Death Valley Deep Dive 2024

[Beardilocks]

Another set of Death Valley petroglyphs that I found.  I'm a bit embarrassed that I hadn't found these previously, as they are somewhere I have passed by at least three times.  I'm not going to state where they are because they are quite delicate, hard to get to, and not too far from a fairly popular place.

The style here is a bit different from a lot of the other glyphs in the park.  Or I should say that some are.  There are definitely at least two distinct ages to the glyphs here, with the more animalistic ones seemingly older and the geometric ones looking more “recent”.  Notice the glyphs on top of this rock as well.


Mask?  Medicine bag?  Just a nice symmetrical design?


Some older glyphs depicting rain clouds and representational sheep, as well as some more symmetrical geometric designs.


Head-on look at a sheep at the top of this much older panel.  Notice that some later additions or changes have been added.


And interesting chipped cupule on it's own. 


The oval/rounded square with variations on a cross will prove to be common here. 


See?





Alas, the most interesting looking one here (top right) has been lost to time or vandals. 





This is an odd one.  Interesting that the circle isn't closed at the top. 


I have seen similar bulls-eye shapes in the Grapevines, though larger there.  I think this one is trying to incorporate the sharp lump in the stone, as the design wraps around it (although admittedly half-heartedly). 


Cross in a circle.


Wonky cross in a circle.


Some more common geometic designs.  Did the artist run out of space at the end to get the correct number of humps in?  Which would imply that there is a very specific number of humps...


I was particularly interested in the cupules here.  There's one at the bottom alone, but at the top is an arch made of at least 8 cupules with a few others scattered around.  It immediately reminded me of a moon cycle chart or the 13 Moons panel in the Volcanic Tablelands.  But that's probably just a coincidence. 


Well hello again.  This marks the 3rd of these solo, ball-headed stick figure guys I have found in the park.  All are very animated as if dancing and some kind of head-adornment.  I wish I knew what they were representing.


Very diverse grouping here.  The period in parenthetical jail at the bottom.  Dot and dash bubble and tombstone at the left.  Weird devil guy at the top right.  Complex geometric box in the middle. 


This almost looks like an I-Ching sort of symbol.  At the very least it's an interesting symmetrical design.