![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/overview.jpg\")
<\/a>A sight guaranteed to quicken the pulse of a certain kind of desert wanderer – a nice overhang with soot deposits and some red pigment!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The north side of the overhang’s entrance. There is a pictograph right by the shelter mouth – just left of center in this picture.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>A close look at the element by the shelter entrance. This is a nice-looking element, if a little damaged by exfoliation. It looks like it could be a zoomorph.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>No … now that I added DStretch, I rather think this is a bisected circle. This design is not uncommon in this region – it shows up at other nearby petroglyph and pictograph sites. Some other\u00a0sites with this design include the Hidden Cave and Double Decker\u00a0sites.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>An overview of the left side interior. To the left are\u00a0several pictograph elements, and to the right, towards the back of the shelter, extensive soot deposits. There is also a bare bedrock outcropping. Sometimes bedrock outcroppings in shelter will have grinding slicks or mortars in them. In this case, no food processing appears to have taken place\u00a0inside the shelter – or at least, not the kind that required grinding.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>This group of pictographs, like most of the others in the shelter, appear\u00a0rudimentary. Much finer specimens can be found within a mile radius or so of this shelter.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>This is one of the better\u00a0executed groups of pictographs in the shelter. We can see some circular red elements and some white elements too. There appears to be a white zig-zag at the top of the photo. This is interesting – the zig-zag element occurs at some puberty ritual sites, though always in red. This white zig-zag\u00a0probably means something else.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>This element in that grouping seems well-drawn: confident lines of a uniform width. Note that the soot deposits overlay the element in some cases. Perhaps the symbols lost their meaning over time and covering them up with soot was not a problem, or perhaps\u00a0they were meant to be decorative, not ritualistic. Or maybe they were used in a ritual at one time, such as when the tribe first moved into the shelter, but didn’t hold special meaning afterwards and they were covered by soot over time. We can only speculate. Well, let’s use some DStretch to see if we can tease more visibility out of this picture.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Ah – it is a nicely-drawn Linear element. DStretch shows\u00a0a white grid with thin lines behind it, or maybe even drawn over it, that wasn’t very visible in the picture before.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Some of the elements in this picture are just a thick mass of pigment. The more legible figures here\u00a0are a\u00a0circular element with two tines sticking out at the top and bottom, seen at the bottom of the picture, and an indistinct figure-8 shaped element to the right of it.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>A deliberate zig-zag of white pigment painted on the soot-stained ceiling.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The back wall is very soot-stained, but also has some interesting elements. The pigment on the left side seems rather indistinct but on the right side, in the lighter portion of the rock, there is a faded element that looks like a digitate anthropomorph.<\/p><\/div>\n