Oldest Rock Art: Nevada Petroglyphs May Be North America's Most Ancient Carvings

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Oldest Rock Art: Nevada Petroglyphs May Be North America's Most Ancient Carvings
LiveScience  |  By Megan Gannon

On the west side of Nevada's dried-up Winnemucca Lake, there are several limestone boulders with deep, ancient carvings; some resemble trees and leaves, whereas others are more abstract designs that look like ovals or diamonds in a chain.

The true age of this rock art had not been known, but a new analysis suggests these petroglyphs are the oldest North America, dating back to between 10,500 and 14,800 years ago.

Though Winnemucca Lake is now barren, at other times in the past it was so full of water the lake would have submerged the rocks where the petroglyphs were found and spilled its excess contents over Emerson Pass to the north.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/14/oldest-rock-art-nevada-petroglyphs-north-america_n_3755033.html

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North America's oldest rock carvings discovered

Ancient rock etchings along a dried-up lake bed in Nevada have been confirmed to be the oldest recorded petroglyphs in North America, dating back at least 10,000 years.

The petroglyphs found on limestone boulders near Pyramid Lake in northern Nevada's high desert are similar in design to etchings found at a lake in Oregon that are believed to be at least 7,600 years old.

Unlike later drawings that sometimes depict a spear or antelope, the carvings are abstract with tightly clustered geometric designs – some are diamond patterns, others have short parallel lines on top of a longer line.

Scientists cannot tell for sure who carved them, but they were found on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe's reservation land.

"We initially thought people 12,000 or 10,000 years ago were primitive, but their artistic expressions and technological expertise associated with these paints a much different picture," said Eugene Hattori, the curator of anthropology at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City who co-wrote a paper on the findings earlier this month in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10244418/North-Americas-oldest-rock-carvings-discovered.html

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Mystery over ancient carvings found on 10,000-YEAR-OLD Nevada boulders that could be the oldest in America
By SARAH GRIFFITHS 15 August 2013

U.S. scientists found the petroglyphs on limestone boulders near Pyramid Lake in northern Nevada's high desert

The carvings are abstract with tightly clustered geometric designs including diamond patterns and short parallel lines

One theory suggests the etchings represent meteorological symbols but others think they are old patterns created by Native Americans

Ancient rock etchings along a dried-up lake bed in Nevada have been confirmed to be the oldest recorded petroglyphs in North America, scientists said.

The petroglyphs, which date back at least 10,000 years, were found on limestone boulders near Pyramid Lake in northern Nevada's high desert.

The carvings are abstract with tightly clustered geometric designs including diamond patterns and short parallel lines on top of a longer line, but no-one knows who carved them.

The oldest petroglyphs (pictured) were found on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe's reservation land. Later drawings sometimes depict a spear or antelope instead of abstract patterns

Radiocarbon testing dated the carbonate layer underlying the petroglyphs to roughly 14,800 years ago.

Geochemical data, sediment and rock samples from adjacent Pyramid Lake show they were exposed to air from 13,200 to 14,800 years ago and again from 10,500 to 11,300 years ago.

'Whether they turn out to be as old as 14,800 years ago or as recent as 10,500 years ago, they are still the oldest petroglyphs that have been dated in North America,' said Benson, a national research scientist emeritus for the U.S. Geological Survey and curator of anthropology at the University of Colorado Natural History Museum in Boulder.

Dennis Jenkins, an archaeologist with the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, called it a significant discovery.

He led recent excavations of obsidian spear points near Paisley, Oregon, that he dated back 13,200 years, and noted that the bigger challenge is identifying who created the petroglyphs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2394340/Ancient-petroglyphs-Nevada-oldest-rock-carvings-North-America.html