Stones and Standing Waves: Integrating Interpretation with Emergent Methods in Petroglyph Studies

Summary

Recent systematic study of petroglyphs and pictographs at select sites in the Great Basin and Mojave Desert explores archaeoacoustic connections between rock art and oral tradition. This project illustrates data collection procedures which integrate emergent, non-impacting methods, with interpretation facilitated by post-positivist thought. Research design is nonetheless framed within the scientific method. Systematic experiments incorporated into this study explore the viability of, and consistency with, a number of previous relevant studies. As the culmination of several field sessions at two dramatic slot canyon sites in Basin / Mojave convergence, results here graphically illustrate dramatic visual and acoustical qualities of potential sacred sites. Relevance of acoustical data is thoroughly substantiated within the contexts of Numic oral traditions linked with place and peoples. Discussion concludes with explanations of how datasets produced here, and elsewhere with comparable methods, may prove useful in addressing other avenues of theoretical exploration, especially archaeoastronomy and its implications.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21199