This panel of objects is interesting because it appears to be isolated. Usually the images are found in clusters. There may have been images below the four in the center of the photo. However, the surface under images where the break is, appears to have some patination indicating that rock below the images has been gone for quite some time. It is possible that the discoloration is due to water seeping into the cracks of the rock, thus implying a more recent break. A more recent break, that is a break AFTER the images were made appears likely if we look at the the breaks in the rock at the bottom left corner of the images. As a rule, glyphs are never put on a damaged surface.
Either way, other images would not seem to have been close enough to these to have any 'effect' or to be part of them.

Whatever this glyph might 'mean' to those who made is difficult to try to understand. Part of this is due to interpreting what the objects are or are supposed to be. A 'minimalist' approach is the safest but there are things that we can plainly see and speculate - reasonably - about. 

What we can see is:
four objects who are linked by hand - why? - the arms are linked at the hand
they are running from left to right - why? - the third and fourth objects from the left seem to have their legs posed in a running motion, this seems to be the case with the first two objects who also appear to be running but the rock surface seems to have eroded the details away;
the object on the for right might be female - why - the image is wider in the hip area and has the arms lower on the trunk of the body near the breast area;
the second object from the right might be a male - why - narrow, rectangular body shape, arms at the top of the shoulders - in contrast to the other images;
the first images from the left are meant to be distinct from the last two images - why - these images resemble ritual type images found in Anasazi areas in Arizona and elsewhere.

We have to assume that these images were made to look the way they look by design and that they were not randomly pecked into these rocks. Does this depict a one time event or a ceremony that was repeated? Beyond that question everything is speculation.



Speculation:
1)  the two figures on the right are not male and female, they are shaman and an initiate;
2)  it is the depiction of a marriage ceremony;
3)  it marks the death or birth of a couple;
4)  the hands linking together depict a spiritual linking.

Remember, the only thing that we can be sure of is that these images were not placed here by whim, for art or for decoration and that they had a very specific meaning to the people who put them here.


>>Previous Page, Click Here<<

Return to the Valley of Fire Page