Rock Art Research in the Great Basin: Some Historical Comments

To conclude with a positive suggestion: perhaps it is time for rock art researchers to organize a session at a regional meeting and produce a standard textbook chapter for Great Basin rock art that could be used as an adjunct to other texts and reference materials. Such a piece could serve to stimulate acceptance of rock art studies by anthropologists. To not do so will ultimately cause the neglect of rock art as art in and of itself, as anthropological data, and as worthy cultural resources

Radiocarbon Dates from the Bird Spring Site, Clark County, Nevada

Relatively few radiocarbon dates, particularly in an associated series from a single excavation unit, are available from southwestern Nevada. For this reason, the three dates from 26 Ckl should be of considerable interest to other researchers in this part of the Great Basin, where dating of sites has been based to a great extent on cross-dating of projectile points and ceramics with other regions (Brooks and Larson 1975:437; Hauck et al. 1979:14). The dates from Bird Spring are in accord with the accepted sequence for southern Nevada, providing a base date for the appearance of the Rose Spring and Eastgate series, as well as the pottery. Furthermore, the three dates present an internally consistent floruit which lends credibility to the dates themselves

Notes on a Portable Rock Art Piece from Western Nevada

As with all Great Basin carved effigies, the piece may be classed as rather crude and experimental. A best guess at its species would be mountain sheep, an assessment with which Tuohy (personal communication) is in accord. As Wellmann (1979:56) has noted, mountain sheep are by far the most common animal portrayed in petroglyphs of the Great Basin. They are also the most faithfully executed and accurately rendered of all the quadrupeds, allowing for their easy modern-day recognition. Most other petroglyphic portrayals of animals are more aptly described as amorphous zoomorphs. Such figures could represent abstractions of known species, totally mythical or imaginary "dream" species, or non-realistic composites of the above. Such terms could also be used to interpret the piece described herein. It is suggested that such pieces would receive more attention if they were perceived as a type of rock art. Although portable, and admittedly at the other end of the spectrum from pictographs, petroglyphs, and geoglyphs (intaglios), they are nevertheless made of stone and are generally felt to be functionally magico-religious. If placed under the rock-art rubric they might become more attractive as objects of serious interpretive efforts

Radiocarbon dates from CA-Mrn-152

In general, excavations at Mrn-152, which were conducted in 1972 and 1973, produced few time-sensitive artifacts, but those identified range from the Early through the Late Horizon, as defined elsewhere in central California. The close agreement of the three dates reported here indicates that there may have been an early occupation of Marin County, yet to be fully discovered and described, that is comparable to that of the Berkeley facies

Radiocarbon dates from CA-Mrn-152

In general, excavations at Mrn-152, which were conducted in 1972 and 1973, produced few time-sensitive artifacts, but those identified range from the Early through the Late Horizon, as defined elsewhere in central California. The close agreement of the three dates reported here indicates that there may have been an early occupation of Marin County, yet to be fully discovered and described, that is comparable to that of the Berkeley facies