LOST IN THE T-WORLD

The rock art of the Tablelands has been studied quite a bit and only recently has anyone thrown out that the rock art of the Tablelands may be a distinct style. Lee, Christensen, and Dickey proposed that in their stylistic examination of the Great Basin presented at the Ridgecrest American Rock Art Research Association conference. My take is that this style (an Owens Valley Paiute tradition) is characterized by: many of the sites being located in temporal village like camps (petroglyphs are even found inside rock rings- esp. vulva like designs and cupules); frequency of orb like (completely pecked out circles), pan-am like (circles or squares with multiple interior horizontal and/or vertical lines) , vulva like, circles with a vertical line or a cross inside them, deer with antennae like horns, concentric circles, dumbbell like, petroglyphs with paint inside them, bird tracks, and human footprint designs; and each of these sites face one or two mountains (Mt. Tom and White Mt. Peak) sacred to the Owens Valley Paiute.

Julian Steward, who did the most ethnographic work on the Owens Valley Paiute, mentioned one account of the T-World which referred to the T-World as an important place for the collection of Indian Rice Grass. On the T-Lands one can find thousands of grinding slicks which would tend to confirm this statement. It's surprising no other references were made to the T-World as there are dozens of large temporal camps in this area. I was able to gleam some more ethnographic information from a 70 something year old man at a local coffee shop. He said that when he was a kid in school that once in a while some of the Indian schoolchildren would act somewhat mischievously and show him a drawing of a circle with a vertical line inside it and then run off laughing. These kids knew something about the iconagraphy of many of the petroglyphs of the T-Lands.

The T-World from afar looks flat and uninteresting. When you start to rove you quickly discover it's an interesting, varied area with a limitless supply of possible glyph rocks. Many of these rocks have subtle changes in hue and are somehow uneven enough where this place is a hotbed for delusion . I've seen a greater number of delusionary rock art panels here than anywhere else. It's not surprising that delusion would strike so close to home. For this to be a valid take I'd need to have outside confirmation. The finest most convincing delusion I've ever seen was in the Last Chance Range when a friend and I were reaching the top of a dryfall near a confluence with another canyon when we looked up, spontaneously began to go into a celebratory glyph discovery dance only to slowly come to and realize that the line of udder like alleged petroglyphs were just splotches of mud from a recent flash flood. The T-Worlds delusions are usually more subtle than that though I've many a time scrambled up a hill, or watched a friend scramble up some rocks, only to discover nothing at all.

Back to the glyph discovery dance, 'Alkali Flat' and myself originally created a glyph dance based on the touchdown dance of NFL wide receiver Hayward Jeffries. Instead of spiking the ball, we'd throw our hats on the ground when the dance was finished and it's time to get on with the glyphin'. Recently, a little Merton Hanks and his funky 'big bird' has crept into our glyph discovery moves. We never considered the 'Lambeau Leap' (a celebratory move Green Bay wide receivers do where they jump up into the crowd) as it could be dangerous in glyph country as you could come down on a cactus or a boulder. Discovering a sight is always a rush. Usually the harder you have to work to find the site, the sweeter the discovery. On the T-World there are probably more than fifty sites- you'd think it would be easy to find sites- but since there's about 50 jillion rocks to look at- it's not that easy to find sites out of the blue and whenever you do find a site it's a great joy.

Many of the sites I've visited on the T-Expanse I've had beta for the site or I've been taken to the site. Beta as in 'glyph beta' refers to when you have some sort of information as to the location of a site- this can come from friends, newsletters or newspapers, old books in the library, from some rumor you heard in passing, or any of number of relatively obscure sources. Getting new beta is sweet. Glyphs are surrounded by a vale of secrecy as archaeologists don't want to see sites impacted. It's sad to say that sites are vandalized frequently and arrowhead collecting is still widespread- on the Tablelands a dozen or more panels have been removed with a rock saw from a major site on the 'petroglyph loop tour'- and Native Americans are not big on their sites being visited by multitudes of outsiders. Sharing beta should be done with discretion. I am a beta addict and am always eager to receive beta and then to see new sites. It's as if every time I see a new site, I have stepped into an 'in situs' museum or art gallery that could have some clue which will shed light on what I'm seeing and what I've seen before.

When you know an area is a good candidate for having rock art sites, it can be fun to just go there and see what you find. On the Tablelands the topography is not such that it is always obvious where to look for rock art. Because of this, I will sometimes wander about as if I were 'Kung Fu' - searching for something I do no know of- trying to figure out what is the most likely place to find that which I am searching for- enjoying what I am seeing and at the same time questioning myself as to the limits of my resolve and to the nature of my desire. Sometimes I can't get my fat butt off of the couch and I just become a TV mental blob and occasionally throw a catnip filled canvas mouse around for my cat to play with. Still, I'd pass on the Super Bowl if a friend or two was psyched to go exploring on the Tablelands, especially if they had fresh beta.