00:00.14 archpodnet Welcome back to the rock art podcast episode 85 and we're talking to Allen about his book revisiting the pointed petroglyphs of the koso range and Allen right at the end of the last segment we were talking about this. Nice, ah synchronicity so to speak of dates from the imagery and the the dating dating the imagery itself by what was depicted and then also correlating that with the timeframes that we know from other methods of the projectile points that were imaged so a lot of that has to do with. Bringing in you know, looking at rock art of course is is technically archeology studying rock art is archeology but a lot of people think of archaeology as excavation and you know other methods like that can you tell us how this kind of this research and and these conclusions have kind of brought all this together. 00:51.50 Alan Yeah, thank you so much. You know it's it's It's some something I want to mention sometimes rock art is sort of the the ugly stepchild of archeology people say you know it's It's only it's only rock art and so they say you know. 01:06.81 archpodnet Right. 01:09.80 Alan It's a great.. It's a great data set. But since you can't date it and since you know anybody's interpretation is is a possibility you can say whatever you want? Well I don't I don't believe that's true I try to examine rock art through the lens of archeology. But also through anthropology through comparative religion through cognitive neuroscience and using every possible Avenue I can to elicit ah evidence and inference and reconstructions and and and better understandings of what's. Looking at and it turns out that this particular subject was one that kept on giving as it said it it. It wouldn't It wouldn't go away so the editor of. 01:51.85 archpodnet Um. 02:01.45 Alan The California Rock Art Foundation Monograph series is bill heider William Heider he's a relatively well-known and prestigious rock art scholar and his specialty is the chewmash and chew mash rock art. The stuff on the coast and. Pictographs especially but he read the monograph read the read the draft and said you know this is a fantastic thing. You've written. But I have I have some questions for you I said could you could you answer these questions and maybe integrate this information with. Archeology dirt archeology and I said well what do you mean? Bill. He says well you know, show me some examples of how this rock art might further inform or independently cross correlate and amplify and help understand. The archeological record of Eastern California and I said that's that's quite a tall arc. But I think I can address that. Well so the none thing that I wanted to tell you was a funny incident. 02:59.20 archpodnet Um. 03:14.50 Alan I went to the society for California Archaeology meetings several years ago and what happened was a professor Dr Robert Yoey who taught at Cal State University bakersfield and he sat me down he said but look at this picture here and I go. That's rather remarkable. What is it says? Well, that's a a rock plinth. It's ah it's a you know what looks like to be almost like a rock shrine and we found the cranial remains of a bighorn sheep sitting on top of it I go what says. Yeah, it was that rose spring on the edge of the coso range and at the bottom of it was a fire that was placed there with all kinds of boulders and to add insult to injury I found an offering of a humboldt basil notch biface at the base of it. Go give me a break is that really true. He goes yes I says well that's that's something we have to you know publish and talk about so we did. We had an article in the journal of California archeology about it but thinking about this more specifically. This is a perfect example of the ceremonial context and the religious metaphor as part of the archeological record here's a bighorn shrine that dates to precisely this newberry period. 04:45.62 archpodnet Ah. 04:51.18 Alan It has an example of None of the None types of projectile points that are depicted on the coso rock art. It's also on the edge of the cosos and it has ah two radiocarbon dates one at the top and None at the bottom and they yeah they date to about None or fourteen hundred years ago or so. About the ah, very beginning of the haywi and at the very end of the newberry period and that's rather amazing. So there's that one for you. Oh if you like that one I've got some better ones for you? um. 05:16.45 archpodnet Okay. Um, yeah. 05:28.72 archpodnet Ah, let's do it. 05:30.83 Alan It it turns out it turns out that when I was writing my ph d dissertation one of the things I wanted to do was ah elaborate or enumerate what was going on of religious importance in the Eastern California 05:49.21 archpodnet Nothing. 05:50.63 Alan And what I learned was by. You know, researching and reading many articles and many regional syntheses that in Eastern California only during the newberry and the related early hayway period. Were there burials actual human burials. Um, that had grave goods that actually were postured in a way that had ah artifacts independent of the actual burials and that accompanied the. 06:28.56 archpodnet Ah. 06:28.64 Alan Ah, human remains and I said but that was rather interesting. So what I was list them. But what I found was the human interments in the coso range ah ranged from about. 06:34.55 archpodnet Um, yeah. 06:48.33 Alan But would you call it. Let's say 500 bc in the middle of the haywi period to about let's say a d 500 and what did we find there well in those. 06:56.79 archpodnet Um. 07:05.26 Alan In those about let's say about a dozen burials where we have good data. The consistent offerings were were projectile points and those projectile points. Where Elco series projectile points or Humboldt basal nudge bifaces. Well, that's rather fascinating because those are exactly the kinds of images that are on the stone panels in the cosos. Also. 07:40.35 archpodnet Yeah. 07:44.22 Alan None of my most intriguing burials is this burial that was found at Rose Spring Rose Spring is on the edge of the cosos. It was found during their excavation. It's a child burial. We don't know it's gender. It was tightly flexed and it had a single elco projectile point with it. But besides that it had a none abalone ring beads. These are the. 08:18.12 archpodnet Wow. 08:22.37 Alan And it was in a shingled arrangement on his or her chest. It was like this was a very prestigious individual that must have been of great importance and that is the richest burial ever discovered anywhere. 08:25.25 archpodnet Yeah. 08:39.31 Alan And the entire great basin. So here we so there obviously was something going on in the cosos that was very distinctive very important and religiously central to the way they were doing things and thinking about things. 08:39.97 archpodnet Wow. 08:59.19 Alan During the height of this newberry period. Don't you think. 09:03.00 archpodnet Yeah, and that's really interesting too because I mean we see we see things like projectile points and and tools of somebody's trade so to speak and like grave goods and things like that around the world right? we see. we see you know people who are into into weaving and and creating having you know spindle worlds and stuff like that in their grave goods. But when it comes down to offerings and depictions in rock art and and those sort of activities. It is really interesting to me to see something that archaeologists define as a tool and a tool is automatically. Pulled down a few notches as like just ah, ah, a piece of thing that you do other work with but these were clearly given ritual and spiritual significance by these people in certain circumstances and it's just really interesting to see that depicted in these different in these different ways. It's really interesting because we. We almost never look at them that way just me as somebody who's a boots on the ground archeologist you stop and you picked out I don't know how many humboldts and how many elcos I've seen just like sitting on the ground in Northern Nevada right they they're literally everywhere and it's just. 10:02.82 Alan Yeah, like right right? Yeah yeah, everywhere. 10:10.41 archpodnet Yeah, and it's just like you. Never really think about them in that sort of context I'm always thinking. Okay, so where is the hunting blind where is the you know where were they you know where were they you know what were they doing with this but you're not thinking about it in that in that way, you know so. 10:22.95 Alan Exactly So I tried I tried to live a little bit in both worlds and and for for those interested in the hard science of it All. We've got you know extensive information about. How to date the rock art. What kinds of projectile points are depicted and then what we found archaeologically during that same period that must have mirrored the kinds of activities and the theology of the cosos. 10:45.50 archpodnet Ah. 11:00.50 Alan During that same time span. 11:00.57 archpodnet Right? right? okay. 11:04.41 Alan So how much time we got. 11:08.91 archpodnet Ah, just off the recording here another three or four minutes so we can start we can start wrapping it up. 11:15.22 Alan Well just a teaser one of the things I want to talk about during the next one was I I was struck by something as I was reading a number of books and the ah most linguistic scholars. Most people who are understand historical linguistics would perhaps agree that the koso people were most likely of Uto Aztecan affiliation they were early ah people ancient ancestors of. What we would call the yudoztean linguistic stock. Well when I began to study that some of the ah information on certain groups of Uto Aztechans began to ring true and a couple of the authors there talked about something which was called. And this this shocked me too. They called it an obsidian religion and I go what the hell is that an obsidian religion and they indicated that a number of the deities. Ah, number of the religious figures and also the the recognition of volcanic glass in terms of its value and merit and importance became centrally more than just technology. It had a theological realm and so. 12:43.64 archpodnet Um. 12:48.93 Alan Maybe next time we'll delve into a little bit of that. So there's ah, there's a teaser for you. Um, it's been a a wonderful odyssey to and and ah a true you know, exciting journey. 12:53.32 archpodnet There you go there, you go. 13:07.60 Alan Have an opportunity to study some of this stuff and I'm ah I'm blessed with colleagues who who share my enthusiasm So I hope people listen to this podcast and enjoy what what we've talked about. 13:17.10 archpodnet So oh. 13:24.20 archpodnet So as of the time of this recording is this publication available or is it is it coming out soon. Okay, so we're recording this in early July of 2022 so if it is you know. 13:32.39 Alan It's going to be out in the next I'd say three months 13:42.72 Alan I'd say fall fall of fall of 2022 it'll be available. It's in yeah, it's in it's in the final Galleys right now. 13:42.73 archpodnet October. Okay, awesome. Awesome! Okay, sounds good. Well when that comes out. We'll be sure to mention it on the podcast and and link to it all over the place but it's being published by the. California Rock Art Foundation so I'm sure you can find mention of it on that site which is linked in our show notes. So definitely go check that out all right? Any final final thoughts on this that you want our listeners to know Allen. 14:11.50 Alan Yeah, um, I'm really thankful that Bernard Jones had an opportunity to work with me because he he made the rock art images dance and sing because of his artistry and I think you'll get a kick out of it. 14:28.56 archpodnet And. 14:30.10 Alan Because that his his his illustrations are drop dead gorgeous and see on the flip flop gang. 14:33.83 archpodnet Awesome! All right.