Joe, I don’t know for sure. Looks more like a comet than clouds to me. That’s the point, we’ll never know. There’s no ethnographic analogy for this type of communication unless the symbols are very obvious (priests on horses and such…the depiction on Newspaper Rock in Canyonlands). Also, did the clouds you saw in San Rafael look like these depictions? Was there three lines? Maybe this is not a unique motif, but I have never seen it before. The one at 7-Mile Wash above the guy’s head looks to have a distinct coma. But, then again, it does have what appears to be rain drops falling from the lower tail now that you mention it. Like I said, it could be what we think or not, we’ll never know for sure. That’s the fun of rock art in my opinion, you can make up whatever story floats your boat. Who can prove you wrong? Despite claims to the contrary, I’ve never read of a “Champollion” of rock art. Yes, I’ve read Levan Martineau. In my opinion, his books are his hooey about rock art, nothing more. Dave On Sep 10, 2013, at 8:13 PM, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> wrote:
Quite interesting, Dave. I don't interpret them as comets, though. I visited and photographed a petroglyph of apparently the same personage at the Head of Sinbad in the San Rafael Swell and it seemed obvious that he was commanding a cloud to rain -- the streaks were rain. Or so I thought. Thanks, Joe
------------------------------ On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 3:07 PM MDT Dave Gary wrote:
Hey, speaking of comets, take a look at these photos I took a few years back when I was wandering around the Dead Horse Point area. The first set is from 7-Mile Wash, the second from Hell Roaring Canyon. Something different, but astronomy-related. I propose it’s two different depictions of the same shaman and the same comet, but from two different artists, either from the same group or two different groups.
Also, notice the solitary big-horn-sheep pictograph from the Hell Roaring Canyon set appears to be pregnant. Was this the artist’s way of saying this was a spring-time comet? Something fun to think about (you can make up any story you like) and it has an astronomy plot.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/sets
Dave
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