Wildhorsin' Around

To the mountains.....

Archaeologists have identified about 25 visionquest sites in Idaho. The visionquest was a several day mediation taken by a youth entering manhood. A favored location for this ritual appears to be desolate high hills with magnificent vistas. Here's one. This butte in Thousand Springs Valley overlooks the Borah Peak area. Shown is an obsidian dart point, and for scale, an ungulate bone.

This deep woods shelter is at the base of a 10,000' mountain in Idaho's Lost River Range. Ancient fire rings have also been found in other forest locations along the LRR.

These rock steinmen, just above timberline, are configured as bighorn sheep decoys. Nearby krummholz would have served as a blind for neolithic hunters. Similar decoy hunting sites have been identified on scattered ~10,000' mountains in four ranges, roughly along the 45th parallel of Idaho and Montana.

From a petroglyph site in eastern Idaho here's my interpretation: This rather portly individual is on a ski. In one hand he's holding either a lurk ( a ski pole), or an atlatl (a spear hurling device). The long curling tail, a staple of rock art, is his manliness. This was some dude. He's fat, a rarity among subsistence people, because he's found a new, effective way to hunt game- on skis. This petroglyph is not graffiti, but the work of a true artist. The pecking indicates the creator used an iron tool. Lime deposits in the glyph affirm great age. The atlatl preceded the bow and arrow as a weapon. My guess: the guy depicted here went for a ski tour in Idaho powder 3000 years ago. Give him credit for first tracks.