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December 29, 2018 by Kurt Buzard Leave a Comment

Art and Science of Petroglyphs

Ancient Petroglyph of Bighorn Sheep. Little Petroglyph Canyon, China Lake California

Ancient Petroglyph of Bighorn Sheep. Little Petroglyph Canyon, China Lake California

The process of creating useful and visually pleasing petroglyphs is one of the more difficult art forms, related more to creating a stone statue than painting. Unlike cave paintings that are added to the rock, petroglyphs involve removing material, in particular the desert varnish or patina that covers rocks in the desert. Today this would be difficult and take time, even with our modern steel tools, back then they only had stone tools making the process long and laborious. To cut a hard stone you would need a harder stone, preferably with some kind of point to focus the energy. Aside from the technical difficulties, there is the matter of artistic depiction of various animals, experiences and ideas. To communicate even relatively simple things, given the relatively crude stone canvas, the essence of the item being depicted must be communicated unambiguously, to translate to even strangers speaking a different language. While this discussion is directed primarily at Little Petroglyph Canyon, the principles are applicable to most petroglyphs.
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Filed Under: Archaeology, California, Native Americas Cultures Tagged With: California, Celtic Knot, China Lake, Conchoidal Fracture, Coso Volcanic Field, Cup and Ring Symbol, Desert Patina, Desert Varnish, Dual Centered Spiral, geology, Holocene, Little Petroglyph Canyon, Microstratigraphies, Petroglyph, Petroglyphs, Rhyolite, Ridgecrest, Rock Art, Rock Varnish, Schist, Spiral, Terminal Pleistocene, Trinity Spirals, Triple Spirals, Triquetra, Triskele, Triskelion, Water Petroglyph

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