In the White River Narrows area of Lincoln County, NV, there are several petroglyph sites which have depictions of what appear to be masks or possibly face paint or tattoo facial designs. These mask like designs are bowl shaped with horns and interior horizontal lines. At the time of contact, these sites were near the border of Western Shoshone (the White River group) and Southern Paiute (Pahranagat Valley group) territory. In the past, the area was on the periphery of Fremont and Western Anasazi territory. I'm interested if any of the ethnographic material for this area mentions anything about masks or tattoo/facial paint. I'm going to the library to see if I can locate anything on the ethnography of this area. Oops, that was an unsuccessful attempt. "The Handbook of North Americans- vol. 11" had mention of some ethnography pertaining to that area but that info. wasn't in the library. Anyone know where to locate such information? It's also possible these elements are meant to portray something completely different. A friend thought these panels were very Martian like and were possibly graffiti but I don't buy it. If these are masks, they are not especially pretty but they are another component to the general puzzle of North American rock art. Like usual, the questions are outnumbering the answers. If we knew all the answers, visiting rock art sites wouldn't be half as fun as it is.
|