Monday, November 24, 2008

Carved Rock School Subject

11/23/08

Hi Buckaroos!


As promised here is a excerpt from “A Guide to Rock Art Sites...Southern California and Southern Nevada” by David S. Whitley:




Spirit Mountain and the Patterns of Creation



For the Yuman-speaking inhabitants of the Colorado River region, no location was more sacred than Avikwa'ame, or Spirit Mountain, which we call Newberry peak, in southernmost Nevada. According to the Mojave creation myth, the oldest spirit was Matavilya, made from the mating of Earth and Sky. Matavilya had two sons, Mastamho and Kaatar, and a daughter, Frog. Matavilya committed an unwitting indecency that offended his daughter, who then killed him. Mastamho directed the cremation and mourning ceremony for his father, and when completed, strode up the Colorado River Valley. When he got to the top he created the river by plunging a cane of breath and spittle into the earth, allowing the river to pour forth. Riding a canoe down the waters to the ocean, he created the wide river bottom by twisting and turning the boat. He returned from the ocean with his people, The Mojave, taking them in his arms to the northern end of Mojave country. There he piled up earth, creating the mountain Avikwa'ame, and built himself a house on it. There too Mastamho plotted the death of Sky-Rattlesnake, an evil spirit and the source of dark powers. Mastamho killed Sky-Rattlesnake by cutting off his head, with his spilt blood becoming noxious insects. Mastamho then gave land to the different tribes and taught them how to farm. Finally, Mastamho turned himself into a fish-eagle and flew off into oblivion.

The importance of this cosmological myth to rock art is twofold. Known as the “Shaman's Tail,” it was precisely this myth that the shaman “dreamed” to obtain his supernatural powers: In Yuman fashion, the shaman was believed to re experience and witness these mythic events of creation in the supernatural world and, from them, obtain his power. As the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber wrote in 1925, “It is of [Mastamho's] house that shamans dream, for here their shadows were as little boys in the face of Mastamho, and received from him their ordained powers, confirmed by tests on the spot.” It is at the foot of Spirit Mountain that the important Grapevine Canyon petroglyph site is located; that is Grapevine Canyon is Mastamho's House, where the Mojave shaman went to witness, in his dreams, the creation of the world.


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Cool stuff ,eh? The picture for Grapevine Canyon shows a rock covered with petroglyphs, that any competent electrical engineer could use for graphics in a lecture on how television works. The important thing to note is the rock they are created on has the same outline as the”Buffalo Stone” on my property, and the skull with a pointy hat on my stone can be seen on the cliff face at Grapevine Canyon.

I can only guess at the intent of the artists that created the the works I'm finding. I do know I seen to have come across the remnants of a “rock-carving school”. Seminar level is learning to open the “eyes” of a rock. Freshman level seems to be create a Buffalo Stone. Sophomore level, create a skull with a pointy hat. Junior level, create a pointy hatted skull on a Buffalo Stone. Senior projects involve putting detail on the hat, in the form of an emblem of a Buffalo looking at a Meteor. Graduate level makes large artworks and Snake Heads.

The only Cultural parallel I can come across is Disneyland, with Micky Mouse taking the place of the Skull character. Style wise, Aztec used a lot of skull imagery, and the Takic speakers around here spoke a dialect of the Aztec language. I could use some help.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Carved Skull Pix

Check it out...



Sorry about the quality,but I'm sure you get the general idea.

I've been reading up on the Shaman Tail of the Yuman folks around the Colorado river, their Creation Myth. I'll post more next blog, and maybe post a picture of the Sky-Rattlesnake Head I found (carved stone, looks like a snake head, has a tooth sharper then an exact-knife blade.

More Later Buckaroos!
-Bruce

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Buffalo Meteor Shaman Cache Site

Update time Buckaroos!

I've been told by multiple folks that the answer to my question of "Meteorite? Right or Wrong?" is "Wrong". Don't worry, even though I'm a newbie to this whole space-rock gig, I can take it. The big thing is, it has led me into is something of cultural significance that has to do the effect of a meteor on a population.

Here is the story in a nut-shell:
Walking around desert, find rock, think it's a meteorite, closer examination reveals it to be a rock. Interest peeked, found rock that looked a lot like a meteorite, made a YouTube Video, got no posts, but did receive comments from folks I emailed.

Kept on collecting out-of place-rocks, some look like "Shaman Stones" ( remember the TV series 'Amazing Stories', starting sequence had Shaman telling story around fire, Shaman had Shaman Stones), found stone with square notch cut in it. Found stones that would make cool pendents, with meteor (ball with pointy tales) carved on them(first petroglyphs). Found stone tools which could be used to carve the notch in the shaman stones(tools are amazing, ergonomic and sill sharp!).

Found a lot more Shaman stones and tools, started to learn to identify tool marks on stone, started to collect stones that did not look like meteorites, but had tool marks. Some looked like game animals, some looked like Spirit Helper animals (grizzly bear, snake head), some looked like skulls wearing pointy hats.

I now have a plate with 17 pointy hatted skulls. The artwork is amazing, no two are exactly alike, but all seem to have been carved from the same "Mythic" image.

Started looking at stuff larger then "jewelry" and started finding artworks seen in "Meteor Art... Medicine Bundle?"(pictogram, petroglyphs). After I posted video, I found a Geo glyph (modified natural features forming a large picture), that turns out to be the "model" that all the stone skulls are based on. I'll have to post a good picture, but imagine a 12 foot skull with a pointy hat spitting out meteorites.

I know of no precidence for what I'm finding, so have started reading books on rock carvings. Turns out that there a 2 known petroglyph sites between my place and 29 Palms. Since the subject matter I'm finding seems to deal with "Mythic Time-Space", I think it is the work of Yuman, as opposed to Sorreno. Still checking it out.

More Later-
-Bruce
Terrapin Station Hunting Grounds
Joshua Tree

Friday, November 14, 2008

Meteor Art

Hi Buckaroos!

Things have gotten interesting in the hunting grounds. Please watch the following video revealing a petroglyph and stones carved with a meteorite theme. Please note the quality of the footage does not do the magnificent artworks justice. The makers were geniuses who knew the craft at a master level.



After I made this video, I found an even more amazing piece of work that I'm just beginning to understand. It has no precedent in anything I've been taught in school.

Best I can guess, a Meteorite came from the buffalo constellation and caused a lot of death. Or it could be Buffalo hunters were displaced by a meteorite, I just know the culture represents death as a skull with a pointy hat with an emblem on the brim between the eyes. I seem to be in over my head and could use the help of an archaeologist.

Mote later Buckaroos!
-Meteorite Bruce
Terrapin Station Hunting Grounds
Joshua Tree
California