Crossed one more thing off the 'things to see' list. Petroglyphs. Made the Goob go outside yesterday for a trip to the archeological site. While the site was open, the visitor's center was closed, so we were forced to make our own interpretations. First the educational elements for you. Petroglyphs are pecked into the rock, and pictographs are painted onto the rock. The signage at the site admits that
rock art is difficult to decipher and extremely difficult to date. It also says that most archeologists agree that it probably represents complex mythological and religious concepts of the artists. I have
my own thoughts on archeologists.
Here then are my own interpretations.
The rock artists were most likely aliens.
As evidenced by their drawings.
And the drawings were most likely done by alien children. I know this is true because of the marker board in the dining room in the house where I grew up. My Dad brought the dry erase marker board home when the dry erase marker was a brand new concept. And hung it on the wall in the dining room. It is still hanging there today. My parents use the top half of it to write down reminders of their doctor appointments. But in its heyday we played hangman on it, and drew flattering pictures of each other and dinosaurs and other mythological creatures, and practiced writing our names.
(The oldest of us siblings are older than the concept of dry erase markers and we practiced writing our names by carving them with a pen or pencil into the windowsills. May be the reason my parents invested in the marker board.) The grand kids and great grand kids still use the bottom half this same way.
My Mom and Dad rarely drew anything on the board. Certainly nothing of mythological proportions or that would reveal their religious concepts. But the dry erase markers were kept high up on top of the board, rather than on the lower ledge. Because a child could not walk by the marker board without drawing on it. And when the marker board was full they would keep on drawing. On the wall beside the board. Or on a sibling or cousin standing too close. Or on themselves.
(And while dry erase markers erase easily from a dry erase marker board they are not as easily removed from other surfaces.)
Here then is an alien child's picture of a rabbit. His parental units were busy trying to repair the crash landed space craft and he was stunning rabbits with his phaser and asking repeatedly, "Can I keep him?" At this point the alien mother gives the child a sharp stone and instructs him to peck some pictures on that rock wall over there. Away from his alien father.
This is an area of the wall with multiple drawings which are especially difficult to decipher. It happens when the alien mother forgets to draw a line down the middle of the marker board stone walls to clearly delineate where each alien child may draw. "He's drawing on my side!" (This is the point where my own mother would swoop in with the dry erase eraser, wipe the marker board clean, and send us outside to play.)
And, finally, here is the family picture
. (In case you don't recognize us, the STP is on the far right, The Goob is standing next to him. I am the one with alternate hands having a bad hair day. And our alien pet is on the left.) Every child draws this one.
When The Queen of Queens was a preschooler and in the stick figure stage, she drew a picture of me.
(I looked just a little like an alien, but I had really long thin legs.) Then she drew her dad, really little, holding a Bible, down in the corner of the page. Thinking this must be indicative of some deep seated psychological issue or religious concept, I questioned her as to why she drew her dad so little. "Well," she said, "You took up all the room."
Which just goes to show you that you shouldn't read too much into a picture.
(And it's usually my fault.)
