impossible for the conclusion to be drawn that these are definitely faces...but in this case the area of the demon head is raised enough to be distinquished from the rest of the rock and there is symmetry and ornamental detail in the head dress. I would agree with you. The female face is also clear to me and I have seen a similar carved style in temples in India, enough to agree that IMHO this looks like a temple/ceremonial carved relief of some sort, but in the end it would be up to each viewer to decide for themselves.
I am really enjoying your posts, thanks for joining the forum and sharing this with us