This is one of the most extensive sites I’ve visited to date. I have been on the lookout for it for a while, managing to narrow down my search via scraps of information gathered here and there … and also, mainly, by the time-honored tradition of simply not finding it, over and over! ( Hey – knowing where it isn’t also counts as narrowing down the search, right? )
The view up the draw. The boulders in the foreground are at the southern edge of the site, which extends northwards towards the pass in the left center of the picture.
When I finally found it, I did it all backwards, so to speak.
The orientation of this site is definitely such that, should you approach it from the south, you’ll see almost all the petroglyphs on the boulders facing you.
However, I traveled in from the north and so all the elements were on the backs of the boulders as I walked past them, which in a way was an even more dramatic reveal.
The hunting blind is in the foreground and the site extends up to the notch at the top right.
This site is located at the top of a draw in the Volcanic Tablelands. There are many such draws scattered in that region, leading up from the lower lying areas through the scattered breccia boulders to the higher shelves.
Some researchers have described this site as a hunting and hunting magic site, and there are certainly some properties of the site that offer compelling support to that argument.
For one thing, it definitely lies along a deer migration path.
I visited in fall and observed firsthand multiple fresh deer tracks leading right through it. The boulders would have made excellent ambush points. There is also a stone hunting blind at the entrance.
Deer tracks leading up towards the site. This picture was taken in fall.
Nonetheless, there are also researchers who frown on interpreting any of the Great Basin sites as “hunting magic” sites, in part because the ethnographic record doesn’t support it.
I tend to take a relaxed view, the privilege of the amateur – the way I see it we don’t really know so we can only put forth theories and see if we can find evidence in support. I would agree that it would be a stretch to say many of the sites in the area were hunting magic sites when the petroglyph designs present are so obviously entoptic, but I would also say that the persistent depiction of prey animals and hunting makes me think that at least some of the sites had ties to hunting and were intended to ensure hunting success.
Now, let’s take a look at the site!
The first boulder.
This first group of petroglyphs was shown at a distance in the overview picture. They are at the southernmost edge of the site, quite a bit downslope from the main panels.
The first sloping boulder has a sharp Rectilinear grid design on it as well as several small circles, sometimes bisected and sometimes not. Most of these circles are connected by lines.
Both of these elements, the Rectilinear grid as well as the circles, are common entoptic patterns. So the very first elements we consider from this site do not support the hunting magic theory.
A different angle on the first boulder. The grid pattern is lower center. There is a small, varnished surface in the upper center of the photo that has some designs on it, in particular a spoked circle design. The large boulder at the rear has many petroglyphs on its sides, though they are hard to see in this picture.
The angular boulder in the background has many eroded petroglyphs on its surface. It is a truly magnificent ruin, towering over the site, richly carved. In the foreground is a Curvilinear symbol that almost appears zoomorphic, like an animal with a long, curved neck, four legs and a tail. ( No, not a brontosaurus! )
A closer look at the varnished little boulder with the spoke design we saw earlier. There is more to this picture than meets the eye …
As we’ll see when we come to later photos of the site, the designs weren’t all created at the same point in time.
There is quite a bit of superimposition of elements in other areas, and in general the Representational elements overlay the Rectilinear and Curvilinear symbols.
It is of course the Representational elements ( depictions of animals or people ) that are tied to “hunting magic”. So perhaps this site was first known as an area of power, during which time entoptic designs were carved, and then later on it was reinterpreted as a hunting site, with the older symbols disregarded.
If you thought the spoked design looked a little ruddy, you were right! DStretch shows that red ochre pigment was rubbed into the designs at some point.
As shown to the left, one of the petroglyphs in this first design was enhanced with red pigment at some point. This design as well as many other at this site exhibit this curious and rather rare decoration.
Both Curvilinear and Representational elements are pigmented, so the addition of color doesn’t follow a simple pattern such as enhancing ( or maybe neutralizing ) certain designs.
Another view of the first boulder from and angle that shows the elements to the right of the Rectilinear grid. Also pay attention to what is peeking out at the very top of the picture.
Yes, the top of the boulder has many mortar holes!
This site appears to have been a true multi-use site.
In addition to possible ritualistic or shamanistic use of this site, suggested by the older Rectilinear and Curvilinear designs, we also have the hunting angle to consider, based on this site’s location on a migration trail and by some of the elements we’ll see later. Finally, there is the habitation angle to be considered, as shown by the well-worn mortars atop this boulder.
There are some mortars in other parts of the site as well, always on boulders with petroglyphs.
Further upslope from this group of boulders and from the hunting blind shown in an earlier picture is the main part of the site. Here several large boulders block the draw, allowing passage only though narrow gaps. These boulders are heavily carved with petroglyphs, many of them rubbed with red pigment.
Let’s start off slow, with the smallest and least impressive of the boulders in the upper part of the draw. The petroglyphs on this boulder have all been rubbed with pigment.
The red pigment allows us the luxury of using DStretch to make the designs crystal clear. By heavily targeting the red pigment, we get a very clear picture of the designs.
The DStretch enhancement above allows us to study the designs closely. The motif of circles and lines is common in the area. We also have a small rake element in the center of the picture. To the right of it is an indistinct symbol. Despite its vague shape, this symbol was vigorously rubbed with pigment and shows that color better than any of the other symbols on the boulder.
This boulder gives a clue to the age of this site. Lichen have grown on the boulder since the petroglyphs were made. In an arid environment like this lichen growth can be very slow, maybe to the tune of a quarter inch a century. The symbol on the lower portion of this boulder is speckled with several small colonies. This gives us a floor for likely age of the petroglyphs – three to four centuries at the youngest.
There is a centipede-like Rectilinear symbol at the left edge of this picture. Just to the right of the “centipede” are two simpler elements that might normally be lost in the clutter but are nonetheless worth taking a closer look at.
First, the indistinct little cross shape next to the “centipede” is mirrored again, much larger, in the lower center of this very panel.
Second, the boat-like shape just below the little cross might be a Coso-style bighorn sheep.
Regarding the larger cross shape at the lower center, this motif of a cross with the upright ending in a solid circle is not unique. It also occurs, at the very least, at the Swansea Petroglyph site further south, as well as much farther south-south-west at the Pot Shot Petroglyph site.
These petroglyphs appear very aged – many of them are eroded, not sharply etched like they would have been when they were freshly made. That said, they are carved on soft breccia and this draw definitely functions as a bit of a wind tunnel. Some of the sloped rocks had fine sand nestled in the mortars and in the designs themselves. Therefore this site might only be a few centuries old and heavily weathered because of natural conditions, not age.
There is another boulder right across from the one shown above. Its southern side is steeply sloped at the corner and then forms a lip behind which the top of the boulder is quite flat. Both the sloped side and the back of the lip at the top are decorated with petroglyphs. Once again these petroglyphs are colored with faded red ochre pigment.
The sloped boulder directly across from the boulder we just looked at.
DStretch clearly shows the petroglyphs on this boulder are also painted.
The lower right portion has a large Rectilinear design on it.
DStretch helps with the contrast between the reddish boulder and the reddish pigment.
A view of the same boulder from a higher vantage. The previously shown panel is at the lower right. There are some designs along the top of the sloped face shown here.
DStretch lends a helping hand.
The view of the sloped face of the boulder from above. Here the elements along the top are more clearly shown.
DStretch strikes again! The design here consists of several circles connected by lines. This simple theme is used on the boulder directly across from this one, on other panels at this site, and at many, many others sites in the region. Note that there also appear to be some petroglyphs on the lip of the rock at the bottom of this picture.
Here is the petroglyphs on the back of the lip. Part of the design just right of center was visible in the previous picture. The boulder with the “centipede” pattern is in the background at the center of the photo.
With DStretch these petroglyphs appear to be quite interesting. There are two zoomorphs, probably deer, facing away from each other and each with an accompanying element to the left. The element on the far left looks a bit like an anthropomorph, doesn’t it?
The leftmost figure of the scene on the back of the rocky lip atop the boulder.
The pictographs painted on the back of the boulder seem to tell a little story – a story tied in with the possible use of this site as a hunting site. We can see two zoomorphs, probably deer, and one figure that definitely looks like a hunter!
Could this be an example of the supposed “hunting magic”?
Yes, with DStretch added this does look like a human figure squaring off against a deer.
This lip shields one from the ground below if you crouch down. Any deer using this draw to ascend to the plateau beyond would pass right below, either to the left or to the right of the boulder you are on.
It is hard to imagine a better perch for a hunter.
Does this mean anything? I don’t know.
After my visit I would say that this site exhibits multiple features that makes it seem as if at least some of its petroglyphs were aimed towards hunting.
A closer look at the adversary / prey.
The two most compelling features in support of the hunting magic theory are this panel and the hunting blind constructed a little downslope from this boulder.
It would have made a perfect ambush point!
Of course, many – in fact the majority! – of the elements at the site are entoptic – patterns that are seen in the mind’s eye when under the influence of hallucinogenic substances.
With DStretch, the figure’s simple elegance is revealed. Just a few strokes depicts a dynamic figure.
That pushes us back towards the more recent interpretation of these sites as ritual sites, or as sites where vision quests were recorded.
In the end, this is another of those cases where we have to say “we don’t know”.
It is very tempting to see only the hunting magic aspect of this site – that fits in well with our ideas about the region’s past.
The second symbol-and-deer pair.
Also, we can identify more easily with hunting and food procurement than we can with the more spiritual aspects of a vision quest. In Western culture we do not have a handy analogue for a vision quest upon which to draw and by which to get excited about when thinking about what this site meant to the people who created it long ago.
In this case, the leftmost figure is not an anthropomorph. The deer is a simple shape yet gives the impression of being spooked by and moving away from the figure behind it. Like the first deer this one’s hind quarters are exaggerated.
The petroglyphs on the back of this rocky lip are very shallowly pecked – barely there. Either they are very old and had almost eroded away when they were brought back by being carefully filled in with pigment, or they were shallowly made in the first place and then colored.
The breccia is quite porous so it is also possible that they were deeply pecked and painted and have eroded away over time, with the pigment soaking deep into the rock so that it could hang on even as the soft rock surface was worn away.
This spiral shape is pecked a little to the left of the elements we just looked at.
I think this third possibility is unlikely: my experience with pigment is that it usually doesn’t do very well out in the open and tends to fade rather quickly – meaning in a matter of centuries as opposed to millennia.
DStretch shows that the spiral is accompanied by some small circles.
Also, in order for the pigment to soak deep into the rock the designs would have had to be painted very “wetly”, leaving plenty of pigment to be drawn into the rock. The precision with which these figures are painted makes that very unlikely: there would have been some runs from the wet medium somewhere. I am more inclined to think that the paint was applied relatively sparsely.
I have no guess at the age of these petroglyphs, by the way. The deer are fairly close in form to Cosos petroglyphs and the distinctive boat style of the bighorn sheep depicted in that region but they are also more realistic than the Cosos style, so there isn’t a ready parallel to draw.
As mentioned, the breccia is soft and prone to erosion, so the fact that these petroglyphs are often quite eroded does not mean that they are ancient.
The migration trail they are on may well be ancient, though. Researchers have followed it and others like it back into the Sierras and found that they were often well-worn, a half foot or deeper in places. Given the light steps of deer it would have taken many repeated journeys to wear these deep paths in the earth’s surface.
Moving on from this boulder, there is another boulder nestled close to its eastern side with another narrow passageway between it and the next one over. This gap is also lined with many petroglyphs. These densely decorated boulders are the crown jewels of the site.
The sides of these two boulders are richly carved. Again, these petroglyphs are also painted with pigment.
DStretch shows the numerous designs vividly. There are several deer in the panel. One is very faded, but visible just above the top center of the left panel. To its right is a deer very similar to those on the lip of the boulder we already discussed, with large hind quarters. A third deer is located just right of center in the right panel. Besides these deer the panels have numerous Curvilinear and Rectilinear designs.
A look at the lower leftmost panel. In person these designs can be difficult to see since the pigment has faded to the same pinkish color as the boulders themselves.
DStretch is able to latch onto the remaining pigment and pop the designs out. Several of these designs are very deeply carved. The Rectilinear symbol that looks like a gridiron in the center of the picture is particularly deeply carved, with V-shaped grooves. The circle with inner lines in the lower right above the meander line is also very deeply carved. This picture shows the faint deer design, top center, better. Bisected circles and squiggle lines are also present. Finally, the very bottom center of the boulder contains a zoomorph, possibly an anthropomorph.
Now for a closer look at the right panel. The boulder is quite large and the designs extend up to about five feet off the ground. Note the deeply carved circle symbol lower left that was referred to previously.
Here is the same picture with a liberal dose of DStretch. The deer in the lower right center seems to be galloping amidst a dynamic tangle of symbols. A lot of these petroglyphs are deceptively simple Curvilinear symbols, flowing together in a tangled mass.
The boulder with the dramatic panels is at the center of this picture. This is the view from lower in the draw. The boulder in the lower-left foreground also has petroglyphs on it. The petroglyphs on the foreground boulder do not have any red pigment rubbed into their grooves. Fine sand has settled into those designs, testimony to the fact that the wind can howl up this draw, bringing sand with it to rub away at the petroglyphs.
The view to the left from the same vantage as the previous picture. More of the lower boulder is visible lower right. In addition to the petroglyph designs, there are also three modest bedrock mortars ground into its sloped side. All three are filled with sand. The triangular boulder resting on top continues the petroglyphs-with-pigment trend. To give more context to how this site is laid out, note that the boulder in the background at left was examined previously. It is the one with the lichen on it.
DStretch! The patterns on this boulder are entoptic. The Rectilinear rake at the top has connected circles coming out of its side and a single line connects it with a fan shape below. This fan shape, made of nested lines, is also a common entoptic symbol. Next up is a burst element sporting a connected circle, and several other circles and lines. Down below, a galloping deer’s front feet melt into a bulbous extension. Some wind-scoured symbols trail away to the left. At the very bottom the boulder’s sharp point is decorated with seven colored cupules.
The lower boulder. Its worn designs include circles filled with grid patterns and Curvilinear designs.
One last look at the lower boulder’s southern face. The three little mortars and some of the circular designs are clearly visible. In the lower right corner is a single dot with some pigment in it.
Before we move on to the next panel, this picture shows where these panels are in relation to the lip with the deer on it that we looked at before. One of the deer carved on that lip of rock is visible in the center left of the picture – click the picture for a large view if you cannot readily see it.
We’ve stepped yet further down slope. The boulders to the left are ones we’ve already examined. Our new target is the boulder in the foreground, which also has petroglyphs rubbed with pigment.
Dstretch is very handy whenever pigment is involved. Now we can clearly see the Rectilinear element on the lower left of the boulder, as well as the numerous circles with connecting lines and the rake-like element towards the top left of this boulder. Center right is another circle with a grid pattern, with another rake element just to the left of it. Yes, this boulder also exhibits multiple entoptic pictures, the three deer images towards the dead center notwithstanding.
Let’s start by looking at the elements on the top part of this boulder. The westering sun casts the carvings into relief.
DStretch is helpful as always. We have some indistinct Curvilinear elements at the top center of the picture and some rather more interesting ones middle to lower left. Almost dead center is a nice rattlesnake presentation. The rattlesnake was considered a shaman’s helper and often guarded the entryway to vision quests. Just to the right of it is two connected circles, very typical entoptic pictures. The rake element, that mainstay of hallucinogenic visions, needs no introduction in the left center.
On the far right corner of this boulder is a deeply incised circle with a grid pattern. There is also a large rake-like element in the center. On either side of this element is a deer galloping towards the right. The rake element is carved into a corner of the boulder.
DStretch shows all of this more clearly: The grid-filled circle on the right, the rake element on the rock face directly facing the camera, and the two deer to the left and right of that rake symbol. To the left of the Y-shaped element in lower center ( the two connected circles ) is a Rectilinear element, also with an adjacent connected circle such as we’ve seen before. Above this element is a third deer and some smaller elements.
Let’s look at the Rectilinear element and its companions more closely. Note how this element sports a lichen patch almost dead center. The lichen took hold after the element was carved and pigmented.
DStretch! The deer element appears almost rabbit-like in this close-up view.
To the right of the smaller elements, right on the corner of the boulder, is another deer.
This deer probably forms an entoptic picture too. Its forelegs are elongated into a snake-like squiggle line.
The deeply carved circle with vertical lines, thrown into relief by the sun.
One more fresh angle on this boulder before we step away from it. This picture faces the panel, and looks almost due east. The sun is right behind us in fall, close to the equinox.
I personally like to look at pictographs or pigmented petroglyphs with DStretch just for the details it lifts out. Here we can see almost all the elements on this boulder one more time.
We’ve almost covered this site. Here is the last large group of elements, close to the eastern edge.
Just to the left of this boulder is the one we just looked at. Behind it are a couple more boulders, including the very first pigmented boulder with the lichen on it at the very left.
The lower portion of the boulder is the most densely decorated part.
DStretch shows us a wagon-wheel and some entoptic patterns.
The upper portion of the boulder has another circle with a grid interior, and way up in the top left of the picture, a pattern of dots that does not have any pigment rubbed into it.
Rounding out the site: a panel of eroded, carefully pecked circular and Rectilinear elements. This is the only picture I have of this particular panel: a bad oversight! Based on the background I’d say this is at the southern edge of the site close to the other elements that weren’t pigmented that we started off with. In addition to the Rectilinear grid – a very typical entoptic pattern – we also have concentric circles and circles filled with horizontal lines. All of these patterns are common entoptic pictures.
At the very top of the site, this Representational dragonfly was pecked on the back of a boulder.
This site is truly beautiful, decorated with many petroglyphs. It manages to hang on untouched in a sea of vandalism and disrespect and I am glad to have found it pristine when I visited. I hope that it will remain unscathed, ready to awe future visitors.
If you do learn its exact location and visit, please be very respectful and be careful about divulging its whereabouts. People who care about these sites tend to put in the leg work to find them and leave them behind undamaged.
This site is called “River View” by others. The petroglyphs are ancient, but the paint is recent. Done by a Paiute with mud from the Coso Hot Springs.
That’s a nicer name than I had for it! I would be very curious to learn more about the overpainting, if anything is available.