We happened upon a small pictograph site on a rather desolate hill in Kawaiisu territory one hot summer day. I had foolishly thought that, since the desert was out of bounds with inhumane temperatures, we could at least enjoy the foothills in early morning. Turned out I was really wrong! Boy! It was barely 10 in the morning and we were already sweating buckets in sweltering temperatures and looking forward to recuperating at a nice microbrewery on the way back home. Beware the summer, everyone!
Fortunately, discoveries can soothe the struggles of summer in a big way – and we made a pretty nice one. On a medium-size boulder that towered over its tiny companions in an extensive boulder field we found some interesting pictographs. I crouched down uncomfortably in front of the boulder to take some pictures while my companion ( who realized that the only patch of shade was straight in front of the pictographs, and I wouldn’t let him huddle there ) signaled that he was going to retreat to a shadier area to wait for me.
This was one of those sites where everything was pointy, so I had to hover in all kinds of contorted positions to get pictures. It is an interesting little site so it was worth it. Let’s have a look at what we found.
This oddly angular boulder has a pretty nice pictograph panel on the downward angled rock face, plus a second smaller element down closer to ground level.
Down below you have to kind of squint to see the pigment, especially when you visit on a bright, blazing day like we did.
DStretch shows a nice little Linear element.
The real star of the show is the larger panel sprawled across the top part of the boulder.
There are several Abstract elements in the panel. In the center we see an element reminiscent of the antropomorphs or zoomorphs at Ayers Rock, surrounded by lines that seem like they represent a larger creature or maybe a frame. This is interesting because this site is fairly close to an area historically associated with the suspected creator of the Ayers Rock site. Of equal interest are the two squiggly snake-like elements on either side of it. I’ve seen a similar design at the “Atomic Man” site.
At first glance the element on the right seems like a bisected circle – a very common element in this part of the world – but it obviously isn’t quite that shape. ( It actually looks rather like the greek letter phi. ) The pictograph to the left, which looks like a smaller zoomorph enclosed within the body cavity of a larger being, is very interesting. These elements remind me strongly of the two sites I mentioned above, Ayers Rock and “Atomic Man“. If this site provides a link between those two sites, both by its location and its similarity with elements at those sites, I think that makes this site even more intriguing.
Well! That was what we found. I hope you enjoyed seeing these pictures! If you visit this site in person, be sure to respect it. These symbols had meaning for the person who created them. Respect the history and the people behind this site.