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Rock Art Redefines 'Ancient' [ China Lake CA petroglyphs 16K old ]
New York Times ^ | December 18, 2009 | David Page

Posted on 12/19/2009 5:21:27 PM PST by SunkenCiv

With us rode David S. Whitley, an archaeologist and expert on prehistoric rock art and iconographic interpretation. Having visited hundreds of sites all over the world, including Lascaux and Chauvet in France and the Côa Valley in Portugal, he believes the Coso Petroglyphs to be one of the most important rock art sites on earth.

Mr. Whitley estimated that there may be as many as 100,000 images carved into the dark volcanic canyons above the China Lake basin, some as old as 12,000 to 16,000 years, others as recent as the mid-20th century.

Floating across a landscape strewn with more than a half-century's weapons-testing debris -- observation towers, armored vehicles, projectile-riddled shipping containers -- I tried to fathom that people had been coming here and making art since at least 90 centuries before the founding of Rome.

"It was a very different place then," Mr. Whitley explained, conjuring the end of the last ice age, 18,000 years ago, the melting of glaciers, the system of saline lakes across what is now called the Great Basin. "This had water over 100 feet deep," he said. Mammoths, saber-toothed cats and giant Pleistocene bison still roamed the upland peninsulas.

(Excerpt) Read more at travel.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs
Some of the rock paintings at China Lake Naval Air Weapons Center near Death Valley have been dated as far back as 16,000 years ago. [Bill Becher for The New York Times]

Rock Art Redefines Ancient

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1 posted on 12/19/2009 5:21:27 PM PST by SunkenCiv
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another picture is here:

Freeper Canteen Road Trip: Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake 08 SEPT 2009
Serving The Best Troops And Veterans In The World | The Canteen Crew
Posted on 09/07/2009 6:00:10 PM PDT by laurenmarlowe
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2334281/posts


2 posted on 12/19/2009 5:22:08 PM PST by SunkenCiv (My Sunday Feeling is that Nothing is easy. Goes for the rest of the week too.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·

 
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Graves
Glyphs
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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3 posted on 12/19/2009 5:23:04 PM PST by SunkenCiv (My Sunday Feeling is that Nothing is easy. Goes for the rest of the week too.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I visited the Guadelupe Mountains National Park recently and in a ranch house museum I saw some very old photos of Apache ceremonial dances.

They were wearing head gear similar to that depicted on these and many Utah petroglyphs. Before seeing the photo, I was leaning toward space aliens,


4 posted on 12/19/2009 5:32:36 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Lukenbach Texas is barely there)
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To: bert

Where do you think the Apache got the idea? ;’)


5 posted on 12/19/2009 5:35:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv (My Sunday Feeling is that Nothing is easy. Goes for the rest of the week too.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Good thought.

They may have seen the petroglyphs of the space aliens rather than following the custom of their grandfathers.

Seriously, the resemblance was striking.


6 posted on 12/19/2009 5:48:23 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Lukenbach Texas is barely there)
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To: SunkenCiv
I have long been fascinated by petroglyphs (ancient rock carvings). We have a lot of them here in our area too, about 130 miles north of the Coso Petroglyphs near China Lake.

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7 posted on 12/19/2009 5:54:36 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (Had God not driven man from the Garden of Eden the Sierra Club surely would have.)
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To: SunkenCiv

These are from Sand Creek just out of Bluff UT on the San Juan River. There are many others just a few miles down stream I really like the idea of aliens because the glyphs are wide spread and were meant to record something very very important

8 posted on 12/19/2009 6:05:51 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Lukenbach Texas is barely there)
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To: Inyo-Mono
More from around Bishop, CA...

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9 posted on 12/19/2009 6:16:41 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (Had God not driven man from the Garden of Eden the Sierra Club surely would have.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Or course the best art to be found there is in the Panamint Valley. If you are there at the right time, you can see an authentic American artform kicking a$$ across the desert floor in full burner. If those indians could only have known the glory that would grace their skies only thousands of years later.


10 posted on 12/19/2009 6:54:38 PM PST by blackpacific
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To: bert

Well, the kids were all homeschooled, and they didn’t *have* refrigerator doors, so...


11 posted on 12/19/2009 7:23:39 PM PST by SunkenCiv (My Sunday Feeling is that Nothing is easy. Goes for the rest of the week too.)
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To: SunkenCiv
The Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest operates petroglyph tours of Lower Renegade Canyon in cooperation with the Naval Weapons Center. They advise that a schedule of tours for 2010 will be posted on line in February.
12 posted on 12/19/2009 8:11:23 PM PST by concentric circles
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To: concentric circles

Thanks!


13 posted on 12/19/2009 8:38:06 PM PST by SunkenCiv (My Sunday Feeling is that Nothing is easy. Goes for the rest of the week too.)
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To: SunkenCiv; All

A fascinating read is the book “In Plain Sight: Old World Records in Ancient America” by Gloria Farley. She records and interprets petroglyphs up to about 4,000 years old. Frequently found near rivers that could have been traveled by people coming from the Atlantic and Caribbean seas. Suggests visits by Phoenicians, and other ancient people.


14 posted on 12/19/2009 8:58:26 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: SunkenCiv

I wonder how many of these were by bored settlers/cowboys/mountain men, created after seeing real ones.


15 posted on 12/20/2009 6:05:15 AM PST by Spike Knotts
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To: SunkenCiv
I dug out the photo I took of the old photo. The geometry of the body images and the headgear is very similar to those old petroglyphs.


16 posted on 12/20/2009 7:11:25 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Lukenbach Texas is barely there)
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To: bert

Looks more like Captain Video outtakes. :’)


17 posted on 12/20/2009 9:07:43 AM PST by SunkenCiv (My Sunday Feeling is that Nothing is easy. Goes for the rest of the week too.)
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To: Spike Knotts

My guess is, the amateur look to rock art (in general) means it was done by kids who were hanging out every summer for centuries.


18 posted on 12/20/2009 9:08:52 AM PST by SunkenCiv (My Sunday Feeling is that Nothing is easy. Goes for the rest of the week too.)
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To: gleeaikin

I’ve read some of Farley’s stuff, probably in ESOP years ago, but not sure I’ve got that particular title, Thanks g.


19 posted on 12/20/2009 9:42:04 AM PST by SunkenCiv (My Sunday Feeling is that Nothing is easy. Goes for the rest of the week too.)
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