{"id":2756,"date":"2017-12-26T13:12:44","date_gmt":"2017-12-26T21:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/?p=2756"},"modified":"2017-12-24T18:20:51","modified_gmt":"2017-12-25T02:20:51","slug":"what-few-remain-pictographs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/what-few-remain-pictographs\/","title":{"rendered":"“What Few Remain” Pictographs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, pictograph sites are vibrant and impressive. Other times, the remaining pigment needs careful attention and some deliberate work with DStretch before you can see what used to be. Today’s site falls in that category.<\/p>\n

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This is a small site, a single boulder really, situated a good ways up a canyon that runs from the toes of the Eastern Sierra all the way up into the granite peaks. The trip is well worth making just for the natural beauty. This canyon was part of the Homesteading Act at one time, I suppose, since there are traces of grazing – corrals, a collapsed cabin, healing dirt road scars – in the area. It is all being returned to nature now: the brief dream of scratching a living from the desert soil is gone and once again the land is open to roamers.<\/p>\n

We visited this canyon one weekend on the cusp of summer, squeezing in a last trip before the desert turned into a broiler. As soon as we set foot over the wilderness boundary I could feel myself unwind. Nothing like a walk in nature to reset the mind … fresh air, peace and quiet, beautiful surroundings. By the time we reached\u00a0the site ( wheezing a little on the way up, like we do when we venture from our perch near sea level up into the high desert ) I was deeply\u00a0absorbed in thinking about the history of the site. We had walked up one of the forks of the main canyon after finding lithic scatter and some bedrock mortars near the confluence, and had finally spotted a large boulder that looked worth investigating.<\/p>\n

As soon as we got close we knew we were on to something. The boulder was large, with a smooth, slightly sloped face – perfect for pictographs. And there they were, much faded, on the exposed rock face. We dropped our packs round the back of the boulder where there was a sliver of shade, sucked greedily on our water bottles, and proceeded to take pictures.<\/p>\n

I thought about the creators of this site as I hunkered down in the dirt, trying to find the optimal angle for a photo. Why this one boulder out of a whole field of boulders? It was probably the biggest boulder around, but there were some others, very similar, nearby. There wasn’t any lithic scatter that I saw. We did find a possible encampment or village site much further downstream, by the confluence. We took a look around the stream bed in this area and didn’t see any signs of habitation. Maybe a shaman walked up this canyon until he found a rock that sung with power, and then he painted these symbols on it. We would never know – I certainly do not.<\/p>\n

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Bedrock mortars are always a good sign that you’re on the right track.<\/p><\/div>\n

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There is a fair amount of lithic scatter about. I didn’t find any arrowheads or implements, but I didn’t make a thorough search either.<\/p><\/div>\n

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It is a beautiful day to be out, if a tad warm. Summer is coming.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The granite peaks of the Sierra tower over us as we move further up the canyon.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Finally, we find a boulder larger than most others in the area, with a small overhang and a smooth face. We close in and notice that there is definitely something to see under that overhang.<\/p><\/div>\n

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These pictographs are extremely faded. The rock face is exposed and faces generally easterly, so the elements and the sun’s rays have been beating down on these for a while. I applied a touch of DStretch here so you can see the elements, running rather haphazardly from upper left to lower right in the shaded part in the center of the picture.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Leaning in more closely we can view the entire panel at once. There are two circular objects with hashed lines, two sets of two parallel lines, and a small spiral design.<\/p><\/div>\n

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A bit of DStretch helps us out. The smaller circular element is darker, with thicker lines, but they both share the same design.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Here is the smaller of the circular elements. It is the best preserved at the site.<\/p><\/div>\n

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With DStretch we can see how carefully the hash lines were applied. They are evenly spaced and do not overrun the outer boundary of the circle.<\/p><\/div>\n

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To the left of this element are two faded parallel lines.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I take a DStretch-assisted look at the lines, but there’s nothing else here.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The larger circular element is quite faded.<\/p><\/div>\n

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DStretch can still see it, though. It is also carefully drawn, in the same pattern as the smaller element. The pigment on the top right is noticeably thicker and it also has an inner line in that area. The circular shape is flattened at the top and bottom.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The little spiral element in the upper left of the panel. At first it looks almost natural.<\/p><\/div>\n

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That is definitely human-applied pigment. I think the natural shape of the rock was followed when applying it.<\/p><\/div>\n

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One last good look at the upper part of the panel.<\/p><\/div>\n

This site is very faded and obscure, but it was still worth a visit. I would like to return to this canyon one day and follow it further up, for the sake of exploring as much as for the sake of enjoying nature, but for today we’re still trying to visit one more site and then hurry back into town for another commitment, so we say goodbye for now and resume our journey.<\/p>\n

If you travel out to this site, enjoy the site and the surroundings but make sure not to touch the pictographs. They are barely hanging on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, pictograph sites are vibrant and impressive. Other times, the remaining pigment needs careful attention and some deliberate work with DStretch before you can see what used to be. Today’s site falls in that category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[11,14,9,23],"class_list":["post-2756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sierra-nevada","tag-bedrock-mortars","tag-kawaiisu-pictographs","tag-rock-art","tag-sierra-mountains"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/what-few-remain-teaser.jpg?fit=1024%2C205&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5hIDp-Is","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2756"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3507,"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions\/3507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peregriff.com\/wanderings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}