When I lecture on archaeology and demonstrate flintknapping to school classes, I usually wear a necklace that includes some red "beads". After I let the kids handle the necklace, I like to explain that those red "beads" are actually indigestible "Mountain Coral" beans, and that they came from an Indian rockshelter in a side canyon off the Pecos River in West Texas. Then I tell them that the beans were there because the only visitors to that shelter between the Indians and my archaeological survey crew were goats -- and that the beans had passed through the goats' intestinal tracts. LOL!!! I usually get some funny reactions!!
We actually made it into several shelters that even the goats had not reached. To know that we were the first to see those beautiful pictographs since the indians who made them (and who left their straw sandals and mats behind) was quite a stirring experience...
“those beautiful pictographs”
Are there reproductions on line?