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History & Culture
A panel of rock art
hundreds of feet long along the cliff at Petroglyph Point. |
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Rock Art
There are two basic types of rock art found in
Lava Beds National Monument: pictographs and petroglyphs. Pictographs
are figures which are painted on rock surfaces. Petroglyphs, in
contrast, are figures carved or pecked into the surfaces. Although both
types of rock art are present in the monument, there is a difference in
their geographic locations. Petroglyphs are, with very few exceptions,
found on cliff faces or boulders along the ancient shorelines of Tule
Lake. Most pictographs, however, are located in areas inland from the
lake, most often at the entrances to large lava tubes where sunlight
illuminates large portions of the cave's interior.
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| The cliffs at
Petroglyph Point. Rock art is protected by a fence along the base,
and many raptors nest in the weathered cliff face in the spring,
including barn owls and praire falcons. |
The two most common questions asked concerning the rock art in the
region are "What does it mean?" and "How old is it?" The original
inhabitants of the region, who undoubtedly made the rock art, most
likely had several reasons for the creation of their art. Although much
of it is unknown to us today there are several possible interpretations.
Rock art was most likely an integral part of the ceremonies and rituals
performed by the Native American people. Pictographs may have been done
in conjunction with a girl's puberty ceremony or the people's fertility
rites, for example.
Petroglyphs in many areas of the western United States appear to be
related to hunting magic and this may be the case with rock art of the
Lava Beds, although there is at present time, no evidence for this
theory. Several other interpretations may help us understand the art of
this area. It has been noted that while pictographs are generally found
at or near human occupation sites, most petroglyphs are located at sites
which indicate no such occupation. In addition, many astronomical
figures (stars, the moon, etc.) have been found in rock art at the Lava
Beds, possibly indicating the significance of these objects to
prehistoric inhabitants. Many pictograph panels contain such elements.
Finally, rock art may have also been used to describe an event in the
tribe's history, or perhaps to record an individual's animal spirit
"helper." We do know that the symbols left on the rock faces of this
area are not writing, as was originally thought, but art, because the
Modoc and their predecessors had no written alphabet. We may never truly
know what was in the mind of the artist as he or she sat down many ages
ago to leave a mark on this fire-broken land.
We have no solid evidence suggesting the age of the rock art in Lava
Beds National Monument, however, researchers (Heizer and Clewlow 1973)
have offered some tentative dates which appear to be reasonable. They
believe that the pictographs in the area date from about 500 A.D. to
1600 A.D. at the latest (from approximately 380 to 1480 years ago). This
latest date is based on the fact that common design elements of the
local Native American culture in the historic period are not found (the
horse and other objects introduced by white settlers) in rock art of the
Lava Beds. It has also been noted that inquiries made to surviving
Native Americans in the early part of the century produced no
information on the rock art or its creators, hence this knowledge must
have passed away in the intervening centuries since its last use. Heizer
and Clewlow also concluded that the pictographs were done at a later
date than were the petroglyphs in the region.
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| Detail of rock
art at Petroglyph Point. |
Types of figures common in rock art of the Lava
Beds include wavy or zigzag lines, dots, and designs made of dots,
cross-hatching, the rake (including rain symbols), human figures, and
the star (or cogwheel?). Other less obvious figures can also be found.
Lava Beds rock art appears to have stylistic similarities with the rock
art of other regions in the western United States. Heizer and Clewlow
have assigned the petroglyphs to the Great Basin Style. It seems the
pictographs do not have direct similarities with any other region. They
have been termed the Northeast California Painted Style, again by Heizer
and Clewlow, and identified by the art motif of outlining one color with
a different one in the paintings. This style is also found in portions
of the Klamath Basin in southern Oregon and may have affiliations with
the paintings of the Chumash in southern California.
There are several rock art sites accessible to the visitor at Lava Beds
National Monument: petroglyphs can be seen on the cliff face of the
Petroglyph Section of the monument, at the northeast entrance. Good
examples of pictographs can be seen at Symbol Bridge and Big Painted
Cave on boulders within the cave, and on either side of the cave
entrances.
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