So I'm going thru my backlog of images I need to eyeball and decide to stitch a 'panorama' of a rock imaged by the Right MastCam on SOL 1077. Using 8 images (1077MR0047370010600161E01_DXXX-1077MR0047370080600168E01_DXXX), I zoomed-in really tight to check how smoothly the edges were joined and noticed a row of 5 dots in the sand next to the rock.

The dots turned out to be holes in the sand.

My first thought was that they were made by one of the sensors on Curiosity's robotic arm, but after much digging around I can't find any image that shows such a row of studs/rods on the robotic arm that could cause this all-but perfectly straight holes.

My question then is does anyone know of any intrument on the robotic arm that could leave this mark in the sand?

In processing the NASA RAW 1073MR0047220000600078E01_DXXX.jpg

Original NASA Link: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01073/mcam/1073MR0047220000600078E01_DXXX.jpg

All the other images are linked in the "Links" section below.

SOL 1073 Right MastCam  I realized there might be an opportunity to get some idea of the actual size of objects in the photo. So, using camera azimuth/elevation data I found a NavCam photo that fit the bill.

SOL 1073 NavCam image Combining the images shows relative sizes only, but I'm guestimating that the largest rock in MR 1073..078E01 is about the same size as a baseball, or maybe a softball.

SOL 1073 MastCam photo in NavCam context. Which is pretty interesting in it's way. But not nearly as interesting as the possibility of scripted language embossed on the stone, as this rotated and cropped image shows...

Cropped portion of 1073MR..078E01. Is this a written language? Notice that the silvery-blue part casts shadows on the stone, thus is lying on rather than being part of, the stone; and the different color imples that it is a different type of material. 

According to Omniglot-

Writing systems can be divided into two main types: those that represent consonants and vowels (alphabets), and those which represent syllables (syllabaries), though some do both. There are a number of subdivisions of each type, and there are different classifications of writing systems in different sources.
Abjads / Consonant Alphabets
Alphabets
Syllabic Alphabets / Abugidas
Syllabaries
Semanto-phonetic writing systems
Undeciphered writing systems

I can't tell if this is some form of hieroglyphics or what. I'd want a much sharper/larger image to do much detailed analysis, so for right now I'm just saying it's "Undeciphered."

Thanks for reading!