Picture-Writing of the American Indians: Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-89, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893, pages 3-822Mallery, Garrick
History
Picture-Writing of the American Indians: Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-89, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893, pages 3-822
Mallery, Garrick
Picture-writing, Indian
“Fig. 15 embraces a number of characters on the ceiling. The left hand
upper figure is in black, with a narrow line of red surrounding it. The
drawing is executed neatly and measures about 18 inches in length. The
remaining characters are in dull red, probably ocher, though the two on
the left hand, beneath the one just mentioned, are more yellowish.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Petroglyph at Tule river, California.]
“The first three forms in Fig. 16 are copies of human-like figures
painted on the ceiling. They are each about 12 inches in length. The
other form in Fig. 16 is white and is on the southern vertical wall of
the passageway facing the north. It resembles some of the human forms
occurring elsewhere in the same series of petroglyphs.”
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Petroglyph at Tule river, California.]
OWENS VALLEY.
In the range of mountains forming the northwestern boundary of Owens
valley are extensive groups of petroglyphs, apparently dissimilar to
those found west of the Sierra Nevada. Dr. Hoffman, of the Bureau of
Ethnology, hastily examined them in 1871 and more thoroughly in the
autumn of 1884. They are now represented in Pls. I to XI. So large
a space is given to these illustrations because of their intrinsic
interest, and also because it is desirable to show for one locality what
is true of some others, viz, the very large number of petroglyphs still
to be found in groups and series. Even with the present illustrations,
the petroglyphs in Owens valley are by no means exhaustively shown.
Dr. Hoffman’s report is as follows:
One of the most important series of groups is that in the
northern portion of Owens valley, between the White mountains on the
east and the Benton range on the west. On the western slope of the
latter, at Watterson’s ranch, is a detached low butte or mesa, upon
the blackened basaltic bowlders and cliffs of which are numerous
deeply cut characters, the most interesting of which are reproduced
in Pls. I and II. The illustrations are, approximately, one-twelfth
real size. The designs of footprints, in the lower left-hand corner
of Pl. I, vary in depth from half an inch to 1-1/2 inches. They
appear to have been pecked and finally worked down to a uniform and
smooth surface by rubbing, as if with a piece of stone or with wood
and sand.
In almost all, if not all, instances throughout the entire
series referred to in this description the sculptured surfaces
have assumed the same shining blackened luster as the original and
undisturbed surface of the bowlder, caused by gradual oxidation of
the iron present. This would seem to indicate considerable antiquity
of the petroglyphs.
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