Saturday, February 24, 2024

On a hilltop south of Sloan Canyon, NV

 

Note various signs of ceremonialism in the foreground.

Sunday, February 11, 2024

A good day arrowhead hunting

Sometimes on a good day you find more than one arrowhead. The ensemble takes on a particular life of its own: the life of that day in the field. Each time you go out you have the focus that you bring to the moment and you have the conditions that are there anyway. Out of this and mother luck come a find or two, a deep sense of accomplishment and a frame captured by the arrowheads. I love the stems on these arrowheads:

Or


Woo hoo! Thank you Rhode Island.

Thursday, February 01, 2024

Nevada Colors

I have to imagine there is some turquoise rock in there:

(north west end of the Spring Mountains)

Friday, January 26, 2024

What is wrong with 100K years ago for the "First American"?

According to the internet (I have been curious about bighorn sheep):

The ancestors of bighorn sheep resided in the mountain and desert regions of Eurasia from early Pleistocene. Crossing the Bering land bridge during the late Pleistocene (100,000 years ago), they spread to mountains of Europe, North Africa, Asia and North America. True goats (Capra) are closest relatives. May 16, 2023

Since there were reasonably competent hominids all over Asia by that time, I cannot imagine why they could not have walked in the same places as those "First Sheep".

American archaeology is such garbage. There are unsolved problems all around and data going unexplored. But it seems most of the money goes to studying pretty pottery.

Monday, January 22, 2024

Is that a petroglyph of a hunting site "bullseye"?

I have been collecting pictures of what I call "funnels". The vocabulary hasn't stabilized yet but I am talking about a "bullseye" pattern of: bald spot, surrounded by light ring of lithic debris, surrounded by a heavier ring of lithic debris, surrounded by a one or more concentric rings of fence post holes. Like this:



And like this:



You see this bullseye pattern over and over in the hills around Las Vegas and I dare say: the inner ring of lithic debris might be a good place to go look carefully at the ground ;)


Imagine my surprise to see this petroglyph, which is not a bad match to these bullseyes:

A few sites have some structure or extra debris at the center but mostly not.

Update: Here it is again:
How about this one:
It re-enforces the idea of a connection with sheep.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Guidelines for visiting ceremonial stone landscape (CSL) sites

The Friends of Nashobah and the Friends of Pinehawk are discussing guidelines for public use of CSL's in the Littleton and surrounding Middlesex area. In response to one iteration of proposed guidelines, I wrote:

I am afraid I do not agree with the "broad strokes" of these guidelines. In particular, the religious overtones seem wrong and not in the public's interest. 

I am against the privatization of public resources and of America's past; which I believe belongs to everyone. Everyone should "let the landscape speak", without being told how to experience it. So, I believe it is a poor choice to prevent photography; and I think it is in-appropriate to ask people to say a prayer. 

Teach visitors to be non-destructive and respectful. Tell interesting stories. Otherwise, do not tell visitors what to think or create guidelines that put barriers between them and an experience of the landscape. Insisting that CSL's be perceived only through the lense of modern Native thinking is a bad idea. The goal should be to create lasting memories - which everyone should do in their own way. 

More recent iterations of the guidelines are trending, I think, in this direction.  I think the leaders of those groups are doing an admirable job, putting themselves at the center of a difficult and profound discussion. Readers are invited to comment.