<< Other Photo Pages >> Swansea petroglyph site - Rock Art in United States in The West
Submitted by Harald_Platta on Monday, 14 June 2010 Page Views: 13476
Rock ArtSite Name: Swansea petroglyph site Alternative Name: INY272Country: United States Region: The West Type: Rock Art
Nearest Town: Swansea
Latitude: 36.600000N Longitude: 117.9W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
ungust visited on 11th Feb 2015 - their rating: Cond: 4 Access: 4 We were up here for my Lady's Birthday. Places like this are special for us. The Park Rangers at the visitor center in Lone Pine will not give you the exact coordinates to the site. But, to use their favorite saying, " If you are in Keeler, you have gone too far". Swansea is about 9 miles east of Lone Pine. Only one building ( inhabited) across the highway from an old smelter. Look for the Cerro Gordo Rd. sign. Then look for the tire tracks, you are close, use your intuition and you should be rewarded.
The Rangers won't give you the exact coordinates, because they don't want vandals to find these sites easily. Let's help them out and keep these sites protected, for others to visit and for the future generations to remember.
Tread lightly, bring lots of water, take lots of photos.
ENJOY!
mfrincu couldn't find O looked for this place in our expedition to the Eastern Sierra petroglyph sites. However lack of markings and willingness from others to share the coordinates left us wondering.
The petroglyphs at site INY272 in eastern California comprise a solar calendrical observatory, with rayed circles, spirals, and other patterns evidently marking the times of at least the summer solstice, equinoxes, and possibly cross-quarter days, with distinctive patterns of light and shadow at sunset or sunrise. Some of these patterns are reminiscent of those reported at Chaco Canyon and elsewhere in the American Southwest.
Of primary interest here is one equinox marker, consisting of six vertical bars pecked into the rock, that predicts the actual time of equinox within a few hours.1 This is a remarkable degree of accuracy and precision for an apparently simple device. Although it is difficult to attribute motive and intent to the ancient people who created this petroglyph, it is possible to infer some ways the marker could have been designed, what minimum kit of tools and ideas was necessary to design it, and how closely its use matches theoretical performance limits. The purpose of this article is to investigate these questions.
Site INY272... Petroglyph site INY272 is located at latitude 36.6°N and longitude 117.9°W and an elevation of 1130 m, just north of the town of Swansea. The western horizon is formed by the jagged crest of the Sierra Nevada, 30 km distant and rising 3 km above Swansea. There are several hundred petroglyphs at the site, most of which were pecked into white dolomitic marble boulders and bedrock that have been stained tan by weathering. The petroglyphs are concentrated on a wave-polished promontory that was, buried by beach gravels of Pleistocene Owens Lake at the end of the last glaciation, less than 15,000 years ago. The age of the lake high stand was estimated from radiocarbon dating of unaltered clam-shell fossils from the beach gravels themselves, and from tufa lower in the stratigraphic section. It is consistent with radiocarbon dates of organic matter from lake-sediment cores nearby. The lake level throughout the Holocene was lower and the promontory has been exposed above shoreline that whole time. The Holocene climate has been arid; modem rainfall is about 10 cm/yr.
More, with references at the Equinox Project. Photos of the site at Harry Helms' Blog.
Note: Summer solstice field trip to Swansea Petroglyph site, June 19-21, 2010 and article in PCAS newsletter March 2010, see comment
(Page text originally posted by Andy_B; pictures posted by Harald_Platta)
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