The Rock Art of Valley of Fire, Clark County, Nevada

Summary

Valley of Fire is one of the gems of Nevada archaeology known as an area rich in archaeological resources. Yet little work had been undertaken in the area. Since 2003 the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) has conducted five survey field schools in Valley of Fire designed to teach students survey and site recording. The results so far demonstrate that Valley of Fire is an area rich in rock art and other cultural resources, with new rock art sites being recorded and data from earlier recorded sites being updated. These sites range in age from the Archaic period (ca. 5500 B.P-2000 B.P.) to the proto-historic Numic period (ca. 800 B.P.-150 B.P.). The data also suggests that in the late prehistoric period, several different cultural traditions occupied or used Valley of Fire as a resource procurement zone. This succession of occupations and cultural traditions will be examined through a discussion of the rock art resources of the locality. In the end the results demonstrate that Valley of Fire is a important archaeological zone that holds the potential to enhance or change many of southern Nevada's archaeological community's ideas about the prehistoric occupation and use of the southern Great Basin.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Rock Art Research: A Regional Analysis   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage