The Nolan Center and Wrangell Ranger District wrapped up its Chautauqua season last week, a recurring talking circuit they have cosponsored for 11 years.
Community members are invited to spend an hour sharing a valued hobby or favorite subject with their neighbors, blending education with entertainment.
Speaking on March 31, Bonnie Demerjian laid out the history of local rock art, which includes paintings and petroglyphs. Having published a book on the subject last year, “Rock Art of Southeast Alaska,” she began with an overview of the artform’s background before walking the audience through the particulars.
Due to the movements of land, glaciers and sea, as well as of people, petroglyphs can be difficult to locate. After shifting periods of glaciation the sea had only settled to present levels around 5,000 years ago, while the earliest remains found in the area have been dated to around 9,800 years. As such, a number of the earliest sites may be submerged, with later ones reclaimed by forest.
Other sites have been abandoned or forgotten over the years or have had artworks removed. Wrangell’s own Petroglyph Beach is a rare example of a high density of accessible artwork, with currently 40 visible. Other petroglyphs can be found around town, while still other examples can be viewed at the museum.
Demerjian explained rock art can be difficult to date, as it is not testable through carbon dating methods. Instead, artistic styles and contextual clues like weathering are used to estimate the age of different pieces. Depending on the condition of the artwork, the themes and depictions used can also be abstract or difficult to identify. However, Demerjian said typically petroglyphs were created to relay cultural stories, bear clan crests, mark out an allocation of resources, commemorate important events or depict the visions of shamans.
“It appears that many of our petroglyphs were made by shamans,” Demerjian explained. The shaman or medicine man was an important figure in Tlingit culture, with various leadership roles. Much like the petroglyphs themselves, shamanistic roles were a global phenomenon, and the imagery popularly attributed to them like spiraled eyes and headpieces are common features on rock art.
Animals and legendary creatures are similarly common motifs, such as Wasco the sea monster and Thunderbird. Buildings, canoes, tools and other common objects were also put down into stone.
Petroglyphs are currently divided into three categories, based on their complexity, by academics. The oldest is the basic style, which typically features pits, circular faces and animals. Classic conventionalized is more modern, featuring formline design and ovoid eyes. The third is curvilinear abstract, with more complex arrangements of patterns and shapes.
Rock painting is another old art form, with examples still visible on area cliff faces. Though more susceptible to fading and weathering than petroglyphs, pictographs can sometimes be carbon dated due to the type of pigments used. The most common colors used locally were black and red, using graphite and char or else hematite and clay mixed together to make ochre, respectively.
Demerjian’s talk on rock art was one of around half a dozen talks given this season exposing residents to new topics and ideas, ranging from garnets and mushrooms to roller derby.
“It was a new experience for me,” said Carrie McCormack, who presented tips for traveling in a recreational vehicle along with Katelyn Reeves on March 24 . “It was kind of like an RV 101. It was a lot of fun.”
She had been asked by the museum to share her travel experiences, and together with Reeves, McCormack put together a slideshow outlining different types of vehicle, destinations, and the ins and outs of RV-ing. People who have never traveled as such were exposed to a new mode of recreation as a result, while the two presenters were able to share stories from past trips and pleasant memories.
“I would definitely do it again next year,” McCormack said.
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