This site, in Serrano territory in Joshua Tree National Park, was an accidental discovery on our part. We just headed out semi-randomly, on a “Let’s see what’s out there!” quest, and after a while our wandering took us down a narrowing wash lined with uninspiring rock piles. We wondered whether we would end up with a dud of a trip!
As we picked our way past yet another obstacle, enthusiasm waning, a troop of rock climbers came up behind us. I didn’t feel like being surrounded by a gaggle of strangers in the middle of nowhere so I suggested we turn back and walk down a different, larger wash we passed a while back instead.
We waved to the climbers ( who seemed as surprised to find us out there as we were to see them. I guess you always assume – or hope – that you will have nature all to yourself when you step off the beaten path ) and retraced our steps.
That turned out to be a good call. Barely a hundred yards down this new wash we struck pay dirt in a big way!
The pictograph boulder, viewed from the side.
The pictograph boulder, seen from a different angle. The pictographs are painted in a wide band just above the darker discoloration of the upper hollow and also in the hollow underneath the upper shelf.
There was a nice big boulder sitting in the new wash, just the kind that is worth investigating.
And it had not just one, but two hollows! Both were covered in pictographs and petroglyphs.
The shelf forming the floor of the upper hollow is slanted and slick, about seven feet off the ground. I sure would not have liked perching up there to create these designs!
Petroglyphs overlay pictographs. There is a lot of detail here.
The pictographs are all in red. This is fairly common for this area and for pictographs in general.
Red pigment is usually made from hematite, and was often held sacred by the tribes that used it.
Why was red paint held sacred?
The legends of the Caihullia, who lived in this area, offers up a reason as part of their creation myth. Here is a version of it. Keep in mind that this legend about the origins of the pigment was likely in the mind of this site’s creators when they painted these images.
There’s a very nice squiggle line in the upper right of the panel, as well as numerous entoptic images.
Caihullia creation myth:
First there were twin boys, Mo-Cot and Tem-ma-ya-wit.
Mo-Cot then created other people, and also created Coyote, who features prominently in many of the first people’s myths.
The Rectilinear element in the upper center was carefully drawn, with very regular spacing. Fresh-looking petroglyphs overlay it.
Mo-Cot taught his people to make the bow and arrow: things the people could kill each other with.
Because of the bow and arrow and the killing of other people that Mo-Cot brought to them, the people decided that Frog should poison Mo-Cot, which he did. Mo-Cot died, and his people cried for the first time when their father died.
There is another rake element here, as well as some parallel wavy lines. The pictographs are well-preserved.
They sent Coyote to fetch fire, so they could burn their father who was dead. Coyote was powerful and he fetched them Rockfire and Sunfire, which they used to make a fire to burn their father who was dead.
Coyote did not know that this was what they would do, and when he saw them burning his father he was dismayed and ran to get to the body of his father before it was all burned.
Some very delicate pictographs in the lower right. Much of the panel is taken up with somewhat faded petroglyphs, but there are also some starkly fresh petroglyphs overlaid on them and the pictographs. This site was apparently used repeatedly over time.
But the people stood around the fire and gave him no chance to reach his father. Some people were tall and some people were short, so Coyote could jump over the shoulders of the shorter people, jump right to the fire. He then scattered the embers, and he found the heart of his father, for the heart is always the last to burn. He snatched up the heart of his father and he ran away with it.
This cupule, part of the upper panel, has pigment rubbed into it.
When Coyote snatched his father’s heart, he ran to the coast with it. But at times he grew tired, and he laid down to rest, and when he did this he laid down the heart of his father also, and wherever he laid it down, the blood left red stains on the ground. Those marks remain today, and that red ground is good ground: good for medicine, good for paint, good for many things. And that is why the people make paint from this ground, and why the paintings are sacred.
This is the story that the Caihullia told about the red hematite and the red paint made from it.
The red pigment was mixed with a variety of binding agents – water, egg, yucca sap, animal fat, even things such as blood or urine – and applied to the rock using a finger tip or a brush made of plant material.
The designs at this site include a wide variety of motifs, such as connected circles, rakes, diamond chains and squiggle lines, that are also found elsewhere in the region.
Some, like the diamond motifs, have a known association with female puberty rites in Southern California, and perhaps have the same association here.
Other motifs, like the rake-like elements or the grid-like designs, are the kind of imagery a person would see in their mind’s eye when under the influence of hallucinogenic substances.
Some tribes had the participants in puberty ceremonies paint panels of their vision quests during their rites. These vision quests could be brought about by ingesting hallucinogenic substances or by physical duress such as sweat lodges or spending time laying down, buried to the neck in sand that was warmed by placing coals on top.
At this site the puberty rite symbols and entoptic imagery, along with the dominant red color, suggest that this was a female puberty rite site.
Here’s an overview of the two panels so you can see how everything we’ve seen to date fits together. The white elements are petroglyphs. In many cases they were scratched over the red pictographs.
A bit of DStretch helps show the pictographs.
The pictograph panel is overlaid with slightly weathered as well as rather fresh-looking petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are not really well-suited in this area, which lacks the soft, varnished desert rock that readily lends itself to petroglyph creation, but they are nonetheless quite common, suggesting that maybe the technique itself had special meaning and was carried out regardless of whether it was well-suited to the area or not.
The very left-hand side of the upper panel has pictograph panels tucked into the upper half, and petroglyphs in the lower. The thin mud-like deposit that occurs in hollow rocks throughout the park is also present here.
The center portion of the panel shows red pictographs overlaid with petroglyphs. The upper petroglyphs are still white and fresh, the lower ones are filled in with a fine mud-like sediment. Some of the symbols, such as the rake at left center, is believed to be an entoptic pattern, seen during hallucinogenic episodes.
DStretch always helps! Interesting elements include the diamond chain pattern in left center, just to the right of the white “dumbbell” shape. These occur frequently at Luiseno puberty sites, and I’ve also seen something similar in the Greenhorn Mountains at the Golden Hills pictograph site. Closer to this site the “Lonely Ledge” site has some similar elements. There are several rake symbols here too. ( I can see six! ) The diamond pattern element to the right of the chain element looks a little like a baby’s cradleboard. There are several Rectilinear elements too, and a couple of the petroglyphs look like basic anthropomorphs. Lots to see here. Interesting how the leaf-like shape in the center appears to be scratched over an existing pictograph of the same shape.
The rightmost portion of the upper panel. Besides the many pictograph elements, many consisting of circle chains or squiggle lines, there are also some red pictographs. At the right center of the picture is some very detailed, delicate pictographs that will be examined later.
With DStretch the many symbols in this part of the panel are even clearer. Besides some detailed little pictographs at the far right, there is also a small rake element, a circle with two “handles”, parallel wavy lines, and other symbols.
A close look at the delicate symbols towards the right of the panel. At the left there is a little starburst-like symbol, followed by a pigment patch. Some faint, spidery lines descend down the center of the photograph. Behind the superimposed petroglyph is a delicate burst symbol with an inner and outer ring. Below it sits two concentric circles. At the right are three thin Rectilinear elements, possibly diamond chains.
There is no record of a habitation site nearby, but this site can be reached in a direct and straightforward ( except for travel distance! ) manner from a known habitation complex to the south. Since puberty rituals could include a race to a rock where pictographs were to be drawn it is very possible that this site could be a puberty ritual site, though the distance from the habitation sites would have made for quite a race indeed!
A closer DStretch look at the rake element, left center, and diamond motifs, center and right center, seen earlier. This entire panel reads like a case study in entoptic pattern studies: the rake symbols ( beside the prominent one left center, note the faded specimen lower right and the delicate one upper left center, below the large “check mark” ), Rectilinear symbols ( far right ) and squiggle lines ( upper right, above the Rectilinear symbol ) are all well-known entoptic patterns.
The diamond motifs, the squiggle line with many fine hash marks above it, and some Rectilinear symbols below the squiggle. There is a pigmented and scratched cupule below the larger Rectilinear symbol. The petroglyph, right center, was scratched over an earlier pictograph.
The previous photos are all of the upper hollow, which is the most prominent and better decorated part of the site. The lower panel is less detailed and more faded, but still worth a look.
An overview of the lower recess. Many of the elements here are petroglyphs, but there are plenty of pictographs as well.
In the overview picture these petroglyphs, shown here in a close-up, were easy to see. More hidden was the spidery pictograph to the left of the photo. Here it is, highlighted with DStretch!
There are several petroglyphs scratched into this part of the lower overhang. There are also a couple of small tally mark panels ( see if you can spot them before looking at the DStretch picture that follows ) and three cupules. These are interesting because cupules are believed to be a very old form of rock art. Just because it is an old method doesn’t mean that these cupules are necessarily ancient, but they are interesting nonetheless. They form pretty precise half-spheres in the rock and have pigment rubbed into them.
A harsh DStretch enhancement teases out the two rows of tally marks, one to the left of the photo and another to the right. The large petroglyph has the same design as one of the pictographs on the top level: a circle with two vertical lines coming off of it. There is also a bisected circle in the lower left corner – another design that is frequently found in petroglyph panels throughout the Mohave and the Great Basin.
There is a very faded pictograph on the far left of the lower alcove.
DStretch shows the geometric design.
A faint red line on this curiously shaped hollow …
… is revealed to be a more intricate pictograph.
Above that little hollow is a panel of faded pictographs and petroglyphs.
DStretch pops out the pictographs, as well as the three petroglyph dots down the center of the photo. One interesting element is the two rows of dots upper right. The only other place I’ve seen this motif to date is at the “Up the Creek” and “Comet Cave” sites in Tübatulabal territory, far away from here.
Finally, a close look at one of the three cupules. It has been rubbed with pigment.
This site is becoming better known as time passes. To date, visitors have been respectful and smart, leaving no trace of their visits.
If you visit here, please make sure to be respectful as well. The pictographs are easy to see without going up to them. Refrain from doing anything that would leave a mark of your passage. Touching them can easily damage them.
One of the best pictograph sites in JT (in my opinion). Certainly one of my favorites.
One of my favorites, too! This was one of the first pictograph sites I found, in the Park or anywhere, really. I held off for a long time posting it because my initial pictures were not very good. I visited it a couple months ago while on the prowl for some other things. During that trip I also found a site in a different part of the Park that I thought was really interesting to visit. As far as I know, it hasn’t been recorded before. Keep an eye out, I hope to get around to posting it soon!