A few years back, while wandering "kung fu" style in an obscure part of Lincoln county, NV; I came upon a very small, faint petroglyph site. This is a prototypical example of a 'Courtney' site. That classification was created on a trip where a friend accurately noted that nearly all the sites I discover are small to miniscule. The two elements at this site could only be viewed obliquely when the light was just right.

On that first visit, I drew the two elements and noticed a peculiar looking headdress on the anthropomorph which resembled a cowboy hat. While I have seen numerous protohistoric rock art sites which clearly have depictions of cowboy hats, this site seemed older than that from the repatination and the weathering of this element.
On the second visit, I could not find the same anthropomorph. Fortunately, I did locate the bighorn sheep element so my friend did not think I was totally whacked. My friend, Alvin McLane (who coined the term "a Courtney site" and who is an inspiration in his uncanny ability to discover rock art sites and in his desire to record them), was inspired enough by this site to call it the "No See" site. We did visit two other sites on that trip which had similar depictions of anthropomorphs with cowboy hat like headdresses.
Are these headdresses protohistoric depictions of cowboy hats or do they represent a parallel headdress tradition from another earlier time period? Here is a sampling of photos from theses sites as well as from protohistoric sites (Both are mounted on horseback).
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