Rock T ' Search Association
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Papers Presented at the Fourteenth Annual Symposium Cedar City, Utah UT ROCK T ' SEARCH ASSOCIATION Volume XIV, Number 1, 1995 The Utah Rock Art Research Association Journal is a publication of papers presented at the annual symposiums held every year somewhere in Utah. The 1994 Utah Rock Art Research Association Symposium was held at in Cedar City, Utah on September, 1994. President, Nal Morris Vice president, Gerald Dean Editors: Bonnie Morris Nina Bowen Carol Patterson Rudolph Copyright @ 1995 TABLE OF CONTENTS Recording Petroglyhs at the Little Black Mountain Site on the Arizona Strip Shirley Ann Craig and George W Craig 15 Horses and Rock Art Rachel C. Bush 19 Petroglyphs Favor the Aikens and Witherspoon Theory of Numic Expansion in the Greg Casin John S. Curtis 45 Non-Symbolic Petroglyph Pecks: Random Particles or Purposeful Statements Kjersti A. Cochran 53 Some Terrain Features Represented in Rock Art Clay Johnson 59 A Unique Expression of the Venus Star Symbol Among the Petroglyphs of the Lower Colorado River Boma Johnson 75 Some Solar Interactions at Grapevine Canyon John Fountain 85 The Yellow Women Prehistoric Kachina Mask Paintings of the Keres Carol Patterson Rudolph 97 The Occurrence of Hand Prints in the San Louis Rey Style, Southern California Steve Freers 108 Evidence from Pictographs that Prehistoric Fremont Indians Collected Animal Blood in Ceramic Jars Steven J Manning 117 The Buckhorn Restoration Project Reed Martin SYMPOSI E EDT CATION TO Boma Johnson The dedication of a Symposium and associated publication is reserved for those persons whose effort and dedication to the study and preservation of rock art. For the unselfish sharing of their time to our organization and considerable insight for and understanding the meaning of symbol from his rock art research. This year the choice is Boma Johnson. Recording Petroglyphs at the -Lit 1ar Mountain at !. on the Arizonn. Strip LT I Shirley Ann Craig and George W. Craig INTRODUCTION The purpose of this report is to share the manner in which we have recorded the petroglyphs at the Little Black Mountain Rock Art Site. Our goal was to record each glyph in an individual and orderly format. We began by unpacking the panel and then unpacking the components of each glyph. What we have done was done as volunteers and amateurs which leaves room for errors or insufficient background for judgments. Our involvement with this project began in 1988 when we signed a volunteer agreement with the Bureau of Land Management under the direction of archaeologist Rick Malcomson. Rick served as our instructor for the Utah Archaeology Certification Course, advisor for our local chapter of the Utah Statewide Archaeology Society and our guide for this project. NA L • CUL ' • L ENVIRONMENT OF THE AREA The site is located approximately eight miles southeast of St. George, Utah, in what is called the "Arizona Strip". Little Black Mountain is a singular monolith rising approximately 550 feet above the desert floor. It is a sandstone mesa topped by a lava flow, sitting alone, surrounded by sand, rocks, and mesquite bushes and enclosed by various mountain and mesa groups: to the east the Hurricane Cliffs rise 5400 feet; to the south the land rises to Seegmiller Mountain at 6020 feet; to the west a range of steeps topped out by Mokaac Mountain; to the north are varying lower hills rising to Pine Mountain at 10,324 feet. The desert floor around Little Black Mountain is 2,870 feet. To design a glyph for this site, I would use a solidly pecked out circle to represent the site itself enclosed by a heavily outlined rim (the encircling hills and mountains). The worked area between the two would represent the desert valley floor. See map (figure 1). The geography of the site may be a clue to its appeal to early man. Navajo Mountain in Utah, Shiprock in New Mexico, San Francisco Peaks in Arizona were, and are, especially significant sites to the Native Americans and these sites also have a highly visible, isolated monolithic formation. Since these factors are also evident at Little Black Mountain as well as the heavily patinated boulders scattered around the southerly and westerly base, they may have contributed to the appeal of the site for rock art recording by many cultures. The only evidences of habitation are several small rock shelters. No sign of any agricultural activity has been found. The nearest probable water source may have been Ft. Pearce Wash which is approximately three miles northeast, and in current times it has some water flow on a sporadic basis. Utah Rock Art Volume XIV 1995 LITTLE BLACK MOUNTAIN PETROGLYPH SITE ON THE ARIZONA STRIP LEGEND Station 1 Prime Datum 1 Rock Art 0 Section Number 11 1?10 •8 5.•607. 2 1 4. 0 olo 60 90 120 METERS Utah Rock Art Volume XIV 1995 FIGURE 1 Selected Recreational & Historical Sites Hc Arizona 0 Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, N-8 Canyon de Chelly National Monument, E -12 0 Grand Canyon National Park, E-6 Land Area: 113,510 sq. mi. (6) N cE Population: 2,718,425 (20) A Lake Powell (Glen Canyon Nat').Rec. Area), C-8 London Bridge (Lake Havasu City), I-2 Dimensions: N-S 390 miles, E-W 335 miles Mi ighest Point: Humphreys Peak 12,633 ft., G-7 Oak Creek Canyon, G -7 arr Capital: Phoenix K-6 * Petrified Forest National Park, H -11 int Largest City: Phoenix, K-6 Saguaro National Monument, N -9 nu Index paw, 17U 1 , PACIFIC'S if. MOUNTAIN Panguitch 12 100 (Ti E ZONE!. TIME NE DIXIE Z• DIXIE NAT'L Escalante See map NAT'L. FOREST page 97 Newcastle c, FOR. s Caliente Hatch BRYCE. , tlf71 CEDAR BREAKS CANYON Tropic DIXIE NATIONAL 57 NAT'L MON. NAT'L PK Enterprise FOREST • Kanarraville Henrieville ,: Cannonvilie 0 \ New Harmony • CLO VER Central NETS. \,' See map Alamo 7,7-le • ...,,, page 9 8 ' Valley ,..1r 1 if , Vega „Ir..- 27 .. r Gunloc k ‘'.. 011 - 'i 7IO N ;.‘ .021 1/ Toquerville 1Y AT t C td Lee a PARK.. , 7OVNEL Ord Nine ""- fr 15 f La Verkin ■ . cSiaanra".... „5 • 0 pringdale --•"" 1,1‘ / 'ricane Rockville , s George 2T • nn 23 ,e0), „TT- ifT ••. _ _et Hddala na UTAH Glen Canyo k\ a -- — - ,..:.,..- -...-a._ - — - • ., _ c 19 - ColorColoradocy 55 Cane ,t Beds ' KAIBAB 2 INDIAN redo ma I Be ver Dam A Tr . l'i' occasin Rt to c I - --, At 5; .k.V° esquite A5i no 42 32 :A:fa, eilA , PLATEAU C-' 100 8 Littlefield y Cr meat, 1:::nlyboIC:9-:11::;:: ' 1 Ppl Sproiq ob F ::1 Pge c/ss, Jacob V 4 5. 0C, 3. '-' Nall. Mon. 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' Mt Tmlon A 691)0 It. m CD KAI BA 8,AP roANCISA, - Recording Petroglyphs at the Little Black Mountain Craig & Craig The site itself is a wonder that it has been a multicultural one used by man for several thousand years. The variety of glyph styles indicates diversity of cultures and the various degrees of repatination of the glyphs indicates a long time period of usage. Patination or "Desert Varnish is the dark coating appearing on rock surfaces in arid lands. Until recently, it was thought to be generated from an inorganic process, however current research has revealed that it is an organic process. The wind deposits clay dust and micro-organisms (bacteria) on the rocks. The bacteria then extract manganese (black) or iron (redish brown) oxides from the rock and clay to create a layer of rock varnish. Rock varnish forms very slowly, taking thousands of years to create the darkest coatings. Sophisticated and expensive laboratory techniques can determine the age of rock varnish.