Skip to main content

TIME TRAVELING

Mt. Adams from Goldendale

Everyone is a time traveler. The trick to time travel is figuring out how to change direction.




Light that set out 36.7 years ago from the red-giant star, Arcturus, finally shows up in the big telescope at the Goldendale observatory. The image I see is a view of a past that existed when I was 12. It’s one way to look back in time.





Descending into the gorge at Maryhill, a massive basalt layer cake tells a hard to believe story of a lava covered Oregon – a glimpse into deep geologic time.



Mt. Hood in the distance



Here and there on the canvas of eroding basalt, people from the past drew images and symbols that turned out to be concurrent in time with the unexpected collision of European and native cultures (both micro and macro).




I was able to find this gallery of images by carefully scrutinizing the information available in an Oregon Archaeological Society Press Publication called Visions in the Mist: The Rock Art of Celilo Falls, by James D. Keyser, Michael W. Taylor, George Poetschat and David A. Kaiser.

By their size and placement, these markings appear to be intended for public viewing, but what exactly they’re supposed to say is still open to interpretation. Some think that these polychromatic signs may have been related to funeral practices, while others suggest that they may have served as power symbols in shamanistic rituals.



(Danger! Venereal disease?)
Some minority scholars suggest that these markings could just as easily be graffiti.


But even the modern graffiti artist betrays the human desire to be remembered - to make a mark.

If an entire civilization was disappearing because of a plague of smallpox, it is tempting to think that some element of this disaster is captured in the images from that period of apocalyptic change.





Perhaps a preoccupation with life and death leads naturally to the consideration of the rhythm of the setting and rising of the sun as a natural example of dependable rebirth. Maybe the night is not so long if one can cling to the promise of dawn.



A figure of death?

...a figure with an uncertain future – a nowhere man?


…if so, why the juxtaposition of a pale stick-figure to such great colorful sun wheels.
...why the proximity to such a dynamic symbol of life?
Is it a religious drawing?
… a magical drawing?
…or some dude sunbathing and tripping on mushrooms.






Not all of the art is intended for public display. Some of it seems representational.



































…and some seem like precious memories hidden away in the protective recesses of the earth.






Comments

  1. Hi, I live on a plant orbiting arcturus and i know this sounds kinda crazy but 36.7 years ago I got my bike stolen at Ademala grade school while I was sneaking into the wood shop to liberate some of Mr. Cramer's project money he kept in the lower left hand drawer of his desk. (I know, poetic justice) anyway, so my question is; can you see anyone messing around with my bike? It's by the Home Ec portable.......yeah I know, it was a longshot..........BTW, whatever happened to that anonymous comment guy? he's got a big following here.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ooohhhh you're so funny "Mr Anonymous" you are just soooooo frickin clever. I know that's you Duval Nelson and I want that money back!!! BTW, the home economics building wasn't a "portable".....I don't know where you little twerps got the idea that every building not connected to the main building was a "portable" did you ever see it get "ported" anywhere? Now Mr Anderson's music building, that was a portable. I never could get thru to you.....whatcha end up doing? joining the army? Loser.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Miller Island Expedition: Columbia River Ghost Cult

My brother Fred sent me a checklist of things he didn’t want to forget for our second attempt at a Miller Island Expedition. Foil pans Steak Beer or whiskey/tequila Bacon Shovel TP Bug spray Homebrew Ghost repellents Scouting Miller Island from the Lewis and Clark Highway (Washington side of river) “Ghost repellents?” I asked. Well, it turns out that Fred had been doing some research and found an old article from American Anthropologist by Wm. Duncan Strong called The Occurrence and Wider Implications of a “Ghost Cult” on the Columbia River Suggested by Carvings in Wood, Bone and Stone. The article, written in 1945, revealed that bone carvings depicting figures with prominent rib cages, a symbol of death, were found in old cremation pits on Miller’s Island. Excerpts from the article: “It can be shown that among these peoples there was an old belief in the impending destruction and renewal of the world, when the dead would return…” “One of the most striking fea...

Test Paddling the Tarpon 160 (finally)

The problem with 'objectivity' is that it's usually 'subjectivity' cleverly disguised as objectivity. I've wanted the Tarpon 160 ever since I saw it sitting in the rack at the kayak shop. However, I'm trying to take the universal advice of the broad community of kayakers who suggest that choosing a kayak is a personal choice based on how a particular boat fits one's body and objectives, and so, going through the motions of due diligence, I've finally come to the day when I actually get to paddle my dream boat. It doesn't escape my attention that I seem to have a Wilderness Systems' bias. The first kayak I ever sat in was their 12 foot plastic Pungo which delivered me down the Sandy River without making me a candidate for the Darwin Awards. The first kayak I ever bought (so far the only kayak I ever bought) was their Tsunami 125 which has, over the last eight years, patiently taught me everything I know about kayaking except for tha...

John Day River: Thirty Mile Creek to Cottonwood Bridge

"Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;" -Romans 1:20 "I'm not so sure about that, but whether or not we all make it through these rapids alive, I'm confident the grading criteria will be fair." -  Scott "Get ready to explore your world without boundaries." -  Wilderness Systems Owners Manual Sunrise found us on the outskirts of Wasco, high on the Columbia Plateau, our 3 vehicle convoy speeding through golden fields of wheat on toward Condon and then West to a 7:30 AM meeting with a rancher who would provide us a private launch site to the John Day river and also execute our car shuttle.   Startling verdant fields, free of the vestiges of irrigation, belied narratives of drought that punctuated the news. The fresh born morning, still cool to the senses, felt like the fledgling hours of a...