Little Petroglyph Canyon
Little Petroglyph Canyon is one of world's treasures of rock art, containing images that may span 16,000 years of time. It is located in a remote part of the Coso Mountains in eastern California, and now made even more inaccessible by being swallowed by the China Lake Naval Weapons Station. The making of objects into icons served the Native Americans some purpose, thought to be religious, just as photography serves us today.
Dating
There is some controversy over the dating methods used here. The first method is to compare the images to historical events such as the advent of the bow and arrow or the introduction of horses. The second method is to gauge the time it takes for the patina of dark chemicals to reestablish itself on the rocks. The third involves chemical and nuclear analyses.
The canyon itself covers about 1 1/4 miles. The trailhead is 4/5 of the way into the canyon so you can go up the canyon or down to where a dry fall prevents further progress. The upper canyon has some of the older pretroglyphs, some of which are near the ground.
These two drawings are thought by some to be entopic patterns, that is, light images creates during trances. The diamond chain pattern is often used by Native Californians as a stylized representation of a rattlesnake, because of the similarity to the back of the snake.
The long vertical lines here have been interpreted by many as stylized atlatls, which means that these motifs are more than 1500 years old. There is some controversy as to whether on not these native peoples engaged in rituals to improve their hunting. But the paucity of these images at this site would lead one to believe that other magic was involved.
The photo directly to the left shows three shaman figures. Each has patterns on his shirt protraying entopic designs used as symbols of power. All the heads are represented by the sun or whirlwinds. Also all the figures have bird-talon feet to represent the close connection between the shamans and birds.
These marching people go all the way around this boulder onto the left side. On the right side they progress as well and march on to the next wall of the canyon.
These are two bighorn sheep one of which is bloated and appears to have been killed by an arrow or a spear. The killing of a bighorn sheep was a metaphor for the shaman's ability to make rain.
This is the only image here that I have modified beyond contrast, saturation and sharpness. The numbers "100" and "23" used to appear on this photo but with the help of modern photo programs has been edited out.
