In many ways the shield design is the defining element found in the Great Basin. Rectilinear elements are also really common – not to mention the famous Coso bighorn sheep representations further south – but the shield design pops up at sites all over the region.
This particular site consists of almost nothing but shield designs. The main site consists of eleven well-defined shields on a large upright boulder with a smooth, level north face, and some less well-executed elements lower on the same rock face.
An adjacent boulder hosts two more designs, connected with a short line, and a little ways off another boulder hosts two more shields on its sloping eastern face.
This is one of those sites were I had a hunch that something might be waiting to be found in a certain location. Well … I say “hunch” but it was really an educated guess, pieced together from various scraps of information I collected over the past year or two.
The first boulder. There is plenty of room on the rock face for petroglyphs but the artist used only a small portion of it. To the left of the panel ( in the middle of the picture ) and covered in lichen specks is a circle with a double outline and a cross inside. To the right is a more crudely pecked design that also has a faint line below it. There are also some random dabs of red ochre on the rock. I wonder if this is natural or intentional.
A close look at these designs. Note the specks of pigment around the right-hand element. From this close it also appears that there is a faint cross shape – maybe a zoomorph or anthropomorph – just to the upper left of the right-hand element.
I hoped that DStretch would reveal a hidden pictograph but the red splotches appear random and disorganized.
Circumstances had me in the general vicinity late one autumn afternoon. I had been hunting for different sites for most of the day, with very little success. The sky was washed out and white, with a thin filmy cloud cover softening the light so everything looked dull and flat. It was terrible light to be taking photographs in, really, but I don’t get to visit the area very often so I had to make the most of the daylight I had.
My companion and I raced the sunset along a long, flattish ridge, its flank comprised of jumbled boulders. Since I didn’t know where my quarry was we tried to optimize things between hurrying along and scanning every likely-looking rock face.
I power-walked along, backpack jostling on my back, my neck developing a crick from constantly craning to the left to scan rock faces. We had already passed by some sites we found here a couple years ago – also as the sun was setting – and the ridge stretching ahead seemed endless. It had been a dry summer and the vegetation was shriveled: within steps my boots had collected a bunch of seeds, stuck to the laces and the tongue.
As the journey dragged on I debated turning around ( and then I’d just have to come back later and walk this whole ridge again ) and continuing ( it looked like the ridge was tapering out in another quarter mile or so – a little longer and I’d know for sure if there was anything to find! ) while keeping an eye on the sun. Finding the site while there was still daylight is one thing – but there was also a trek back across the desert and the drive to the night’s lodgings to consider.
With these thoughts still jostling in my head, I spied a sloping boulder to the left with a small sign in front of it. My heart leapt! Yes! Boulders are only signposted when they are not for climbing, and they are only not for climbing if they host petroglyphs or pictographs!
I veered over. Yes! This boulder hosted a couple of petroglyphs. It wasn’t the site I was hoping to find, but it was interesting already. I dropped pack and prepared the camera. My companion wandered on to see if there was anything more to find.
Presently, he called out to me. I took a last couple of photos and scurried over. Ah hah! I recognized the designs from my research. Mission accomplished.
The much nicer discovery my companion made. This large boulder has eleven large, well-pecked shield designs on it as well as five or six smaller ones, all clustered towards the bottom right. Maybe those elements were squeezed in later. Note also – there is a dumbbell-shaped motif of two joined shield circles on the boulder to the left.
Closer view at the main panel. There is one tiny anthropomorph-like figure lower left. This is vaguely reminiscent of the one anthropomorph dancing amidst the circles at the Bad Moons Rising site. Even though the elements to the lower left seem cruder, as they were added later on, both those elements and the larger circles have lichen growing on them. This isn’t the first site I’ve seen where the lichen seem to prefer the scratched design over the varnished rock.
A close look at the two elements on the other boulder shows that the lines were carefully pecked to a uniform width. The lower circle is incomplete – it is missing a bit on the left.
These designs are pretty large, and also extend pretty high up the boulder face. They are precise and deliberate. I wonder what function they had, what they represented, and how long it took their creator or creators to make them.
This area is historically the Paiute’s, but when queried by anthropologists they denied making these petroglyphs.
Dating the petroglyphs is difficult: the patination of the designs could be a clue, but this is a very weather and climate dependent phenomena. The lichen growing, at the least, suggests some age to these elements. In arid conditions like this, lichen grows slowly. These designs are likely prehistoric at the youngest.
This site haven’t received very many visitors recently. The ground was undisturbed when we visited, and unlike some of the better known sites on the Volcanic Tablelands, this site has escaped vandalism.
The worst site overview picture I’ve ever taken! The sun was low in the sky, just above the ridge, and though the light was watery and made taking crisp photographs hard. It was also bright enough to make taking a photo into the sun impossible without shielding the lens from the sun. Hence the hat brim in the top half of the picture. Here we can see, right to left, the boulder with the main panel, the second boulder with the other two shields on it, and left center, the boulder that I first encountered.
If you visit this site, step lightly. Look at the designs, but don’t touch them. Even though petroglyphs are durable, your touch can interfere with the natural processes at work. The lichen, for example, provides possible clues to the age of these petroglyphs but their growth would be disturbed by human touch. This site is pristine and a joy to visit because those that came before you and me left it untouched. Let’s hand that gift down to the visitors to come.