Petroglyphs in the desert

On Monday, Matthias and I went with a group of friends, to bounce along a dusty desert road in search of some petroglyphs in the Rodman Mountain area in Johnson Valley. It is not too far from Joshua Tree, and of course, we love to explore. I posted about petroglyphs in Arizona about a year ago, but for those of you who didn't read that post, petroglyphs are drawings that were actually etched into the rock. Pictograms, on the other hand, are pictures that were painted on rock, and tend to not last as long, unless they are found in caves or a sheltered location. (Probably the most well-known pictograms are the Lascaux cave paintings.)



I love all kinds of art, including pre-historic art, so this was a trip that was really exciting to me. As I wandered along the basalt, looking at the petroglyphs that were created by ancient desert dwellers, all kinds of questions arose. We will never really know what the people were thinking about while creating this wonderful rock art, but I discovered one theory with the help of google that I found particularly compelling. This article, written by Susan Hough, explored the idea that the wavy lines found in many of the petroglyphs in Southern California were portrayals of the geologic disturbances common to this area. Since these petroglyphs we visited on Monday were on basalt, near what looked like a lava flow, it was not hard for me to find Ms. Hough's theory to be a good one. If I were living in a time before anything was known about earthquakes and volcanoes, I am sure I would have thought the gods were angry, or trying to communicate with me. Of course, there were other shapes and some animals in addition to the wavy lines. I find it really intriguing, trying to discern the meaning of these ancient symbols.


Here is a photograph of the basalt where the petroglyphs were carved into the rock.

In addition to the petroglyphs, some of the rock had the most incredible orange lichen covering it.
Nature certainly has a way of supplying me with a lot of creative impetus.

We had a good day, and ate a picnic lunch before our short hike to the petroglyphs. The weather was a bit undecided, changing from cloudy, cold and windy to sunny and warm in the blink of an eye. I am always happy to have layers of clothes. After our exploration of petroglyphs, we also stopped to see some intaglios. Our friends Nora and John had been there before, which is how we found out about all of these exciting examples of pre-historic art. They said the intaglios were much more easily visible on their previous visit. I didn't even take a photograph, the images were so hard to see. We weren't sure why this was, unless a recent rain had made the intaglios invisible. If anyone else has clues regarding our inability to see the intaglios, I would be interested in knowing about them. Apparently, intaglios are found in the desert "pavement", where darker parts of the rock were moved aside. The images are seen most easily from the air. I wished there had been something to see, but maybe we will return and find them next time.

Even MORE Travels

Once again, my lack of new entries is due to travels. This time, Matthias, Pono and I loaded into the old VW Vanagon and drove to Mesa, AZ to visit my in-laws. We are really enjoying the Vanagon! It doesn't go really fast, so we prefer the back roads to the interstate. It makes for much more scenic travel, too.

We just returned last night. It was a fun-filled 3 days. We celebrated a belated Christmas with Mama and Papa Recker. Lots of wonderful food, friends and gifts. There were many highlights of the trip. I am finding that I really love the saguaro cactus. On Friday, Eva, Matthias, Pono and I went for a really great hike near the Superstition Wilderness. I took way too many photos of the saguaro. They are so cool! This area seemed quite lush with vegetation (well, for a desert!). It was much greener than the area near Joshua Tree. It was not a long hike - only about 2 hours round trip - but what beautiful surroundings! It was a rocky trail, and I was so busy looking around me, that I had to be careful not to trip over the rocks.

The trail ended near some pools of water, and on the rocks lining the pools, there are a bunch of petroglyphs. I climbed around on the rocks for quite some time, taking photos of the petroglyphs. I loved them. Meanwhile, Pono splashed around in the lowest of the pools. He isn't much of a swimmer, but he does love water. The petroglyphs here were created by the Hohokam people. They are said to be about 200 to 2,000 years old. (They were not all done at the same time.) The early cowboys and miners of this area erroneously called these carvings "hieroglyphs", but of course they are really petroglyphs. The trail is called "Hieroglyph Trail" for the name originally given these wonderful images. I found out that there is a difference between "petroglyphs", which are actually carved into rock, and "pictographs", which are paintings. It is not common to see many "pictographs", since they don't last as long as the petroglyphs. You will typically only see them if they are somehow sheltered from the elements.

I really love ancient art, and I did study this kind of art when I was in college. Anytime I can see examples of primitive art in person, I am thrilled. This time was no exception.

Well, I have more to tell you, but I need to reorganize my studio today, so I can paint! This post took a lot longer than it should have, because I was interrupted by a bobcat walking through our yard. I can't just let a bobcat walk through the yard without getting up and observing closely. Pono was also intrigued, and sat right next to me with quiveringly excited ears. I will try to be more consistant with the blog now, I swear!