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This page last updated on 03/05/2019
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| For more info on the Ash Springs Rock Art Site, check out pages 18-23 of the Lincoln County Rock Art Guide at … http://lincolncountynevada.com/images/RockArtGuide.pdf. |
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06/21/2012 Trip Notes: On the return from a week-long camping trip with Harvey Smith to Spring Valley State Park, north of Pioche, NV, we made a side trip to the Ash Springs Rock Art Site at Ash Springs, Nevada. Shortly after pulling off US-93, you must open a barbed-wire gate (shown above) to enter the site. Be sure to close upon entering and leaving. As you can see from the map above, there are 18 separately identified panels located on the desert varnished rocks found at this site. Unfortunately, many are barely recognizable due to the constant deterioration caused by weathering from the natural elements of sun, rain and wind. To us today, much of the imagery here is clearly non-representational (refer to Panels 01, 02 and 03), though it would have been clearly understood by the cultures who created it. Some of the more recognizable glyphs are zoomorphs and resemble animals, including all four-legged types or quadrupeds, as well as birds, insects, and other animals. Mountain sheep are the most common zoomorphs found at Ash Springs (look carefully at Panels 04 and 05). Human figures, or anthropomorphs, are some of the other recognizable forms found at Ash Springs and exhibit striking variations in design (refer to Panels 06 and 07). |
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Area History: The Ash Springs Rock Art Site was frequented by a culture known as the Pahranagats, one of several known Southern Paiute groups. The presence of debitage, or stone flakes, indicate that many stone tools were created here. At the Ash Springs Site, sherds of Fremont-like greyware have also been found, indicating the presence of these Southwestern groups who co-existed in this area along with the Pahranagats c. AD 500-1250. The Pahranagats, like other culture groups in this area, represented a long-standing tradition (c. 12,000 years) of diverse lifeways which included hunting and gathering combined with periods of sedentism. Approximately AD 1000, a major subsistence change may have occurred when hunting was increasingly replaced by the consumption of plants and small animals (i.e., rodents, birds, insects) as major sources of nutrition. Horticulture became an important subsistance activity, a practice which may have been borrowed from the Virgin Anasazi, another Southwestern group present in this area along with the Fremonts. Other than this, no major disruption is inferred throughout this cultural sequence until the nineteenth century. At this time native inhabitants were severely affected by the presence of European settlers in the area, particularly during the great mining boom of the 1860's. Indigenous populations were displaced, eradicated or at least greatly attenuated.
The Pahranagats' primary political and economic unit was the mobile extended family. These small parties ranged throughout the region during the course of the seasonal round to take advantage of the varying availabilities of local resources. Despite the Pahranagat's excellent survival skills, starvation was often prevalent in the spring when winter stores were depleted and spring food plants had not yet begun to germinate. When food plants did become available, populations dispersed along the valley floors during the spring and summer. Seeds, roots, tubers and berries were collected and small animals were trapped and eaten. The practice of horticulture yielded crops of maize, beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, lamb's quarters and winter wheat. Garden plots were situated along the margins of lower altitude lakes and marshes and were watered by irrigation ditches. During the fall, people came together in large gatherings for the purpose of harvesting pinenuts, communal rabbits drives and mourning ceremonies. During the winter months, the boulders here would shelter people from the cold. Water was ordinarily obtained from snow meltoff, however, the constant availability of (warm) water at Ash Springs rendered this unnecessary and made this site extremely desirable.
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As you can see from these last two photos, this small petroglyph area is only a relatively short distance from Ash Springs, Nevada, the patch of green in the middle of each picture. Ash Springs is a desert oasis, part of a series of natural springs in the area, which sits in the middle of the beautiful high desert landscape of the Pahranagat Valley. It consists of a small community and has two natural hot springs, Big Ash and Little Ash, which still today attracts visitors year round.
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Clicking the picture-link below will open OneDrive in a new window and a folder containing 44 pictures taken of trip to the Ash Springs Rock Art Site. To view the show, click on the first picture in the folder and you will get the following menu bar:
Clicking the "Play slide show" will play a fullscreen window of the slide show.
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Note: Every attempt is made to provide accurate information, but occasionally depictions are inaccurate by error of mapping, navigation or cataloging. The information on this site is provided without any warranty, express or implied, and is for informational and historical purposes only.
