One of the sites visited during a recent “drive-about” was Rock Art Ranch south of the area between Winslow and Holbrook. I think the canyon we visited is now called Bell Cow Canyon.
Kokopelli, the flute player, beaver, eagle, and various hoofed and horned ungulates decorate the canyon walls with what might have been mystical or magical depictions. Or perhaps it was an art studio. Interpretation is always problematic or so I learned in school. I also learned when studying kinship that paternity is always problematic for the anthropologist to sort out. Kinship is reckoned differently by different people. And then there is deceit. Women sometimes choose not to share the identity of their lovers.
No matter what, though, women have birthed babies. Very few pre-literate societies have preserved images of birth. Conjecture about whether an image is one of fertility or fecundity, a prayer or blessing, a metaphor or giving thanks cannot be known.
No image out of prehistory is more evocative, at least to my mind, than the Hisotsinom petroglyph of the Birthing Woman.
Perhaps the Hopi elders know some of the intent of their ancestors, they still visit places on the ranch. Brantley Baird, the rancher who guides visitors through the material collections that evidence of thousands of years of human occupation, including regular visits by Hopi leaders, the last being only a few weeks ago, knows that as the current land-owner he joins a long line of tenants on this little bit of Earth who cherish it, and whose descendants continue to respect the land and lives that came into being there.
We are all children of the rocks and birthing women.
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To find out more about the artists, as best we know, I suggest reading the report from the 2014 University of Arizona Rock Art Ranch Field School.
Petroglyphs from Rock Art Ranch
Yesterday was the most amazing day I have had in a long long time.
Woke up in Holbrook, Arizona and drove about 15 miles west south west to Rock Art Ranch. I have tons of photos, but let me share a couple of the highlights of the canyon with you.
Here you can clearly see the figure usually called Kokopelli, or the Flute Player, and a big horned sheep. Poor Kokopelli. He has been co-opted and his image diminished from the majesty and magic he commands here and obviously commanded to the first peoples of this area.
Another absolutely astonishing image I encountered might at first appearance seem simple. The ranch owner told us that the simple line and arrow drawings, such as the one below, are believed by some east coast researchers to be over 9000 years old. I suspect he is getting good information from these researchers as two others he mentioned from the Arizona State Museum are researchers with whom I worked.
The petroglyph that moved me more than I can say is called “The Birthing Woman” and you will have to wait to see it as I want to write about it on The Women’s Legacy Project site, which I do not have time to do now, as I need to get on the Road and head toward Oklahoma. I am going to knock off earlier today so I have time to write about the sites and thoughts I have been fortunate enough to experience during the day and a half I have been on the road thus far.