Peekaboo, a Female-Male Rock Art Site, Utah

This study deals with the rock art site of Peekaboo, one of the many rock art sites in Salt Creek Canyon, Central Utah, USA. The site not only has layers of interesting pictographs, the spot is also part of a natural landscape that in my opinion is considered by the prehistoric peoples to be gendered. Several natural features very near the rock art site may have been interpreted as male and female.

By Maarten van Hoek

The ‘Trophy-Bird’ of Alto de Pitis

This paper provides a few examples of petroglyphs that have drastically been transformed by later rock art manufacturers. However, it focuses on one specific petroglyph, which is found at Alto de Pitis in the Majes Valley of southern Peru; aptly called ‘The Death Valley of the Andes’. In this paper I tentatively argue that the unique ‘Trophy-Bird’ petroglyph of Alto de Pitis initially started off as a ‘trophy’ head, which was later intentionally transformed to symbolise the Supernatural Flight of the Dead towards Apu Coropuna, the Sacred Mountain of the area.

by Maarten van Hoek