Rock Art

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I. We know who made some rock art but not most of the 15,000+ sites.

A.  It is in nearly every part of North America but 80% lie west of the Rockies.

1. The land east of the Rockies has more rain, fewer outcrops, more wooded terrain.

2. Petroglyphs and pictographs occur together but one form usually predominates a site.

3. Left on cliff sides, boulders, and in caves at all elevations.

4.  May or may not require craft specialization

B.  Possible uses include boundary markers (clan symbols), locations of caches of resources (some stashed, some natural), propitiation (rejuvenation and increase food supply), counts and mnemonic devices, marking the position of celestial bodies, memorialization (rites of passage), vanity.  Crystal trail markers lighted paths for safe passage under the moon and stars.

C. Absolute dating is difficult, relative is easier (as usual).

1. Lichen overgrowth.

2. Patination analysis (desert varnish).

3. Radiocarbon - drawbacks.

4. Observation and comparison of styles as in front view, particular geometric forms or emphasis on a negative space.

5. Analysis of subject matter, the appearance of the bow and arrow, for example, or the changes in the morphs.

 

II.  Types of Rock Art.

A. Geoglyph - geo = earth; glyph = sign

1.  Requires no tools, only the removal of desert varnish.

a.  outlined forms 60' height.

i.   turn rocks over to reveal lighter underside.

ii.  move rocks without turning them over to reveal lighter soil beneath.

B. Pictograph - picto = picture; graph = record

1.  Pigment and a binder on rock.

a. applied by mouth spray, hand brush, blowing dry powder onto a wet binder.

i. both positive and negative imagery

b. usually pigment is ground mineral, hematite (red), limonite (white or yellow), ocher (red or yellow), kaolin (white), charcoal (black).

c.  Usually the binder is animal fat, blood, egg

2.  Best example is Chumash cave paintings in the Ventura Mountains.

a.  perhaps represent phosphenes (a type of visual halucination/after image).

i.  perhaps made at the end of a Vision Quest.

b.  most now blown away by gun enthusiasts at target practice.  Remainder protected.

3.   Motte-Rimrock Reserve, Riverside, California.

a.  believed to be the site of a girl's puberty ceremony.

b. individual's handprints left in paint.

c. Dated at about 500 years, but big problems coming up with accurate dates.

III. Petroglyph - petro = stone; glyph = sign

1. Pecked, chipped, cut, incised into sandstone, basalt, granite by a hand-held harder stone called a hammer-stone.

a.  makes dating tough; lichen overgrowth and patination analysis most useful.

b.  some pecked more than 2 inches deep.  How and why?

i.  suggests rejuvination and renewal to some.

c.  subject to repatination, sluffing, vandalism, weathering.

 

 

 

 

2.  Main location is basalt Coso Range, China Lake Naval Air Station, Little Petroglyph Canyon.   No other site like this one.

a.  Settled by Shoshone (a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family) speakers by 6,400 BP.

i.  lake dwellers, village excavated.

ii.   communal hunters and gatherers with a small population.

iii.   appearance of bow and arrow brought a 280% increase in number of undulate bones.

iv.  rocks stacked on ridge lines like snowmen to give the appearance of hunters closing in.

b.  14,000 + images inventoried by 1968.

c.  in scattered locations with concentrations at 5,000 ft.

i.  easy access areas.

ii.   watering holes, blinds, box canyons.

iii.  images only of animals difficult to capture.

d.  Modern history.

i.  1st recorded description 1929 (very late).

ii.  NWC established 1943, access cut off.

iii.  1964 opened as a national monument.

e.  Imagery

i.  Early period - Big horn sheep predominate.

       aa.  only naturalistic representations

bb. profiles predominate.

ii.   Transition period - medicine bags begin to appear w/ sheep.

aa.  hooves eliminated.

bb.  bow and arrows appear

iii. Late period - boat shaped sheep

aa.   execution quite careful

bb. very stylized