Early one morning we were headed out along a well-travelled route that we’ve followed for the start of many adventures. This time, we noticed that we could clamber our way over into a small, semi-hidden little valley. When we did that, we found a cluster of boulders with a small habitation site tucked in among them.
This is one of the most awe-inspiring sites I’ve visited to date, because of the feeling of great age and meaning that surrounds this site – more so than most other sites I have been to. The volcanic tuff making up the boulders in this vicinity is relatively soft ( for rock! ) but also quite rough to the touch. Yet, at this site, a lot of the surface area is worn smooth and patinated. That is the kind of look only rock touched by human hands over a great period of time will acquire.
Some researchers speculated about the astronomical ties this site might have to the winter solstice, and estimated that the site may have first come into use at around 250 B.C. to 250 A.D. If true, that is an impressive age.
In Part 1 I posted about the pictographs that can be found at the “Diamond Solstice” site in Joshua Tree National Park. In this post, I will examine the theory of this site as a solstice observation site a little more.
This is a beautiful little site in Joshua Tree National Park that I first visited years ago. I’ve left off writing about it because I kept meaning to find out more about the rumors that this site has a “ray of light” pointing towards one of the elements on the summer solstice.
Well, I have some information about that for you too! Here, I will spend a post just looking at this site. While going back over my photos of the site, taken on multiple previous visits, I was struck by how pretty the site really is.
This companion site to the more well-known Red Lady or “Lone Woman of the Cave” site in Joshua Tree National Park is located in the same general vicinity.
It is also thought to depict the Chemehuevi legend of Tavapëtsi, the Sun, impregnating a woman with rays of sunlight ( specifically, the fan of light that can be seen shining down from the sun when the atmospheric conditions are just right ). The legend claims that the woman birthed twin sons for Tavapëtsi. In general, the legend is tied to the spring equinox and the period of fertility spring brings to nature.
These pictographs survive serendipitously on a now protected sliver of land in Tübatulabal territory, tucked onto the toes of a hill not all that far out of reach of the high water line of the reservoir that occupies the valley they are found in – and not too far away either from a roadway that plowed straight through at least one occupation site in the nearby vicinity. They could easily have fallen prey to encroaching build-up as well.
This pictograph site is perched on the eastern bank of a seasonal creek that runs southerly out of a stubby little valley. It is surrounded on three sides by steep peaks, and the site itself is nestled on the knee of the steep hillside above the creek bed. The boulder these pictographs are located on is larger than any others in the immediate vicinity. Continue reading