Several years ago, we travelled through Western Mono territory and visited a few pictograph sites. I had somehow not gotten around to writing about this site until now.
The Western Mono took that name from anthropologists, but they are the Ním, and they’ve lived here on the western slope of the Sierra for a long time, trading with the Yokuts, visiting the Central Valley for hunting, fishing, reed gathering for basketry, and also crossing the Sierra to the east to visit and trade with the tribes there – obtaining acorns, pine nuts, and wood suitable for arrow shafts in exchange for obsidian, rabbit skins, and other items.
This site forms part of a larger, better known site, but it is extensive enough to write about on its own. Let’s look!
There are some very faded panels at this site. At first glance this looked like a bare rock face, but there is some faint pigment here, so let’s take a close look.That’s too precisely shaped to be natural. Looks like a bisected circle!Nearby, a rock appears to have some shallow mortar starts or cupules on it, as well as what appears to be a cupule spanning a crack in the rock. This was a habitation site as well.Another very faint element on a nearby rock face.That’s a tiny little pictograph. Later on, I took an overview picture of the same area, and found something interesting.A delicate little rake element, now almost completely worn away. This is why I take great care at any site to not touch any surface. You never know what is still there but was missed at first glance.Nearby there is a neat little abstract pictograph panel, literally tucked away in a corner.At first glance the polychrome panel features white and red pigment, but closer inspection suggests that some of the black backdrop may be black pigment instead of natural color on the rock face. In particular, close to the center of the photograph there is a black line extending out over a lighter colored area. Also note the little oval-shaped pictograph down below.A DStretch close-up of the little element.An overview of the entire panel.This theme of hiding pictographs in out of the way corners continue a little further along. Another polychrome panel, this time black and orange to red, hides in a corner. Look closely at this photo – there is more than just the obvious panel here.There are a few very faded handprints over to the left of the panel. Wow!Cranking up the dials on Dstretch to see those handprints a little more clearly.A DStretch close-up of the panel, which features simple red or orangish figures, some of them outlined in black.And a natural-color look, before we step away.Another mortar reminds us that people lived here.It’s a really nice location.The final panel we’ll look at for this site is a vibrant polychrome panel. Also present is a boulder with three very narrow, deep mortars on it, here visible in the lower center.A nice look at the mortars. Also visible is the very bottom of the panel we’ll see shortly. There are even some elements hidden under the overhang, inches off of the ground.This panel has several anthropomorphs, as well as other abstract designs that occur frequently in this area.DStretch isolates and highlights the red pigment. In addition to the anthropomorphs, there is also a burst element and, to the right, parallel lines. It looks like the more saturated designs were drawn with a finger dipped in pigment, including the lines, which may have been made by dragging several fingers down the rock face.The far right side of the panel.With DStretch. The two rightmost lines are much better saturated that the leftmost two. Maybe this was made with the left hand and more pressure applied to the stronger digits ( index finger and middle finger ) or maybe the two sets of lines were drawn separately.The lower part of the panel. Red features prominently, but this is a polychrome panel. Let’s use some different DStretch algorithms to highlight different parts of the panel.By placing emphasis on the red pigment, we see that there’s a faint fishbone design, upper left, with a small bisected circle below it. Other interesting findings include that the anthropomorph, top right, has digitate hands, and that there is a dragonfly-like figure lower left. I also really like the headless anthropomorph in center right – it is very dynamic.With this DStretch enhancement I’d like to point out something that was hinted at in the previous enhancement. Notice the pattern of orange dots, a semi-circle filled in with dots, lower right. The dynamic anthropomorph was superimposed on these dots, and with this enhancement we get hints that it does have a ( yellow ) head. In general it looks like the red pigment is superimposed over the other colors. Finally, if we target black pigment with DStretch, we see the orange dots more clearly. In fact, it looks like the element might be a black and orange element, with the rock face around the dots colored in with black pigment. That could be the natural color of the rock, but this DStretch enhancement hints at a complex element – the dynamic figure leaping upwards with a net-like shape billowing out below it.Further over on the left, we find more evidence of black pigment, strengthening the possibility that the right side of the panel also includes black pigment. Look closely at this picture to identify the black pigment before checking out the Dstretch enhancement that follows.There is a lot of black pigment in this area! The big black burst element was easiest to see, but also check out the abstract shapes below it. There seems to be about three shapes there – kind of like stacked circles.This grouping of elements is the most detailed on the panel, so let’s have a closer look at them.With DStretch, showing the orange element as well. There’s also some white pigment present on this panel, splattered over the other elements.If we move way over to the far left, we can see another anthropomorph, as well as some orange pigment under the lip of a shallow overhang.Something interesting about that anthropomorph, made more vivid with DStretch – it was painted with two different kinds of pigment. The other kind shows up yellow in this enhancement.Somehow, every picture I took of this grouping of elements was at least somewhat blurry. Here’s the best one I have. These elements are also multi-colored, with red and white pigment, blurred together in places to form orange or pinkish red. You can also see one of the black elements next to this figure.
Well, that is all the pictures I have to share. We visited this site during a smoky, hot summer several years ago. I can’t believe it took me this long to process the pictures for it!
As with all these sites, don’t visit here lightly. Respect the people who made this site, for whom the images held a meaning that we don’t know, who lived here for a long time. Also think of the land itself, sustaining life and growth through the centuries. Without healthy land to nourish the complicated ecosystems that provide food, clean water, and oxygen, we would not be here.
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6 thoughts on ““The Cure” Pictographs”
Richard Molinar
How interesting. We visited this site 1.5 months ago and saw most of the markings you found several years ago. Pretty sure the park nor the tribal council knew they were even there. We had a suspicion, thanks to your posts of what to look for at possible sites, and they were confirmed, thanks to dStretch
(also from your posts). What a fantastic tool. However, you seem to be able to do more magic to reveal even more than we are able to using the 8 options.
Some of them are pretty well hidden, aren’t they! I also found that the site being in shade made it harder to see some of the most hidden ones, under overhangs or all the way back in a crack.
As for using DStretch – the app version of DStretch comes pre-programmed with 8 very useful options, which I use a whole lot out in the field. But I also take along a couple of DSLR cameras, of which one is a full-frame camera, and use the desktop version of DStretch at home. That allows fine-tuning the enhancement, which in turn allows for hunting down the most elusive, most faded, or most unusually colored pictographs. It can take me many hours to process a single site visit!
It used to be that you could put the DStretch algorithm on Canon DSLRs, which would have been useful if my cameras weren’t Nikon :-), but I find that the app is great for at least finding where some panels are.
What a fun coincidence that I posted this right before you’re headed that way! I did look around a little past the main site but the place was a zoo when I was there, and I never want to be seen poking around in odd spots when there’s a lot of people around who might start finding out what I am up to. I keep meaning to head back during quiet times ( so not summer, and not weekends! ).
Looking forward to learning if you found anything more.
Sadly no other finds today. The area we attempted to explore was not a day use area, so we couldn’t park and look around. It was also filled with tons of muggles.
That’s one of the things I love about areas like JTNP or the Mojave preserve. Sure, select areas are off limits, but overall, the desert is wide open to roam through. And we’ve laid down many miles of footprints and visited many great sites in those areas.
I’ve been chomping at the bit to hit some of the higher elevation forest roads but the ones I’m eyeing are still closed while damage from the high snow year is being mitigated.
How interesting. We visited this site 1.5 months ago and saw most of the markings you found several years ago. Pretty sure the park nor the tribal council knew they were even there. We had a suspicion, thanks to your posts of what to look for at possible sites, and they were confirmed, thanks to dStretch
(also from your posts). What a fantastic tool. However, you seem to be able to do more magic to reveal even more than we are able to using the 8 options.
Some of them are pretty well hidden, aren’t they! I also found that the site being in shade made it harder to see some of the most hidden ones, under overhangs or all the way back in a crack.
As for using DStretch – the app version of DStretch comes pre-programmed with 8 very useful options, which I use a whole lot out in the field. But I also take along a couple of DSLR cameras, of which one is a full-frame camera, and use the desktop version of DStretch at home. That allows fine-tuning the enhancement, which in turn allows for hunting down the most elusive, most faded, or most unusually colored pictographs. It can take me many hours to process a single site visit!
It used to be that you could put the DStretch algorithm on Canon DSLRs, which would have been useful if my cameras weren’t Nikon :-), but I find that the app is great for at least finding where some panels are.
Heading there tomorrow. Since there is more than the main site, I wonder if they spread out farther than even this?
What a fun coincidence that I posted this right before you’re headed that way! I did look around a little past the main site but the place was a zoo when I was there, and I never want to be seen poking around in odd spots when there’s a lot of people around who might start finding out what I am up to. I keep meaning to head back during quiet times ( so not summer, and not weekends! ).
Looking forward to learning if you found anything more.
Sadly no other finds today. The area we attempted to explore was not a day use area, so we couldn’t park and look around. It was also filled with tons of muggles.
Oh, too bad!
That’s one of the things I love about areas like JTNP or the Mojave preserve. Sure, select areas are off limits, but overall, the desert is wide open to roam through. And we’ve laid down many miles of footprints and visited many great sites in those areas.
I’ve been chomping at the bit to hit some of the higher elevation forest roads but the ones I’m eyeing are still closed while damage from the high snow year is being mitigated.