Today’s post is about a little site that we visited last fall. We struck out north of our usual stomping grounds, ending up in the southwestern counties of Nevada. There is a lot of pre-history here.
In a lonely, wind-swept saddle between two low hills there is a hot spring, with a cold spring higher up the slope. The ground is speckled with lithic scatter, indicating some prehistoric presence here. There are no suitable rock shelters nearby, so any Native American camps would have been open air camps. Close to the hot springs there are some volcanic tufa outcroppings. It is these outcroppings that hold the most interesting things that can be seen in the area today. Though they are very weathered you can still see petroglyphs incised on the tufa when the light is right.
This site was probably a ritual site, maybe even a fertility site, given that most of the elements here are yoni symbols – female fertility symbols.
We visited this site very early one morning while on our way south. Let’s take a look at what we found!
It is an early morning on a desolate, windswept saddle somewhere in south-west Nevada. The shadows are crisp and long. These are the tufa boulders the petroglyphs are carved on.
There are a couple of springs nearby but the terrain is sparse and exposed. The boulder in the foreground has some vertical lines carved at its base.
A closer look.
Some of the boulders have what looks like scratched petroglyphs on them.
Another boulder has a ladder element with one bar. Elements like this occur at other petroglyph sites in the Great Basin too. I’ve seen some on the Volcanic Tablelands, for instance.
These deep groves are now partly covered by lichen. Since the site is so exposed it is quite weathered.
The deep lines at the top of this boulder is natural, but the row of yoni elements at the bottom is not. There is also a second row of elements to the top right. You have to look closely to distinguish between the natural fissures in the rock and the enhancements.
A close look at the row of symbols.
A spring in the middle of the desolate landscape. Thousands of years ago the climate was much different than it is now and vast inland lakes like Lake Lahontan made this landscape hospitable. As the lake receded, springs like this became live givers.
The hot springs at the site is fenced in, and with good reason! It steams and bubbles. Not something you want to accidentally fall into.
Some faint horizontal lines.
Not a whole lot remains at this site, but it is the desolation and deserted feeling in the air that makes it worth visiting. Look around and think back to a time when this site was thriving. Now see how it has faded out of human use and memory as the landscape changed. We are all sojourners in this world. Should you visit this place, leave it be. The earth is slowly taking it back, and our footprints are already heavy in other parts of the world.