Life Fragments

— When I first visited Seminole Canyon SP and Historic Site (Texas), I did not know about the historic side of the park. I had driven by the park a couple of times on my way to Big Bend NP, but had never spent time at this state park. This oversight was rectified in 2004, when I went camping at Seminole Canyon. Besides the amazing trails the park offers, a visit to the Fate Bell Shelter Pictograph site is a must. The park conducts guided tours of the site at various times.

The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) says the following about this site: “The site is approximately 150 yards long, and its greatest depth is forty feet. The shelter, which is a state archeological landmark, was named after Mrs. Fate Bell, who owned the land that the shelter occupies.” The shelter contains evidence of over 8,000 years of human occupation, and that can be seen in the various pictographs you can see along the walls shown in the photo above and below. To get a sense of the size of this shelter, take a look at the people that appear near the bottom left-hand corner in the photo above. For more information about the shelter and its history, please see this TSHA article.

Whenever I visit these types of historical places, especially those that offer pictographs and petroglyphs, I am reminded of the lives that once inhabited those locations. These sites are monuments and give visitors life fragments. One can spend hours examining the pictographs and petroglyphs and be transported to a bygone era of what life used to be. What do the pictographs represent?

A pictograph is a pictorial representation of data using images, icons, or symbols. Pictographs are one of the simplest ways of representing data. Please take a look at the next photo.

Is it an animal? It appears to have a tail. On the other hand, the body resembles that of a human being. Is it looking at something on its right side? These and other questions will pop into your mind as you try to understand what caused someone to create this pictograph.

This photo, on the other hand, seems to be depicting a field with a tree, maybe. Were the people creating a representation of where they lived? What are the dots? So many unanswered questions.

The next photos could likely be interpreted in several different ways. You can click each to see it in a larger size for more detail. In one photo, it appears to show a couple of structures. Or could one be an extraterrestrial vessel? What about the human-like figures shown in the other two photos? Are they dressed in ceremonial clothes? Is the wiggle line a river or a serpent? The meaning of pictographs can be difficult to determine, as they often combine multiple symbols and images. However, by studying the context in which they are found, archaeologists and historians can often piece together the meaning of these ancient messages.

Most often, pictographs will show animals, people, ceremonies, symbols, and landscapes. Animals were important as a source of food, but sometimes they were also symbols of spiritual power. As for people, they may appear alone or in groups, as one of the photos above seems to indicate. When showing people in pictographs, we can also learn more about their appearance, clothing, and activities. When people are in groups, they can be seen in battle, doing daily chores, or performing dances or rituals. Those scenes can be tied to religious beliefs. Also, as seen in one of the photos above, a landscape depiction can include mountains, rivers, and forests. From those pictographs, we can gather information about the environment in which the people lived. Finally, when pictographs include symbols, such as geometric shapes or abstract designs, those symbols may have had religious or cultural significance. All of these different facets of a pictograph help us piece together the life fragments of our ancestors.

This post came about because of the current Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #253: Fragments. In his blog, bushboys world, Brian states:

What has been happening recently is a bit of fragmentation around the world, a disconnect. But we always have been made up of pieces. What I would like to see is some of your fragments.

Many things came to mind as I planned this post. As preservation is a big item in my nature photography, I just had to decide what I would focus on for this challenge. From Arches NP to Big Bend NP, I have seen pictographs being defaced. It is a shame that people destroy what our ancestors created. I hope that we, as photographers, will do our part to help preserve these and other life fragments through our photos.