![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/rock_shelter.jpg\")
<\/a>A little rock shelter with a low wall stacked in front.<\/p><\/div>\n
Its soot-blackened ceiling points to use as a hunting blind or camping site. The shelter is too small for comfortable habitation, and there are no nearby bedrock mortars or lithic scatter. There are areas of red ochre pigmentation on the rocks above and to the left of the shelter, but they appear to be natural.<\/p>\n
A small distance east of this shelter is a large boulder with a flat, desert-varnished surface — a perfect surface for petroglyphs!<\/p>\n
<\/a>The petroglyph panel. Some elements, lower center, have been vandalized by gunshots.<\/p><\/div>\n
The most prominent elements in the panel are large concentric circles designs\u00a0of the kind found throughout the region. \u00a0The large circle element near the center has a thin cross inside, giving a crosshair appearance.<\/p>\n
A sunrise-type element is present above this, and there are also a smaller burst element and some elements that look like bird tracks. Also noteworthy\u00a0are two yoni-like symbols.<\/p>\n
The whole panel is outlined with a border — a unique and surprising feature not present at any other sites in the area. \u00a0The border is unadorned on the left but has added hashes on the outside along the right side.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Early in the morning, the panel is still partly in shade.<\/p><\/div>\n
Unfortunately, this site has not escaped vandalism. It has been shot at and some of the designs damaged. I have found a photograph of the site that dates from the early 1960’s or earlier, and shows the panel before it was damaged, so the damage is likely fairly recent.<\/p>\n
The elements are pecked precisely if shallowly into the boulder. The lines are uniform and well-executed.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The panel in sunlight. The lower elements are now easier to see.<\/p><\/div>\n
This site might have been a hunting site, shown\u00a0by the apparent hunting blind built in front of the rock shelter, but the elements at the site do not evoke hunting magic. Representational symbols such as bighorn sheep or deer, often found at hunting magic sites, are absent. Many of the symbols, such as the concentric circles and the bird prints, evoke a similarity to others in the general region, but the site also has a unique feel to it. The presence of yoni-like symbols hint at a possible connection with fertility. The symbols are unvarnished and therefore likely not as old as some of the other art in the region, but desert varnish is a tricky indicator of age. This site is better protected from the elements than most, so that could also contribute to the lack of revarnishing.<\/p>\n