Virtual Reality Tour: Archaic Images
The Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project proudly presents or Virtual Tours series. In these online tours, you we be able to explore the Mesa as never before, from the comforts of your own home. Each of these tours will cover a unique perspective on a theme about the petroglyphs, archaeology, and history of Mesa Prieta. Each "stop" includes a narrative about the petroglyphs shown to accompany a virtual reality (VR) enabled photograph or model. For a more immersive experience, you can view these VR-enabled tour stops using any VR-capable device, such as a smartphone or tablet.
In this virtual tour, we share some of the most elusive, difficult-to-see petroglyphs on the Mesa: Those from the Archaic Period. The Archaic was a several-millennia-long time beginning at the end of the last Ice Age (Holocene-Pleistocene Boundary) and in the Northern Rio Grande extending into the same times during which villages began to aggregate in Taos, Chaco Canyon, and elsewhere. In North America this long-lasting time is subdivided into early, middle, and late, although at Mesa Prieta we largely only recognize the Early Archaic (9,500 to 3,500 years ago) and Late Archaic (3,500 to 1,400 years ago). During the Early Archaic, nomadic hunter-gathers from the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevadas shared similar cultural expressions in their lifeways and artistic expressions; we call this the Desert Archaic Tradition. Petroglyphs from the Desert Archaic Tradition tend to be abstract, complex, geometric compositions. Later, descendants from the Early Archaic nomads began to express more regional diversity in the Late Archaic, when inhabitants of the Mesa began making more recognizable images of handprints, footprints, and animal tracks.
In this virtual tour, we share some of the most elusive, difficult-to-see petroglyphs on the Mesa: Those from the Archaic Period. The Archaic was a several-millennia-long time beginning at the end of the last Ice Age (Holocene-Pleistocene Boundary) and in the Northern Rio Grande extending into the same times during which villages began to aggregate in Taos, Chaco Canyon, and elsewhere. In North America this long-lasting time is subdivided into early, middle, and late, although at Mesa Prieta we largely only recognize the Early Archaic (9,500 to 3,500 years ago) and Late Archaic (3,500 to 1,400 years ago). During the Early Archaic, nomadic hunter-gathers from the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevadas shared similar cultural expressions in their lifeways and artistic expressions; we call this the Desert Archaic Tradition. Petroglyphs from the Desert Archaic Tradition tend to be abstract, complex, geometric compositions. Later, descendants from the Early Archaic nomads began to express more regional diversity in the Late Archaic, when inhabitants of the Mesa began making more recognizable images of handprints, footprints, and animal tracks.
Tour stop #1
Look down. We start with a stunning yet subtle example of an Early Archaic boulder. These are exemplified by an adherence to abstract, geometric compositions, often including web-like and net-like patterns. Exemplary of the Desert Archaic Tradition, these designs can be seen at some of Western North America's earlier petroglyph sites. These are also easily overlooked, as time has allowed the designs to fully repatinated with the dark "desert varnish" rock coating typical of basalt. This example also shows signs of water-weathering, another sign of age as the shallow channel it sits in dried up long ago. Explore the texture created by the abstract archaic designs pecked in relief in 3D below.
Tour stop #2
Stop #2 is a heavily repatinated boulder that overlooks the Bosque of the Rio Grande. There are many known cupules like this on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve, and they probably date to several time periods over several thousand years. This set is believed to be old, likely Archaic. Retouching and reuse of cupules over centuries was common, although it appears these were not retouched, at least not since the Archaic. It is unclear what cupules were used for, and they likely served many uses, including grinding seeds and nuts, processing pigments, causing certain resonating rocks to ring, among other uses.
Tour stop #3
It is hard to grasp the complex structure of this next stop from a single vantage point, so we have included a 3D model (below) to help you navigate around and through this assortment of closely packed panels. Although many visitors to the Wells Petroglyph Preserve likely know this stop as "Lightening Rock," it is unlikely to have ever been struck by lightning. Instead, natural weathering, especially the force of expanding ice in cracks over the course of thousands of winters likely lead to this boulder breaking apart into the pile you see today. Some of the oldest images on this date to at least as early as the Early Archaic, including the fully repatinated and deeply shadowed grid pattern shown at the start of the view. The boulder didn't break apart until sometime after these first images were made, but before the Pueblo Period images were subsequently added.
Tour stop #4
Not all Archaic images are abstract, and by the Late Archaic a significant amount of regional diversity emerged between images of the Northern Rio Grande, the Eastern Great Basin, and the Mojave Desert. Here along the former, the nomadic inhabitants added a new set of designs to their visual lexicon: tracks. Late Archaic designs often include footprints, handprints, and tracks from elk, deer, birds, and bears. This panel is also special because it is a "palimpsest," meaning a composition created by superimposing designs on top of the originals several centuries later. Notice the differences between the dark patinas of some of the footprints and the lighter patinas of the hand and foot prints added over top.
Tour stop #5
We conclude the Archaic Panels virtual tour at a panel that is only visible in the oblique light of the early morning. Because of the high degree of "revarnishing" (repatination) that these particularly old images develop, they blend in with the unaltered rock in even ambient light. With an oblique direction of light, however, the relative matte-look of the petroglyphs begins to stand out more clearly from the high-gloss sheen of the unaltered basalt. Take a closer look in the still image below.
These web-based virtual tours are made possible by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the New Mexico Humanities Council (NMHC).
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