CultureWatch Northwest

40,000 Years of Life & Death: Excavations in Spain's El Miron Cave

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 03:13:00 +0000

The Oregon Archaeological Society is pleased to sponsor the March 5, 2013 lecture titled: "40,000 Years of Life and Death in a Spanish Cave: Excavations in El Miron, Cantabria."

The featured speaker is the distinguished Dr. Lawrence Guy Straus, the Leslie Spier Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico College of Arts and Sciences.

El Miron Cave, located in the Cantabrian Cordillera in Spain has been excavated by Professor Straus and a Spanish colleague since 1996. Scientifically discovered in 1903, but ignored by archaeologists despite being surrounded by cave art sites, El Miron is a large cave with a strategic location. First visited by Straus in 1973, it has yielded results beyond his wildest expectations.

The cultural sequence begins in the late Middle Paleolithic and continues through evidence of Medieval visits, with radiocarbon dates ranging from 41,000 BP to AD 1400. As the surrounding environment changed, the evidence of human use of the cave also changed.

The site has been the subject of numerous multidisciplinary studies of the climate, landscapes, human technology, subsistence, and artistic activity that have resulted in dozens of publications in Europe and the U.S. Major discoveries have included dated portable art objects, rock engravings, an associated human burial, evidence of human occupation and livestock stabling, and ceramic and metal technology.

Straus has conducted excavations in Spain, France, Portugal, and Belgium, principally at Upper Paleolithic (but also Middle Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic) sites. He is particularly interested in human adaptations to the diverse and changing environments of the Last Glacial in Western Europe.

He has authored numerous publications and has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Anthropological Research since 1995. He has been given lifetime achievement awards by the Stone Age Institute at Indiana University and the Sociedad Prehistorica de Cantabria, and has held offices in the international unions for Quaternary Research (INQUA) and Pre- and Proto-historic Sciences (UISPP).

The presentation is at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is free and open to the public. A general business meeting begins at 7 PM, followed by the lecture.

See www.oregonarchaeological.org/events or call 503-727-3507 for more information.

Petroglyph Canyon Historic Photos

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 01:10:00 +0000

Large wall of rock art at Petroglyph Canyon (Willis Vail Photo, 1905. © Old Oregon Photos.)

For thousands of years native people carved and painted spiritually important images on the basalt cliff faces of what came to be known as Petroglyph Canyon. The canyon is located in south central Washington state near Columbia Hills State Park (see image below).

View of Petroglyph Canyon location. Columbia Hills State Park is at the red "You Are Here" dot (image courtesy of Washington State Parks)

Petroglyph Canyon was reported to have one of the largest concentrations of Indian rock art in North America before it was largely submerged in the pool behind The Dalles Dam (photo below) in 1957. Today much of the rock art, and the canyon itself, lie hidden beneath the waters of Horsethief Lake and the Columbia River at Columbia Hills State Park near Dallesport, WA.

We recently came across a website (www.oldoregonphotos.com) that displays (and sells) historic photographs. John Klatt, who owns the Old Oregon website, has graciously allowed CultureWatch NW to reproduce some very old photos of Columbia Gorge rock art. (All historic photos in this post are © Old Oregon Photos).

As the giant hydroelectric generation dams were built on the Columbia River beginning in the 1930's many Native American cultural areas, including rock art sites, were flooded by the large lakes that formed behind them. Photographers, professional and amateur, scrambled to record the ancient images before they disappeared.

By the way, if you have old photos of rock art from the Columbia Gorge and are willing to share them we would love to hear from you! Just send an email to culturewatch@gmail.com.

A number of petroglyphs and pictographs were actually "salvaged" by being physically removed from areas about to be submerged. Some of these rescued boulders, including a number of those shown in the old Benjamin Markham photos in this article, can be seen today along the Temani Peshwa Trail (photo below) at Columbia Hills State Park and at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest Recreation Area near Vantage, WA.

So let's take a look at the old photos! When available we've included both a historic picture (black and white) and a modern photo (color) so you can see how the rock art has changed in the last 75-100 years.

The photo on the left below was taken by Benjamin Markham in the 1920's. It shows the panel of petroglyphs in situ, still part of the cliff wall at Petroglyph Canyon. The same panel is visible at center left in the Willis Vail photo above. On the right below is the salvaged panel, now located on the Temani Peshwa Trail.

You will notice that the contrast between the petroglyphs and the background rock is much greater in the old photos. Historically it was a common practice to color or outline rock art with white chalk to make the images show up clearly in photos. This practice is now regarded as vandalism because it may take decades for the chalk to disappear.

Images in situ at Petroglyph Canyon.

Markham Photo.

Salvaged boulder as it sits today on the Temni Peshwa Trail.

Images in situ at Petroglyph Canyon (at left above, Markham Photo circa 1920's) and as they looks today on the Temani Peshwa Trail at Columbia Hills State Park.

The photo on the left (attributed to Markham but unsigned) was taken near Wishram, WA. A modern photo shows the beautiful color of the images which are a combination of petroglyphs and pictographs (painted on the rock surface).

The two photos below were also taken by Markham
in the 1920's. Unfortunately we don't have any modern
photos to compare them with. The image on the left was taken
in Petroglyph Canyon and is now assumed to be
submerged. The other was taken at a rock art site in
Sherman County, Oregon.

Check out the historic photos at www.oldoregonphotos.com and when the weather warms up (after April 1) head out to Columbia Hills State Park where you can take a self-guided tour of the Tamani Peshwa Trail (whenever the park is open) and also a free guided tour of the other extensive rock art sites at the park (reservation required for the free tour, there is a small fee to enter the park).

Good News From Lascaux!

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:27:00 +0000

The latest issue of the International Newsletter on Rock Art (INORA 62-2012) arrived with the wonderful news that the creeping decay of the cave's stunning images is, for the most part, in remission!

This is great news after years of frustration in fighting the nasty micro-organisms that were attempting to literally "eat" the 19,000 year-old paintings.

All the images (click them to enlarge) in this post were taken by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication on June 1, 2011 and are used with permission (please do not copy or reproduce them). The photos and captions are as they were originally published in INORA.

Although access to the cave is severely limited I was privileged to enter the original Lascaux in July, 2001 and view the images displayed here. These recent examinations and photos are very reassuring in that they show little or no apparent change since I saw the paintings 11 years ago...of course 11 years is insignificant in the lifespan of these ancient paintings...but the paintings were under aggressive attack by fungi and bacteria at the time.

French scientists, with advice from the international scientific community, have been fighting the degradation of the images since the 1960s. The cave, discovered in 1940 and opened to the public in 1947, was closed to the public in 1963 (an excellent reproduction, Lascaux II, is available and has been visited by millions of people). Scientists installed new ventilation systems, applied fungicides, antibiotics and even lime as they fought the algae, fungi, bacteria and molds that plagued the cave.

It appears that what finally stabilized the cave is a policy of non-intervention that has been in effect since 2008. The author of the INORA article, Pedro Lima, calls this a "natural remission" and it is supported by the current Lascaux Scientific Council. There is still some controversy about this approach but the images are being watched closely and any resurgence of problems would be quickly noted.

Via the internet you can view an excellent virtual tour of the cave by clicking Lascaux.

We offer a guarded congratulations to the scientists and the French government on this success in stabilizing Lascaux. With luck and continued vigilance we hope these unique paintings will be safe for another 19,000 years.

Referenced Article:
Lascaux: Back to Balance
by Pedro Lima
INORA No.62-2012, Pages 1-7

Thanks to Dr. Jean Clottes, Lascaux Curator Muriel Mauriac, and Dr. Jean-Michel Geneste for information and permissions used to create this post.

You can subscribe to INORA (3 issues/year, an excellent publication)
- In the U.S. send $25 payable to ARARA to:
Dona Gillette
ARARA
1147 Vaquero Way
Nipomo, CA 93444

-In France send a 20 Euro check payable to ARAPE to:
ARAPE
11, rue du Fourcat
09000 FOIX, France

-If you are elsewhere or do not have a French bank account send a postal money order for 20 Euros to:
ARAPE
11, rue du Fourcat
09000 FOIX, France

For more INORA subscription info please contact yanik.leguillou@online.fr

New e-Book! "In the Footsteps of the Fremont...The Rock Art of Minnie's Gap, Wyoming"

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:40:00 +0000

CultureWatch Northwest is pleased to publish this free e-book for your education and enjoyment! We've used an on-line service called Shutterfly to produce the book and make it freely available on our website. You can read the full book by clicking below and you can purchase a printed copy from Shutterfly if you like (CultureWatch receives none of the proceeds).

We hope you enjoy this look at the beautiful rock art of Minnie's Gap, Wyoming!

Click here to view this photo book larger

From the book...

"In June 2011 a team of archaeologists from the Oregon Archaeological Society and CultureWatch Northwest surveyed, photographed, and recorded the important ancient Indian rock art at the Minnie's Gap, Wyoming site.

The Minnie's Gap site was first scientifically surveyed and reported in 1962 by the University of Utah in conjunction with the construction of the Flaming Gorge Dam and Reservoir. In 2011, Archaeologist and Team leader Dr. James D. Keyser recognized two of the drawings in the report as important Fremont Culture (ca. AD 700-1200) symbolism and organized the project to professionally study them.

The team (below) sincerely appreciates the cooperation of landowners Pat and Pauleen Baker of Dutch John, Utah who allowed us to access the site and we dedicate this volume to them."

Michael Taylor, CultureWatch Northwest/Oregon Archaeological Society

Dr. James D. Keyser, Oregon Archaeological Society

George Poetschat, Oregon Archaeological Society

David Kaiser, Oregon Archaeological Society

Steve Rathman, Oregon Archaeological Society

People & Plants: Study of Ancient Oregon Rock Shelter Topic of September OAS Lecture

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:53:00 +0000

Catlow Valley Highway-Photo Courtesy of Dave Anderson (Picasa)

OAS Meeting & Presentation: Tuesday, September 6
The Oregon Archaeological Society will offer its first lecture of the year on Tuesday, September 6, 2011. The title of the lecture is “People and Plants: Paleobotanical Studies at a Late Archaic Rock Shelter in Oregon’s Catlow Valley.” Jaime Dexter, a doctoral student in Archaeology at the University of Oregon, is the featured speaker.

Dexter’s research interests include paleoethnobotany, palynology, plant genetics, and environmental archaeology. She has studied the subsistence strategies of hunter-gatherer populations in the northwestern Great Basin and is specifically interested in utilizing cross-disciplinary approaches to recognize and address prehistoric environmental impacts.

The presentation is at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) at 7:45 PM, and is free and open to the public. The talk is preceded at 7 PM by a general business meeting, which is also open to the public

See www.oregonarchaeological.org or call 503-727-3507 for more information.www.oregonarchaeological.org.

OAS Field Trip: Huckleberry Processing Fields, Saturday, September 10 - Space Available!

Photo courtesy Fat of the Land

Rick McClure, Forest Archaeologist & Heritage Program Manager for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest at Mt. Adams, Washington and archaeologist Cheryl Mack, will conduct two field trips to huckleberry processing field sites, focusing on the archaeology of the Cascade Crest - late summer upland use oriented toward collection and processing of huckleberries. The trip is expected to last the entire day.

Meet at 9:00 a. m. at the Mt. Adams Ranger Station. This trip will go into the Indian Heaven Wilderness and is more difficult due to hiking conditions.

Contact Betty Tandberg (360) 695-6021 or tandberg0408@comcast.net to sign up for either of these trips since the number of participants is limited.

Final Resting Place of Clark County Pioneers

By Sue Vorenberg
Columbian Staff Reporter

It wasn’t easy for the dozen or so family members to pack up a wagon train in 1850 and bump, thump and roll their way from Missouri to what would eventually become east Vancouver.

When they staked their claims for free land around the Columbia River and Government Island, the small band probably didn’t consider that one day they’d end up as founding members of a county that would grow to more than 425,000 people...

Read the whole story at: Fishers Cemetery

British Columbia Village May Be 10,000 Years Old

Mark Hume

Globe & Mail

When Farid Rahemtulla and his anthropology students began to dig in the forest floor on Calvert Island, he pretty much knew what to expect – lots of clam and mussel shells.

But shortly after the team from the University of Northern British Columbia started to sink pits into a shell midden (refuse dump) on the Central Coast, he realized it was much bigger than anyone imagined – so large he now believes it is part of a long-lost, ancient village called Luxvbalis...

Read the whole story at: Ancient Village

Teen Gets Prison in Red Rock Graffiti Case

By Jeff German

Las Vegas Review-Journal

The desecration last year of prehistoric artwork at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area sparked outrage and focused attention on the spread of graffiti throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

This week, the 17-year-old youth charged with defacing the Red Rock area received his punishment behind closed doors in federal court, ending a case that rallied the community to help remove the spray-painted graffiti...

Read the whole sad story at: Rock Art Graffiti

Ötzi the Iceman Murdered on a Full Stomach
By Brandon Keim

Wired
A fresh analysis of Ötzi the Iceman’s stomach suggests a grisly new climax to the world’s most famous prehistory murder mystery: death by ambush, a surprise killing in the afterglow of a big meal.

Ötzi was found in 1991, frozen and fantastically preserved in ice high in the Italian Alps, where he’d perished 5,300 years ago. With his tattoos and cool tools and smart outfit, rendered by artists with soulful brown eyes under a weathered brow, he became a Copper Age celebrity. Public and scientific imagination seized on the circumstances of his life — and, of course, his death...

Otzi fans can read the whole story at: Otzi Dies on Full Stomach

Hand Axes Unearthed in Kenya are Oldest Advanced Stone Tools Ever Found

By Ian Sample

Guardian.co.uk

A recent discovery suggests early humans were wielding sophisticated stone tools at least 300,000 years earlier than thought. A rare haul of picks, flakes and hand axes recovered from ancient sediments in Kenya are the oldest remains of advanced stone tools yet discovered.

Archaeologists unearthed the implements while excavating mudstone banks on the shores of Lake Turkana in the remote north-west of the country.

Read the whole story at: Ancient Tools

(Thanks to Robin Harrower, Russel Micnhimer, The Columbian, Wired, the Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and Las Vegas Review-Journal for some of the info in this post.)

Rare Chinook House Stone Re-discovered!

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 19:01:00 +0000

Kloshe Nanitch

The Guardian of Altoona

In April Portland archaeologist Melissa Darby connected me to Kari Kandoll, the curator of the Wahkiakum County Historical Society Museum in Cathlamet, WA. Cathlamet is a small community about 65 miles west and down the Columbia River from Vancouver and Portland.

Kari and her staff had recently uncovered a small, interestingly carved boulder in the storage area of the museum. The boulder had been donated long ago by a local resident and since forgotten among the thousands of items in the museum's collection.

Late in June Kari brought the stone to the CultureWatch NW office in Vancouver where we took the photos included here.

After some research we concluded that the stone was a Chinook house stone. This rare carved stone figure is believed to have stood outside a Chinook Indian longhouse (similar to the one in the "Floor Plan drawing to the right) in the vicinity of Altoona, WA.

The figure probably represents a mythological character important in the Chinookan spiritual belief structure. Such carved figures, in stone or wood, were erected outside longhouses to protect the occupants from evil spirits and influences.

Note the tapered lower end of the stone which would have been buried in the earth, securing the stone in an upright position near the front of the house.

Also notice the triangular ribbed carving on the back of the figure. In several other examples of Chinookan carving this shape represents the exaggerated tail of an animal (a beaver or mountain sheep) providing another indication that perhaps the human-like face on the front of the stone is not actually human, but a protective spirit figure.

Once we had identified what the carved stone was we wanted to come up with a suitable name that would recognize its significance and honor its purpose. After consulting a Chinook Jargon Phrasebook I suggested the name "Kloshe Nanitch", The Guardian of Altoona.

The words mean "take care, stand guard, watch out"...suitable terms for a house stone that would have protected occupants of a long house hundreds of years ago.

Now Kloshe Nanitch is headed for a place of honor on display in the Wahkiakum Museum near where it served its original purpose guarding the Chinook people of Altoona.

VISIT KLOSHE NANITCH & CATHLAMET!

Historic Cathlamet is an easy day trip from Portland or Vancouver and is well worth visiting. While you're there you can stop in at the Historical Society Museum, check out Kloshe Nanitch and enjoy an extensive exhibit and photo collection, including logging, fishing, maritime, farming, families, towns, and genealogy records.

The Wahkiakum County Historical Society Museum

65 River Street, Cathlamet, WA
360-795-3954 or 360-849-4353

Open:

May 1 - Oct 31, Saturday - Sunday, 1 - 4pm
Admission: $3 (18-54 yrs); $1.50 (55-plus)
FREE: WCHS Members and Children under 18

If you visit the weekend of July 16, Cathlamet will be holding its Bald Eagle Days festival, a traditional small town event with fun for everyone!

CultureWatch Director to Speak This Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:39:00 +0000

Columbia River Plateau archaeology and Indian rock art will be subjects of a talk and slide show Saturday at the quarterly meeting of the Camas-Washougal Historical Society.

Michael W. Taylor, a Washington native and co-author of five books, will speak about cultural resources, rock art and Columbia Plateau archaeology.

His presentation will be titled "Reconnecting with Nichi-Wana: Ancient Indian Rock Art of the Lower Columbia River".

Taylor has contributed to five books and numerous professional articles and presentations. He is the principal of Culture Watch Northwest, an organization dedicated to protecting “places that matter.” He has served as both president and director of the Oregon Archaeological Society.

Taylor’s talk is set for 2 p.m. Saturday in the community room of the Camas Police Station, 2100 N.E. Third Ave. There will be time for discussion and questions after his presentation. Learn more about Culture Watch Northwest at http://culturewatchnorthwest.blogspot.com.

Information courtesy of The Columbian. Read the original article at: Historical Society Hosts Archaeology Talk

Sacred Cave/Rock Art Vandalized Near Bend, OR

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:19:00 +0000

Vandalism Discovered at Arnold Cave Complex in Central Oregon-Reward Offered

April 21, 2011, during a visit to the Arnold cave complex, Forest Archaeologist Penni Borghi, Wildlife Specialist Julie York, local Grotto president Matt Skeels, and ASCO members Lisa Nicol and Susan Gray discovered extensive paint vandalism at Hidden Forest Cave.

Several different colors of spray paint graffiti covered a large stretch of the east face of the sink area, stopping just short of the drip line. Pictures do not do the damage justice (see video below)!

This cave is one of the most beautiful in the extensive lava tube systems in Central Oregon, and one of the most overused and badly treated. Past ASCO stewardship visits have reported evidence of vehicular traffic on the closed roads, illegal fire pits, damaged trees cut for firewood and shot up for whatever reason, large numbers of beer cans and bottles (many shattered against the rock faces), discarded clothing, and other types of graffiti.

If you are unsure about what activities are not permitted in the caves, you may read the Forest Service’s guidelines for cave access on their website. (http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/centraloregon/conditio ns/cave_access_deschutes.pdf)

If you have any information that could help the investigation into the vandalism at this site, please contact Eddy Cartaya, the Forest Service law enforcement officer handling the case, at the Bend-Fort Rock Office (541-383- 4796).

(Article above reprinted with permission from the ASCO May-June 2011 Midden. Thanks to Susan Gray, Editor of the Midden for sending us this info.)

VIDEO BELOW PROVIDED BY OREGON HIGH DESERT GROTTO

(caution...if you love rock art and/or caves this is a very disturbing video).

REWARD OFFERED/DONATE TO REWARD FUND

Oregon High Desert Grotto, a caving club based in Bend, OR, is offering a reward for information on the Hidden Forest Cave vandalism. They are also asking for donations to increase the reward fund. Click here for more info on the reward or to make a donation

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams" Film Coming to Portland!

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:59:00 +0000

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams" the major international film on Chauvet Cave is coming to Portland's Cinema 21! The film is scheduled to open on Friday, May 6.

Nothing is certain yet, but I'm talking to the people at Cinema 21 about having a special showing for OAS members and guests. Stay tuned and we'll announce the event here if it comes together.

Following is some info and the trailer (previously published here)...

Werner Herzog's new film "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" is a stunning 3D documentary about the cave in France that is home to the world's oldest known human art. The film, which includes appearances by Dr. Jean Clottes, is scheduled to be released in March (and to open in Portland on May 6).

Read more at: Herzog Chauvet Interview

More about the film: Herzog website

...and here's the official movie trailer...

Warrior Art, Painted Caves, Flint-knapping, Mammoths ...and More

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 16:30:00 +0000

OAS MEETING: TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 7:00 PM AT OMSI
“Recounting Days of Glory: Plains Indian Warrior Art” is the topic of the April 5, 2011 Oregon Archaeological Society lecture. Dr. James Keyser is the featured speaker.

Keyser has conducted rock art research across western North America including projects in Alberta, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. He also has an ongoing research interest in European rock art in France, Spain, and Italy. He is a member of the Science Advisory Committee for the Study of Chauvet Cave (France), and is listed in Who's Who in Rock Art. Prior to retirement, he served for 27 years as a regional archaeologist for the U.S. Forest Service. He maintains faculty affiliation with the University of Montana and has more than 150 archaeology publications of which more than 100 concern rock art, robe art, or ledger art.

The presentation is at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) at 7:45 PM, and is free and open to the public. The talk is preceded at 7 PM by a general business meeting, which is also open to the public

See www.oregonarchaeological.org or call 503-727-3507 for more information.

JEAN AUEL BOOKSIGNING AT THE OAS MAY MEETING

As you've probably heard by now Jean Auel has released a new book "The Land of Painted Caves"! Jean has tentatively agreed to come to the May OAS meeting to sign copies of her new book (if she's back from her intergalactic book launch tour).

OAS will have a few copies of the new book that you can buy at the meeting or you can bring your own.

We'll make another announcement later in April to confirm (or reschedule) the booksigning.

Read a great Oregonian article about Jean Auel at: "Where I Write: Jean M. Auel..."

OAS PRESIDENT DEMONSTRATES FLINT-KNAPPING AT FORT VANCOUVER

Dennis Torresdal, OAS President, was featured in a recent Columbian article titled "Flint-Knapping Fun". Dennis, an expert flint-knapper, created fine blades, projectile points...and a lot of debitage during a well-attended exhibition at the Fort.

Read all about it at: Fort Vancouver Flint-knapping

WENAS CREEK MAMMOTH EXCAVATIONS: LECTURE APRIL 11

Monday, April 11, 6:30 PM, Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center, 990 SW Rock Creek Dr., Stevenson, WA, Patrick Lubinski, Wenes Creek Mammoth.

Lecturer: Patrick Lubinski, Professor of Anthropology, Central Washington University.

The 2005 accidental discovery of a mammoth bone near Selah, Washington led to a six- year investigation by Central Washington University, providing a glimpse into life during that time. In addition to 16,000-year-old mammoth and bison bones, students and faculty have found human-made artifacts of unknown age that could shed new light on the early presence of people in Washington. Lubinski will summarize the project and its findings using bone casts, PowerPoint images and video. .
http://www.humanities.org/programs/speakers/current-speakers/inquiring-mind-speaker-patrick-lubinski

As this is an evening event the Interpretive Center will be closed. After you turn north on Rock Creek Drive from Washington SR14 look for the employees entrance/parking lot on your right (less than 1/2mile). If you get to Skamania Lodge Road or the main entrance to the Interpretive Center you have gone too far.

For more info: Patrick Lubinski

CENTER FOR JAPANESE STUDIES HOSTS PSU TALK MAY 19
May 19, 6PM PSU Smith Memorial Hall 238 presentation by DR. Ho Tae JEon (Harvard University) "Koguryo tomb murals and Japan in Ancient East Asian Funeral Arts" sponsored by the Portland State Center for Japanese Studies.

$10,000 FINE LEVIED..."NO, IT'S NOT COOL TO DEFACE NATIVE ROCK ART
Read more: Rock Art Fine

Arrival of the Earliest Americans: New Discoveries

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:36:00 +0000

Clovis first?...Clovis second?...or maybe not Clovis at all?

Research and discoveries that directly impact our thinking on when the Americas were first populated is accelerating.

News from Oregon (that's Paisley Cave to the left), Texas, Mexico and elsewhere is pushing back the earliest dates and expanding the routes of first peopling.

My personal opinion is that we're only at the beginning of understanding how and when the first people arrived in North and South America.

I've been around science long enough to have learned that, whatever the topic, the popular scientific theories of the day usually turn out to be too simplistic to explain reality. The world is a complex and messy place that often can't be reduced to a single neat answer...but that's OK! Its the process of advancing theories and facts that push our understanding forward.

So it appears that the original theories of a single land bridge migration into North America aren't the whole answer. Check out the interesting videos and articles on the topic below...and see what you think!

Migrating to North America
Here's a fascinating video about Paisley Cave, Oregon and the discoveries there. Click on the image to the left or on the link below to watch...
Click here for Paisley Cave video

Professor Dennis Jenkins (pictured below), who leads the project at Paisley Cave where evidence of human occupation as much as 14,000 years ago has been discovered, has prepared a fascinating overview that you can read by clicking here.

Researchers at Paisley Cave wear body suits to
eliminate potential contamination of DNA samples.

Skull in Underwater Cave May Be Earliest Trace of First Americans
National Geographic
February 18, 2011
By Fabio Esteban Amador
Explorers have discovered what might be the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas. Alex Alvarez, Franco Attolini, and Alberto (Beto) Nava are members of PET (Projecto Espeleológico de Tulum), an organization that specializes in the exploration and survey of underwater caves on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Alex, Franco and Beto have surveyed tens of thousands of feet of mazelike cave passages in the state of Quintana Roo. The team’s relatively recent explorations of a large pit named Hoyo Negro (Black Hole, in Spanish), deep within a flooded cave, resulted in their breathtaking and once-in-a-lifetime discovery of the remains of an Ice Age mastodon and a human skull at the very bottom of the black abyss...

Read the whole story by clicking on the photo or here.

Spear Points Found in Texas Dial Back Arrival of Humans in America
By John Noble Wilford
New York Times Science
Published: March 24, 2011

For many years, scientists have thought that the first Americans came here from Asia 13,000 years ago, during the last ice age, probably by way of the Bering Strait. They were known as the Clovis people, after the town in New Mexico where their finely wrought spear points were first discovered in 1929.

But in more recent years, archaeologists have found more and more traces of even earlier people with a less refined technology inhabiting North America and spreading as far south as Chile.

And now clinching evidence in the mystery of the early peopling of America — Clovis or pre-Clovis? — for nearly all scientists appears to have turned up at a creek valley in the hill country of what is today Central Texas, 40 miles northwest of Austin...

Read the whole story by clicking the photo above or here.

Thanks to Russel Micnhimer, Robin Harrower, the New York Times, University of Oregon, and National Geographic for contributing some of the info used in this post.

Huckleberries, New Auel Book, Chauvet Film...and more!

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 22:37:00 +0000

OAS MEETING THIS TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 7:00 PM AT OMSI
“From the Mountains Beyond: The Archaeology of Huckleberry and Cedar in the Southern Washington Cascades” is the title of the March 1, 2011 lecture sponsored by the Oregon Archaeological Society. Rick McClure, the Forest Archaeologist and Heritage Program Manager for Gifford Pinchot National Forest, will discuss the record left by Lewis and Clark regarding the many resources—including plant foods--they encountered and their cultural significance to local Native peoples.

Some of these resources were from the surrounding uplands - the mountains beyond - areas managed today as national forest system lands. The presentation will take a closer look at several specific resources, beginning with descriptions from the pages of the expedition journals, and moving to the archaeology of the mountains beyond, to investigate traditional land use practices in the period 1805-1806.

The presentation is at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) at 7:45 PM, and is free and open to the public. The talk is preceded at 7 PM by a general business meeting, which is also open to the public See www.oregonarchaeological.org or call 503-727-3507 for more information.

CLARK COUNTY MUSEUM HONORS OAS MEMBER RICHARD REAY

The Clark County Historical Museum threw a party on Jan. 19 for Richard Reay, who has volunteered there for a decade. He didn’t want any fuss, so the museum made it a surprise party. “Richard made himself indispensable to staff, other volunteers and visitors alike with his can-do attitude, endless patience, attention to detail, and encyclopedic knowledge of our reference library as well as the last 10 years of museum history,” a museum press release stated. “In a word, Richard is irreplaceable.”

Read more at: Richard Reay Honored

JEAN M. AUEL'S NEW BOOK TO BE RELEASED MARCH 29, 2011!
The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children® series, The Land of Painted Caves, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago.

See more about the book and read free chapters at:
The Land of Painted Caves

See Jean Auel talk about her new book on video: Painted Caves Interview

And here's a "trailer" for the book...

CHAUVET CAVE FILM TO BE RELEASED!
Werner Herzog's new film "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" is a stunning 3D documentary about the cave in France that is home to the world's oldest known human art. The film, which includes appearances by Dr. Jean Clottes, is scheduled to be released in March.

So far no schedule for showings has been released, but stay tuned!

Read more at: Herzog Chauvet Interview

More about the film: Herzog website

...and here's the official movie trailer...

OREGON TRAIL/ANTELOPE RIDGE WIND FARM UPDATE
Over the past week I learned that Portland-based Archaeological Investigations Northwest Inc. (AINW) is the firm doing the archaeological research and analysis on the wind project. This is encouraging because AINW is a very good and highly respected firm...but keep in mind that AINW (like any archaeological consulting organization) is only in a position to analyze and recommend things to the various regulatory agencies that have the real decision-making power that will determine the fate of the Oregon Trail in the project area.

According to Terry Ozbun, Senior Archaeologist at AINW...
"AINW is conducting cultural resource surveys for the Antelope Ridge Wind Energy Project to provide information for appropriate protections of historic and archaeological resources during the project planning process. For over a year now, the project developer has been working closely with the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) and with the Oregon Historic Trails Advisory Council (OHTAC) to formulate plans for avoiding impacts to the Oregon Trail. This collaboration was proactively initiated by the developer and has been productive and sincere. All of the parties are working very hard to find a way to develop wind energy and, at the same time, protect the Oregon Trail, along with other important cultural resources.
The project's permit application is available online at http://www.horizonwindfarms.com/western-region/under-dev/antelope-ridge.htm and I would also be happy to field questions that OAS members may have about the project." You can reach Terry at: terry@ainw.com.

I encourage you to let your elected officials and representatives of the regulatory agencies (see my previous email for details) know how you feel about protecting the Oregon Trail for future generations.

ENDANGERED PLACES LIST STARTED BY LEAGUE
The Historic Preservation League of Oregon is creating a most endangered places list for Oregon. The list will be an annual register of those historic buildings, and sites, and districts, and structures, and landscapes that need a little extra attention in order to make it to the next phase.

You can submit a nomination until March 21. While a diversity of places will be selected, historic significance, the nature of the threat, and the potential for local support will be considered during review process. The inaugural list will be announced in late May, after which the league will actively support the selected places through partnerships and direct assistance.

For more information and a nomination form, visit www.historicpreservationleague.org

That's all for now. Let me know if you like the new eNews format (mike@instantiations.com).

Archaeology Presentations, Rock Art Guide, Old Teeth, & A Third Branch of Humanity

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 23:56:00 +0000

OAS MEETING - TUESDAY, JAN. 4, 2011 - Revisiting the Meier Site

Dr. Kenneth Ames is the featured speaker at the January 4, 2011 Oregon Archaeological Society meeting. He will be talking about the Meier Site and Lower Columbia River archaeology.

The Meier Site, located near Scappoose, Oregon, is one of the most significant sites on the Lower Columbia River. It was excavated between 1987 and 1991. The site dates to the period from about AD 1400 to at least through the founding of Ft. Vancouver, in the 1830s and beyond. The Meier site revealed major residential habitation with a massive plankhouse. The talk reviews the results of analyses of thousands of artifacts, focusing on the Meier site, while also discussing other sites along the river.

Dr. Ames is Professor and Department Chair of Anthropology at Portland State University. He has conducted numerous archaeological field research in western North America and has authored numerous publications and reports.

The lecture will be held in the OMSI auditorium at 7:45 PM, and is free and open to the public. The presentation is preceded at 7 PM by a general business meeting, which is also open to the public. See www.oregonarchaeological.org or call 503-727-3507 for information.

ARCHAEOLOGY FOR THE CURIOUS-OAS BASIC TRAINING STILL AVAILABLE!
Are you looking to learn more about archaeology basics, or do you need a refresher on the history of the Pacific Northwest? The Oregon Archaeological Society offers an annual Training program.

OAS Basic Training, also known as Archaeology for the Curious, is taught by experienced regional professionals from organizations such as the National Forest Service, BLM, and the University of Oregon. The sessions will be held on six Saturdays in late Winter/early Spring.

Contact Steve Satterthwaite (503) 824-2264 satterts@hotmail.com or visit http://www.oregonarchaeological.org/training.htm

NEW ROCK ART GUIDE BOOK NOW AVAILABLE
Oregon avocational archaeologists D. Russel Micnhimer and LeeAnn Johnston announce the publication of their new guide book, Where to See Rock Art: Washington Oregon Idaho by Pendulum Press.

It contains general information about various aspects of rock art and specific information about where rock art can be seen in museums, visitor centers, state parks and public lands in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Photographs, line drawings and a brief description give readers an idea of what they will find at 39 locations in the three states. The table of contents make it easy to access the information in this 147 page paperback.

The authors are members of the Oregon Archaeological Society and have received numerous Loring & Loring Grants from the organization in support of their on going research and website www.oregonrockart.com.

The new book is available directly from Russel Micnhimer, P. O. Box 1653, Prineville, OR 97754. $14.95 + $4.00 S&H (USPS). For more information email TalkingEarth@hotmail.com.

(I've read Russel and LeeAnn's new book and its a great guide for anyone who wants to visit the very interesting public rock art sites of the Pacific Northwest...Mike)

DOUGLAS HISTORIAN TO SPEAK IN PORTLAND, VANCOUVER
Author Jack Nisbet will talk about "Point of Departure: David Douglas at Fort Vancouver 1825-33" at 2 p.m. Jan. 9 at E.B. Hamilton Hall on the Fort Vancouver National Site. Nisbet will also give a reading from his book "The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest" at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 10 at Powell's bookstore in downtown Portland.

Douglas was the premier botanical explorer in the Pacific Northwest and western North America in the 19th century. His base of operations always remained at Fort Vancouver. The people he met there influenced his every move, and the changes he witnessed during his visits mark significant turning points for the social, economic, scientific, and environmental stories of the region. In this illustrated presentation at Fort Vancouver, Nisbet traces the energy Douglas brought to, and absorbed from, his central headquarters at Fort Vancouver. Nisbet is this year's Michael M. Powell Fellow at the Center for Columbia River History.

For program information, go to http://www.ccrh.org/calendar.php

AN OLDER ORIGIN FOR 'MODERN' TOOL-MAKING TECHNIQUE?
By News Services-October 29, 2010
A technique for shaping stones into sharp-edged points may have emerged about 55,000 years earlier than previously known, according to a study of stone tools from Blombos Cave in South Africa. Previously, researchers have also found other evidence of “modern” human behavior, such as shell beads, from this 75,000-year-old site, where new ideas and techniques may have been rapidly introduced...

Read the whole story at: http://www.flickeringtorches.com/2010/10/29/an-older-origin-for-modern-tool-making-technique.html

HUMAN, NEANDERTHAL, OR OTHER?
Finger Bones Point to New Branch of Humanity
By Charles Q. Choi
Published December 22, 2010
LiveScience
A finger bone and other remains from Siberia now reveals a previously unknown group of ancient humans once existed there, one neither like us nor Neanderthals.

Bizarrely, the DNA from these extinct Siberians seems unusually similar to that of Pacific Islanders from tropical Melanesia.The 30,000-year-old fossil was found in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia in 2008, a bone fragment that likely came from a fingertip of a young girl. It was discovered along with microblades (small stone blades used as tools), body ornaments of polished stone, and a molar shaped very differently from that of Neanderthals and modern humans, resembling that of much older human species, such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus. (The tooth and the finger bone apparently came from different members of the same population.)...

Read more: New Branch of Humanity?
More at: Three Types of Ancient Humans?

RESEARCHERS: ANCIENT HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN ISRAEL
By Daniel Estrin
Associated Press – Mon Dec 27
JERUSALEM –Israeli archaeologists said Monday they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man, and if so, it could upset theories of the origin of humans. A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens, found in Israel. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half as old...

Read the whole story at: Ancient Teeth

ANCIENT ROCK ART'S COLOURS COME FROM MICROBES
BBC Mobile
December 27, 2010

A particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colours because it is alive, researchers have found...

Read more at: http://goo.gl/eAEFH

(Thanks to Oregon Heritage News, News Services, LiveScience, the Associated Press, Russel Micnhimer, and Jodi Lorimer for some of the info in this message).

The Petroglyph Rubbings at Skamania Lodge

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:53:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to get to attend a Christmas party at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA this weekend.

Very nice place and they have an excellent collection of petroglyph rubbings and Pacific coast Indian-inspired wood carving displayed throughout the hotel.

The rubbings are mostly of ancient images found on the Columbia River Plateau. The region is home to hundreds of petroglyphs that have been carved into the surface of the native basalt and also to many pictographs that are painted on the rock.

Some of the rubbings are especially interesting because they are of images that are now submerged in the pools behind the major dams on the Columbia.

The rubbings were done by artist Jeanne Hillis over a number of years beginning in the 1940's. Skamania Lodge developer John D. Gray (also famous for Salishan, John's Landing, etc.) acquired the entire Hillis collection in the early 1990's to provide an artistic theme for the new lodge. Well known rock art scholar Dr. James Keyser was commissioned to write a monograph on the collection titled Indian Petroglyphs of the Columbia Gorge: The Jeanne Hillis Rubbings which was published in 1994.

I hope you enjoy the images below...and appreciate that they represent an important aspect of a living culture that has existed in the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years.

In addition to the rubbings the lodge holds several major wood carvings with images inspired by Pacific coast Indian art.

All the images in this blog are viewable for free in the public areas of the lodge. It's well worth a stop if you're ever in the area.

Enjoy!

(The author received no compensation from Skamania Lodge (or anyone else) for this post.)

Artist's Night, Cultural Trust, Machu Picchu & More

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:45:00 +0000

Its ARTIST'S NIGHT at the Oregon Archaeological Society! Next Tuesday is a special meeting...OAS artists will exhibit and sell their works, we''ll get a fascinating presentation on Captain Jack's Modoc Stronghold, and we get to select officers and board members for next year...art, education, and elections...all on one night! Plus OAS Basic Training, Oregon Cultural Trust, lectures, 10,000 year-old bones and Machu Picchu artifacts being returned to Peru...all that and more below. (The very artistic carved fish in the photo is 25,000 years old and is located in the Abri du Poisson near Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, France).

OAS MEETING & PRESENTATION: TUESDAY, DEC. 7 - CAPTAIN JACK'S STRONGHOLD
The results of recent archaeological field work of Captain Jack’s Stronghold in Lava Beds National Monument in Southern Oregon is the topic of the December 7, 2010 Oregon Archaeological Society lecture. A wildfire in 2008 burned covering vegetation from the “stronghold” and afforded archaeologists access and opportunity to better survey and study the area. The extensive honeycomb of jagged rock outcroppings, caves, and caverns provided Captain Jack and his Modoc tribe with an impregnable fortress and defensive position from which to fight extradition to a reservation by the U.S. Army in 1872-1873. The battle is referred to as the Modoc Indian War in Oregon history.

Jacqueline Cheung and Eric Gleason, both archaeologists with the National Park Service will present findings from their extensive field work, including the fortification and residential features and associated artifacts in the Stronghold. Using projected stereoscopic photographs (in 3-D) from the period, they will illustrate the historic features, battle fortifications, and examine changes in the landscape.

The presentation is at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) at 7:45 PM, and is free and open to the public. The talk is preceded at 7 PM by a general business meeting, which is also open to the public
See www.oregonarchaeological.org or call 503-727-3507 for more information.

2011 ARCHAEOLOGY FOR THE CURIOUS BASIC TRAINING PROGRAM

Do you want to prepare yourself to work on volunteer projects across the U.S.? Are you looking to learn more about archaeology basics, or do you need a refresher on the history of the Pacific Northwest? The Oregon Archaeological Society offers an annual training program that can help you accomplish all these goals.

OAS Basic Training, also known as Archaeology for the Curious, is taught by experienced regional professionals and volunteers from organizations such as the National Forest Service, BLM, and the University of Oregon.

Classes are held on Saturdays and begin in January 2011.

For all the details check: http://oregonarchaeological.org/training.htm

OREGON CULTURAL TRUST SUPPORTS OAS AND OTHER NON-PROFITS! MAKE DONATIONS BEFORE YEAR-END!

This is an important time for the Oregon Cultural Trust.

In the next month, the Trust will be reaching out to Oregonians and asking them to
make a contribution to support our state's unique cultural life and heritage. As you may know, the Trust has a goal of raising $4 million and dramatically increasing the number of donors from across the state by December 31st.

In the coming weeks, as we all spend time with our families, enjoy seasonal
performances and visit our most cherished venues and historic locations, we are asking that you take the time to make a donation to the Oregon Cultural Trust.

And in most cases, your donation will ultimately cost you absolutely nothing.

How? Through a tax credit on your state income tax for contributions to the Trust (keep in mind a tax credit is different than a tax deduction. Your tax bill is literally reduced by the amount of the credit!). To earn the tax credit:

First, make a donation to your favorite Oregon cultural non-profit (like OAS!). A list of qualifying 501(c)(3) non-profits (including OAS) is available at www.culturaltrust.org.

Second, make an equal or greater contribution to the Oregon Cultural Trust online at
www.culturaltrust.org.

Finally, claim your 100%, dollar for dollar tax credit for your gift to the Trust on your
Oregon state income tax (up to $500 for individuals, $1,000 for couples filing jointly and $2,500 for Oregon Corporations).

Supporting Oregon's culture couldn't be easier or more important. To learn more simply visit our website or contact the Trust via email at cultural.trust@state.or.us or by phoning 503 986 0088.

Thank you for taking the time to support Oregon's most valuable resource; our unique culture. Give the Gift That Grows. Donate today.

AIA LECTURES: JANUARY 21 & MARCH 11, 2011
January 21st 2011 - Friday 7:30 pm- School of Business Auditorium PSU
Ulrike Krotscheck, The Evergreen State College
“Wine for Bread: trade between Greek colonists and Gauls”

March 11th, 2011 - Friday 7:30 pm - School of Business Auditorium PSU
Thomas Tartaron, University of Pennsylvania
"Korphos-Kalamianos: Investigations at a Recently Discovered Mycenaean Harbor Town in the Corinthia, Greece, 2007-2010" (Dorinda J. Oliver Lecture)

All lectures are preceded by a no-host dinner; for details, and for ADA accommodations at lectures, please email Karen Carr at carrk@pdx.edu. All AIA events are free and open to the public. Free parking is available in the PSU parking structures after 5 pm on Fridays.

Check out the AIA website at http://www.history.pdx.edu/AIA.htm.

HISTORIC FILMS, CRAFTS SLATED FOR ASTORIA
The Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria will host a free
community day from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 4. Crafts will focus on a few
of the cultures that depended or worked on the Columbia River. Historic
films shown throughout the day in the Kern Room. For a schedule of
events, visit the museum's website at www.crmm.org or join the museum on
its Facebook page.

MEXICAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXTRACT 10,000 YEAR-OLD SKELETON FROM FLOODED CAVE
MEXICO CITY.- One of the earliest human skeletons of America, which belonged to a person that lived more than 10,000 years ago, in the Ice Age, was recovered by Mexican specialists from a flooded cave in Quintana Roo. The information it has lodged for centuries will reveal new data regarding the settlement of the Americas.

Read the whole story at: http://goo.gl/MHI8L

YALE WILL RETURN MACHU PICCHU ARTIFACTS

Alan Garcia, president of Peru, announced on Friday that Yale University has committed to return a collection of artifacts from Machu Picchu in early 2011 -- possibly ending years of negotiations and legal threats over the pieces, which were taken by a Yale team that excavated the area a century ago. Peru has long disputed Yale's assertions that the artifacts were taken legally.

Read the whole story at: http://goo.gl/ZYOOR

(Thanks to Oregon Heritage News, Russel Micnhimer, AIA, ArtDaily.org, and Inside Higher Ed for some of the content of this message.)

OAS eNews: Breaking Info on Events, Discoveries, and More

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:30:00 +0000

OAS Meeting & Presentation: Tuesday, Nov. 2
“Archaeology in the Oregon State Park System” is the title of the November 2, 2010 lecture sponsored by the Oregon Archaeological Society. From the Oregon coast to the Willamette Valley to John Day, Oregon’s state parks are the stewards of Oregon’s history, which is revealed in the cultural sites found within many of the parks. Nancy Nelson, Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department archaeologist, will provide
information on an array of archaeological site types found in state parks. Both precontact and historic archaeological sites will be highlighted, including Tseriadun, Fort Yamhill, and Kam Wah Chung.

Nelson received her education from Oregon State University and the University of Oregon in Anthropology. She has a broad range of experience working on archaeological and cultural resource projects in conjunction with the Coquille tribe; Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Suislaw; the Yakima Nation; and the Ak-Chin Indian Community in Arizona.

The presentation is at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) at 7:45 PM, and is free and open to the public. The talk is preceded at 7 PM by a general business meeting, which is also open to the public

See www.oregonarchaeological.org or call 503-727-3507 for more information.

AIA Lecture: Friday, Nov. 12
November 12, 2010 - Friday 7:30 pm - School of Business Auditorium PSU
Susann Lusnia, Tulane University
“The Petrified City: Reading the Marble Plan of Rome”

Washougal Pedestrian/Petroglyph Tunnel Complete
...A Somewhat Tardy Report

After months of work the Petroglyph tunnel in Washougal had its grand opening in mid-August. Well over 100 people came to the celebration (including several OAS members!) and were treated to speeches by Rep. Brian Baird, the current and a couple of former Washougal mayors, other dignitaries...and yours truly.

If you're near Washougal the tunnel is well worth a visit. You can find it by simply heading for the Pendleton Woolen Mills Outlet Store (also fun to visit), parking in their lot and looking south toward the river.

The City of Washougal deserves a lot of credit for building what will be a lasting addition to the community.

(Left to right) Washougal High intern Patrick McCarthy, Washougal Councilwomen and project team member Molly Coston, Project Advisor Mike Taylor standing with "See Who Watches" panel.

Three more of the seven panels in the tunnel.

Read more at: http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/jul/13/we-helped-guide-them-to-build-something-that-would/

See more photos and info at: http://culturewatchnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/02/petroglyph-tunnel-entry-stone.html

Two Books to be Released Online
Two ground-breaking works on relations between Native Americans and early Pacific Northwest settlers will be released online this week by Oregon State University in celebration of the fourth annual International Open Access Week.

The OSU Press and the OSU Center for Digital Scholarship and Services are making available Theodore Stern¹s two-volume works, "Chiefs and Chief Traders: Indian Relations at Fort Nez Percés, 1818-1855," and "Chiefs and Change in the Oregon Country." First published by OSU Press in the 1990s,the books have been out of print for several years.

The books are free online as high-resolution, searchable PDF files in the press's collection in the ScholarsArchive@OSU open access repository: http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/handle/1957/18857

Raven Bluff: another dated Alaskan fluted point site
Northwest Coast Archaeology
qmackie | October 26, 2010
"Some time ago I (Mackie) posted about the Serpentine Hot Springs site in Northwestern Alaska, at which several fluted points have been found, apparently dating to about 12,000 years ago. That’s about a thousand years more recent than Clovis, which is the best known of the early “fluted point” archaeological cultures from the Americas. I was interested to come across another site – Raven Bluff – which has recently come to light from the same general area, and which also has fluted points. At Raven Bluff, at least one of these dates to between about 12,000 and 12,500 years ago – also younger than Clovis, which is mainly confined to a narrow window around 13,000 years ago..."

Read the whole story at: http://goo.gl/nsw4

Rock Spirits at the Portals to Afterlife
By Andrew Howley
A 14,000-year-old bone flute found inside Bédeilhac cave.
The final day of the 2010 IFRAO conference on Pleistocene Art of the World continued to present innovative approaches and fascinating discoveries about the well-known but little understood world of prehistoric rock art.

Tarascon-sur-Ariège, France--Anderzej Rozwadowski gave some enlightenment about the significance of rock itself to Siberian shaman culture, showing how parts of it may match up well with Paleolithic rock art traditions. Among some of these groups, when people die, they are seen as going to an afterlife that exists within the Earth's rock. Cracks and caves are then powerful places that can serve as passages between our world and theirs.

Rozwadowski also pointed out that often in Siberian rock art, images of a drummer (presumably a shaman) are paired with a wounded or hunted animal. If ethnographic evidence can identify this as a current symbol of human death, we may be one step closer to understanding similar images from elsewhere, including the famously mysterious scene of an aggressive wounded bison facing a human-like figure who could be falling backward, in a deep shaft at Lascaux...

Read the whole story at: http://goo.gl/tGqh
More at: http://goo.gl/eA5d

Vandals Strike N. Arizona Archaeological Site
By: Associated Press

WILLIAMS, AZ - Archaeologists are assessing damage to a 1,000 year-old rock art panel in a northern Arizona forest.

A hiker reported the damage last month at the Kaibab National Forest's Keyhole Sink, named for the keyhole-shaped lava flow.

Read more at: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_northern_az/other/vandals-strike-n.-arizona-archaeological-site

Aged 9,000 Years, Ancient Beer Finally Hits Stores
by BRAD HORN
NPR

Dogfish Head brewery is known for making exotic beer with ingredients like crystallized ginger or water from Antarctica, so it might not sound surprising that one of its recent creations is a brew flavored simply by grapes and flowers. It's not the recipe that makes this beer so special; it's where that recipe was found: a Neolithic burial site in China...

Read the whole story at: http://goo.gl/dA9t

Subterranean Secrets-New Rock Art Discovery in Borneo Subterranean Secrets
Photograph by Robbie Shone, Barcroft/Fame Pictures

Caver Andy Eavis compares his hand size with painted prints on the walls of the recently discovered Black Hands Cave, part of the massive Gunung Mulu cave system in the Malaysian section of the island of Borneo...

Read the whole story at: http://goo.gl/QSoP

(Thanks to Oregon Heritage News, Northwest Coast Archaeology Blog, National Geographic, AIA, and Robin Harrower, Pat Lyttle, and Jodi Lorimer for some of the info in this message.)

Copyright (C) 2010 CultureWatch Northwest All rights reserved. Previously copyrighted material is the property of the copyright holder.

King Tut! Howard Carter's Excavation Notes Released...and more!

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 23:33:00 +0000

KING TUT TO THE MAX - OXFORD RELEASES HOWARD CARTER'S EXCAVATION NOTES/PHOTOS

Photo courtesy of The Griffith Institute

The Griffith Institute of Oxford University has just published Howard Carter's notes and records from his excavation of King Tut's tomb reports the Chinook Observer. Thousands of articles from the tomb are cataloged along with related photos. The website also includes hundreds of photos, some in beautiful color. Definitely worth looking at if you're at all interested in Egyptology.

More on Howard Carter's notes at: http://goo.gl/z84D

Tut's Chariot Heads to New York: http://goo.gl/n3Y8

DARWINIAN ARCHAEOLOGY LECTURE

Dr. Eric Bangs

WillametteCRA offices

623 SE Mill Street

Portland, OR 97214

Friday, August 6, 7:00 pm.

Refreshments provided

Frontiers are contact zones between cultures. The upper Rhine river valley was just such a contact zone when the Romans arrived in the first century BC. Over the next 500 years, the Romans engaged in a complex cultural interaction with the non-Roman inhabitants that eventually resulted in a creolized frontier society. A model derived from Roman authors suggests that this society was replaced by the arrival of the Alamanni in the late third century AD who, in turn, were replaced by the Merovingians in the sixth century.

The replacement model of cultural interaction in the upper Rhine is tested using a methodology based in Darwinian and meme theory. Seriations were created of stylistic elements from ceramic vessel assemblages from 14 archaeological sites in southwest Germany. The seriations suggest that non-Roman inhabitants in the first century AD did adopt aspects of Roman culture but only in the realm of emotionally charged ritual. For their day-to-day existence, the artifacts they used appear to have changed little and they maintained an identity adopted centuries before. In evolutionary terms, these practices had a high fitness relative to the cost of learning new ceramic manufacturing techniques.

ROUND-UP EXHIBIT TO OPEN AT TAMASTSLIKT

Museum-goers are invited to join in the excitement of the iconic

Pendleton Round-Up Rodeo by visiting Tamástslikt Cultural Institute’s

next exhibit, Tall in the Saddle: One hundred years of the Pendleton

Round-Up. The exhibit opens July 23 and runs through January 2011.

Starting in 1910, the Pendleton Round-Up was the event that made Oregon

a rodeo destination nationally and around the world. The exhibit,

developed in partnership by Tamástslikt, the Oregon Historical Society,

and author Michael Bales, imparts the rich sense of Round-Up history

from its modest beginnings as a small town harvest festival.

“Tamastslikt joined forces with OHS and Michael to present an

impressive exhibition not unlike the partnership between our Tribal

people and the citizens of Pendleton that makes the Round-Up unique,”

said Bobbie Conner, Tamástslikt director. Contact Tamástslikt Cultural

Institute at (541)966-9748 or visit www.tamastslikt.org for more

information.

THE HIGH DESERT MUSEUM’S 1st AUDIO TOUR: SIN IN THE SAGEBRUSH

The first audio tour at the High Desert Museum allows visitors to

experience the Sin in the Sagebrush exhibit with its creator, Curator of

Western History Bob Boyd. The exhibit marks the first in-depth look at

how communities of the American West formed around saloons, gambling

halls, and bordellos. The audio tour is rich with details, from how a

tent bordello was used, to how to produce an ace from your sleeve.

Visitors may download the tour at home from

http://highdesertmuseum.com/exhibits/Indoor_Exhibits/Sin_in_the_Sagebrush/Audio_Tour/

Contact: Cathy Carroll, communications and promotions manager

541-382-4754, ext. 300; ccarroll@highdesertmuseum.org;

www.highdesertmuseum.org

NEW HOUSE AND LANDSCAPE DISCOVERED AT FORT VANCOUVER

National Park Service and University archaeologists have discovered one

of the homes of the multicultural village associated with Fort

Vancouver. The Village was home for 600 to 1000 Hudson’s Bay Company

(HBC) employees, their families, and visiting traders and travelers

during the fur trade period.

“Explorations in this house and its surrounding landscape will shed

new light on the lives of the diverse population that served this

colonial capital of the Pacific Northwest in the 1830s and 1840s,”

said Doug Wilson, National Park Service Archaeologist and Faculty Member

of the Department of Anthropology at Portland State University. Wilson,

who is directing the field school that is excavating the site,

identified tiny glass trade beads, buttons, musket balls, bottle glass,

and colorful Spode transfer print ceramics as evidence of the house and

its immediate surroundings. “The people living in the village, in

contrast to the “gentlemen” and their families inside the fort, left

no written records. This excavation is a way to recover the history of

this incredible community, which included people of many ancestries:

American Indians from many tribes, Native Hawaiians, French Canadians,

Europeans, Americans, and those of multiethnic origin - the Métis.”

More at: http://www.nps.gov/fova/parknews/newsreleases.htm

NEW BASKET EXHIBIT FEATURED AT WARM SPRINGS

The Museum At Warm Springs is pleased to present "Baskets Tell A Story", exhibiting baskets from the Columbia River Plateau and beyond. The exhibit shows until October 10.

Baskets from the Museum's collection are featured, together with baskets on loan from the High Desert Museum, the Hallie Ford Museum and the Jan Musial Collection. The exhibit honors the Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association (NNABA) gathering October 1-2 at Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert Resort on the Warm Springs Reservation.

The exhibit and its programs are funded by an Oregon Arts Commission Community Grant and the Oregon Cultural Trust.

NAVIGATING THE PAST DAY CAMP AT COLUMBIA RIVER MARITIME MUSEUM

This week of August 9-13 theme is “On the River.” During the week,

campers will be immersed in activities relating to the cultures and

animals that depend on the river for survival. There will be an

introduction to the Chinese and Native American cultures with crafts,

games and legends. Children will be able to make their own baskets.

Campers will take walks to explore the river and surrounding area to

identify wildlife that call the river their home. Seeing the world from

a bald eagle’s perspective and building an eagle nest are part of the

activities planned. Boat races are part of the fun during this session.

Campers will also make a paddle wheeler. A field trip to Cape

Disappointment State Park is included. The week will conclude with a jet

boat ride and a swim at the Astoria Aquatic Center.

For more information, call Jackie Welborn at 503-325-2323 or email

welborn@crmm.org

STONEHENGE TIMBER TWIN REVEALED IN SHOVEL-LESS DIG

The Christian Science Monitor

By Danna Harman, July 23, 2010

Stonehenge had a twin nearby made of timber, say archaeologists who made the new discovery. But this dig was done with magnetometers, radar, and video game 3D technology. Without digging up one shovel of earth, or dusting off one rock with a toothbrush, Gaffney and the other members of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project have uncovered an incredible find – a mere two weeks into a three-year mission to map 5.5 square miles of land around Stonehenge...(sorry, couldn't resist using the tourist photo :-)

Read the whole story at: http://goo.gl/6TEU

More at: http://goo.gl/vZxd

Out of Africa and Into...

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Sun, 09 May 2010 20:45:00 +0000

Finally!! The results from my Genographic Project DNA test have arrived...and Lexie is mad that HER genetic history is missing.

Too bad, so sad...MY report is fascinating.

Below I've included some of the most interesting bits of information about my ancestral journey.

I've borrowed freely from the report that the Genographic Project sent me (and fully acknowledge any copyrights they may claim...but, hey, I paid for it).

MY GENETIC HISTORY
My Y-chromosome results identify me as a member of haplogroup G (M201).

The genetic markers that define my ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow my lineage to present day, ending with M201, the defining marker of haplogroup G.

(What follows just below is interesting, but pretty technical...read at your own risk of falling asleep...scroll down to the maps if you're in a hurry).

In the Republic of Georgia (Caucasus Mountains south of Russia, north of Turkey) members of G make up as much as 30 percent of the population. Around 14 percent of the men on the island of Sardinia belong to this group, as well as ten percent of the men in north central Italy, eight percent of the men in northern Spain, almost seven percent of the men in Turkey, and lesser percentages in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Ukraine, Lebanon, Greece, Hungary, Albania, Croatia, and Ethiopia.

G is still represented in the Middle East-some of these are Arab, some are Jews, many are neither. Across northwestern Europe, only one to three percent of the men belong to haplogroup G.

Small numbers of haplogroup G can also be found in Syria (Arabs), Russia (Adygeans), Uzbekistan (Tartars and Karakalpaks), Mongolia, and western China (Uygurs). Members of haplotype G can also be found in Sicily, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, Norway, and Sweden. Small numbers of men belonging to haplogroup G can also be found in China, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the Polynesian Islands of the Pacific.

So I fired up Google Maps and created this map of the various places my ancestors were likely to frequent (click on map for larger version). The map actually agrees pretty well with more recent family history which puts my father's family in the Swiss/German geographic zone.

MY ANCESTRAL JOURNEY
M168: My Earliest Ancestor
Time of Emergence: Roughly 50,000 years ago

Place of Origin: Africa

Climate: Temporary retreat of Ice Age; Africa moves from drought to warmer temperatures and moister conditions

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 10,000

Tools and Skills: Stone tools; earliest evidence of art and advanced conceptual skills

The man who gave rise to the first genetic marker in my lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley (see the orange balloon on the first map), perhaps in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania, some 31,000 to 79,000 years ago. Scientists put the most likely date for when he lived at around 50,000 years ago.

His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.

M89: Moving Through the Middle East
Time of Emergence: 45,000 years ago

Place: Northern Africa or the Middle East

Climate: Middle East: Semi-arid grass plains

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands

Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools

The next male ancestor in my ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to M89, a marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. This man was born around 45,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East. While many of the descendants of M89 remained in the Middle East, others continued to follow the great herds of buffalo, antelope, woolly mammoths, and other game through what is now modern-day Iran to the vast steppes of Central Asia.

My ancestors, having migrated north out of Africa into the Middle East, then traveled both east and west along this Central Asian superhighway. A smaller group continued moving north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country.

M201: Living in the Fertile Crescent
Time of Emergence: 30,000 years ago

Place of Origin: Middle East or Caucasus Mountains

Climate: Middle East: Semiarid grass plains

Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 100,000

Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools

My genetic trail continues with a marker that arose around 30,000 years ago, in a man born along the eastern edge of the Middle East, perhaps as far east as the Himalayan foothills in Pakistan or India. He has had relatively few descendants, and members of this clan are rarely present in population frequencies at greater than a few percent.

My ancestors were part of the Neolithic Revolution, the point at which humans changed from nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled agriculturists. Control over their food supply marks a major turning point for the human species: the beginning of civilization.

Instead of small clans of 30 to 50 people constantly moving to follow the seasons and the herds, they began to settle in much larger groups, occupying a single territory.

Larger settled communities spurred the need for trade, writing, and calendars, and pioneered the rise of modern sedentary communities and cities. The early farming successes spawned population booms and encouraged migration throughout much of the Mediterranean world.

My farming ancestors began moving out of the Middle East, through the islands and along the shores of the Mediterranean, through Turkey into the Balkans and the Caucasus Mountains.

It was once thought that the advancing farmers displaced or eliminated the hunter-gatherers of Europe. However DNA studies show that while the spread of agriculture did involve the movement of some people into Europe who had not been there before, for the most part farming was adopted by the existing Europeans. In other words, the culture, rather than the people, spread.

The whole report contains even more detail and I have to say it was well worth the $100 or so that it cost. You can get your own DNA tested and get a report on your ancestral journey at The Genographic Project.

Petroglyph Tunnel Progresses!

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:37:00 +0000

The other day Suzanne Bachelder (from the City of Washougal) and I went over to Vancouver Granite Works to take a look at the large basalt rock that will stand at the entry to the Washougal Pedestrian Tunnel.

This large chunk of columnar basalt will be a commemorative stone that recognizes the Indian people of the Columbia Plateau and those who contributed to the rock art portion of the project. The boulder, standing at the northern entrance to the tunnel (see drawing for one possibility), will mark the beginning of the transition from the city to the river.

The rock is not quite complete in the photos that follow. Suzanne collected tracings of actual handprints from all the high school interns who worked on the project. When complete those real handprints will be carved into the stone. When we saw it the handprints had not yet been carved, but the concept photo (at right) will give you the idea.

Check it out!

...and here are the interns and coordinators who are helping make the concept into a reality!

60,000 Years of Family Migration: The Genographic Project

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:40:00 +0000

FOLLOW ALONG AS DNA ANALYSIS REVEALS MY FAMILY ROOTS

Wouldn't it be cool if you could know where your ancestors came from 60,000 years ago!? Kind of makes a trip on the Mayflower seem insignificant...

Now, through the wonders of DNA analysis, you can actually track the journey your ancient forefathers (and/or mothers) took across the globe.

National Geographic, IBM, and the Waite Family Foundation have made this possible by creating The Genographic Project. A 5-year undertaking that promises to reveal the secrets of human migration across the earth by studying the DNA of indigenous people and ordinary folks like you and me.

I've signed up to participate in The Genographic Project and I'm going to post information on the process...and my personal results...on this blog.

So let's get started!

February 5, 2010: I go to the Project website to order my Genographic Participation Kit. The kit costs $115.90 ($99.95 plus $15.95 shipping if you're in the U.S.) Not cheap, but I really want to know my family's migration pathway and they are going to test my actual DNA which I know is pretty expensive.

February 12, 2010: My Participation Kit arrives!

...and Lexie the Cat is so fascinated I thought we were going to have to send in her DNA!
February 15, 2010: DNA sampling commences! Basically you take that small plastic stick and scrap it around inside your cheek...hey, we've all seen CSI...so this is pretty easy. Then you drop the business end of the stick into a little tube of fluid and screw it closed...then you do it all again creating a second sample

February 17, 2010: I sign the Consent Form, put it and the samples in the padded envelope that comes with the kit...and drop it in the mail.

Now all we have to do is wait a few weeks for the results...a map that shows the actual migration path of my ancestors as they traveled out of Africa (I assume) and, over the centuries, find their way to North America. Stay tuned!

You don't have to spend a hundred bucks or donate your DNA to be part of the Genographic Project...just click the DONATE button below and give what you can to this worthy effort. (Of course, I have NO financial interest in the project!)

Passage to the Columbia II

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Over the past few months the Washougal Pedestrian Tunnel has made tremendous progress toward becoming a reality.

Almost certainly the only pedestrian tunnel in the world filled with representations of Indian petroglyphs (let me know if you know of another one!), the image-filled passage is designed to re-connect Washougal with the river and to honor the native people who have lived in the region for eons.

As of late December the tunnel shaft has been cut all the way through Highway 14 and about half of the pre-formed sections have been installed.

The southern river side entrance is almost complete, opening into the riverfront Steamboat Park.

On December 29 Suzanne Bachelder, from the City of Washougal, and I visited the rock yard where the basalt slabs that will line the tunnel were cut and carved.

Each of the seven slabs is a 2000 pound, 3' x 6' work of art.

Happy New Year!

The Ultimate Archaeology Christmas List!

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:13:00 +0000

What to get?

Its getting late!

I hate the holidays!

...actually I love the holidays, but shopping for gifts can be a pain!

Here are some ideas that are sure to please that person on your list who's into archaeology:

(click on the blue words for details)

• An Oregon Archaeological Society Membership
Great talks, Screenings, training, access to volunteer projects and much, much more...you can't go wrong with this one!

...or, give a year-end, tax deductible donation in the name of your sweetie to OAS. Just mail a check to:

Oregon Archaeology Society
P.O. Box 13293
Portland, OR 97213

• TAC Tickets: ArchaeologyFest Film Series: Best of 2009
How about tickets to see some great archaeology films...get one for yourself too, then he can't leave you home!

OMSI Tickets & Membership
Cool exhibits, OMNIMAX, the Northwest's largest planetarium...and then there's that submarine!

Clark County Historical Museum Membership
Exhibits, events, newsletter...all in downtown Vancouver USA.

An Archaeology T-shirt
You'll be the hit of the project because some of these are hilarious!

Or, you can make up a gift certificate so your archaeologist can come to the January OAS meeting and get a REAL, AUTHENTIC OAS T-shirt!

Archy Stuff
Bumper stickers, coffee cups, license plate frames...even thong underwear if you're daring enough...or think your significant other should be!

Adult Archy clothing...if you're easily offended don't go here...if you want to get that real "Paisley Cave look" this could be for you...

Your archaeologist will love a day trip to:
The Columbia Gorge Discovery Center
Grab a picnic basket, a bottle of wine, and whatever else you need for a road trip and head for The Dalles...plus, on the same day you can hit
The Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center
...archaeology overdose! Yes!!

Buffalo Bill's Defunct

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:31:00 +0000

Mystery, intrigue, petroglyphs, the Columbia River Gorge...what else could anyone interested in archaeology and fiction ask for?

Just check out the cover...stylized Pacific Northwest rock art galore.

Vancouver, WA author Sheila Simonson has blended local cultures and geography with some great characters in a book that I really enjoyed.

Simonson rearranges counties, towns, and cultures to produce a credible facsimile called "LaTouche County" which seems to include a good chunk of the western Gorge. She creates a pseudo Chinookan tribe called the "Klalo" and names the county seat after them. Tribal members, including the female chief, have key roles in the story.

Stolen artifacts, murder, clashing cultures, interesting characters and familiar places combine for an engaging read. You can learn more about the author and her books at her website. The book is available at Amazon and Powells.com (for well under $15) and, I assume, at local bookstores.

Might make a great Christmas gift!

###

America's Oldest Artifact: Another First for Paisley Cave

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:03:00 +0000

Dr. Dennis Jenkins and the team working at Paisley Cave in Oregon can now claim to have found the oldest known artifact in the Americas.

The tool is a bone scrapper that has been definitively radiocarbon dated at 14, 230 years, significantly older than previously found Clovis artifacts (12,900-12,400 years BP).

In an article published by Nature News Kevin Smith, who actually found the tool, says, "We had bumped into a lot of extinct horse, bison and camel bone – then I heard and felt the familiar ring and feel when trowel hits bone". Smith now a master's student at California State University, Los Angeles went on to say, "I switched to a brush. Soon this huge bone emerged, then I saw the serrated edge. I stepped back and said: 'Hey everybody — we got something here."

Is this the final nail in the Clovis First coffin... or were these people Clovis themselves?...only time and more research will tell.

To be fair, other sites including Monte Verde, Cactus Hill, Meadowcroft, and Topper might also lay claim to the "oldest artifact" title.

Read more about the Paisley Cave discovery at:
Nature News
Chattahbox.com
Little About

More about other very ancient sites in the Americas:
Monte Verde
Cactus Hill
Meadowcroft
Topper

(photo courtesy of chattahbox.com)
###

Cupules on the Columbia

noreply@blogger.com (CultureWatch Northwest...) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:11:00 +0000

Upriver of Vancouver, Washington the Columbia River bank is edged with thousands of rounded basalt boulders.

Ripped from the up-river bedrock thousands of years ago by massive ice-age floods these rocks, once part of the volcanic landscape, were shaped as they rolled downstream in massive torrents of water.

Over a hundred floods, that for a time carried more water than all the other rivers on earth combined, gouged the earth to form what is now called the Columbia River Gorge. The boulders are all that remain of over 50 cubic miles of dirt and rock that were violently flushed into the Pacific.

Rounded boulders shaped by the Missoula Floods.

In the Vancouver area alone, over a hundred of these boulders hold ancient Indian rock art. The most common marks left by the prehistoric people are cupules...thousands and thousands of cupules.

Some individual rocks hold several hundred of these distinctive marks...small (1"-4" across) cup-shaped indentations in the rock that are formed by pounding a hand-held "hammer stone" repetitively against the surface of the boulder.

Why make a cupule? Why do some rocks hold only a single cupule but others have hundreds of these mysterious dimples?

Theories abound...but two seem to hold the most promise.

One, the "Baby Rock" theory holds that ancient women sought the rock powder that was produced as the cupule was formed. The powder was believed to hold spiritual power that, when eaten or rubbed on the body, would help a woman become pregnant. There is significant evidence from similar sites in Northern California to support this idea.

But was it the same along the Columbia?

A second theory proposes that the cupules were formed by Salmon shaman. These shamans were important spiritual leaders whose role it was to call the schools of Salmon back from the ocean every year so that the people could eat, live, and prosper. The Salmon were thought to hear the shaman pounding on the rock and return to where they could be caught to nourish the tribe.

In either case, the point was not the cupule itself...cupules were simply by-products of another important activity.

Both ideas are intriguing...but do they reflect reality? Trying to look into the minds of ancient people is fascinating. Physical evidence can be studied, ethnography can be mined, present day descendants can be interviewed and, of course, opinions abound...but to a significant extent the mystery remains...who were the ancient people of the Columbia, what were their beliefs, and what are the true meanings of the art and the symbols they left behind?

Of course, partial answers can be found to all of these questions, but the true richness of a prehistoric culture can never be fully experienced...and that's a big part of what makes it so appealing.

Temanawas Rock overlooks the Columbia River near Vancouver, WA

As interesting as they are, cupules aren't the only rock art along the lower Columbia River. Stay tuned and we'll continue to explore!