Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Matadors and Flamenco


 
 
The custom of bull fighting is ancient.  It occurs in mostly Hispanic countries including Spain, Portugal, and Mexico.  I believe this ancient sport developed from another ancient sport called "Bull Leaping" from ancient Crete.  The person leaping had to leap over the bull as it ran towards them.  The story of Dionysus's childhood friend, Ampelos, is one of tragedy.  Ampelos was killed while trying to ride a bull.
 
The Running of the Bulls is another Hispanic tradition in which bulls are set free to run through the streets along with the people.  It can be dangerous as well.
 
The art of Flamenco dancing is Hispanic as well.  I've been to Mexico to see the live Flamenco dancers and they were very beautiful.  The dance usually requires a lot of foot movement along with arm movement during the dance.  It is quite energetic.
 
 
 
 
 



Links:

 
 
 
 
 

Monday, December 9, 2013

Two New Art Boxes



I call this one "Dragon's Lair":

 
 
 
I call this one "The Club."
 
 
 
 


Thursday, December 5, 2013

Petroglyphs from Valley of Fire and Sloan Canyon

I saw pictures of what appear to be Phoenician ships in the petroglyphs at Valley of Fire.  There were two of them.  I saw a slab with petroglyphs of feet. One had 6 digits.  The rest were from children and probably a female adult (they were smaller) with 5 digits.  I saw Petroglyphs of the animals of the region (long horn sheep, centipedes, scorpions, snakes, tortoises, and humans) and many sun spirals.  Here they are:


 
 
There appears to be a ship in this one:
 


 
 
Here is another one with a larger ship with a dragon's head.  I have several shots of this one.  Notice the crab?  It could represent the Cancer constellation and the month of the summer solstice.
 




 
 

 Compare the ship petroglyphs to this:


 
 
 
 
Sun spiral or fossil?


 
Some sort of counting.  Perhaps the number of days they spent at Valley of Fire.


 
 
 
This one was huge.  It has several foot prints in it.  One has 6 digits.  Other's are smaller like children's feet with 5 digits.  There is either a bull or goat by the large foot as well.  This can either be the Taurus or Capricorn constellation or the months of May or December.
 



 
 
The people that made these petroglyphs are now referred to as the Gypsum people.
 


 
 
I noticed in this display of what the desert was in the past (under the ocean) and saw some objects that looked very similar to the sun spiral petroglyphs.  Look at the top of the bluish objects in the sand.  Were these ancient people drawing the fossils they found?
 
 



Desert Varnish occurs when iron and manganese present in the rock interacts with living life forms such as algae or fungi.  This is what makes the rock have a black finish on it.





Holding hands and having some fun.





Now for the most interesting find at Sloan Canyon which is about an hour south of Valley of Fire.  I found what appears to be Phoenician letters.





I believe these letters stand for the Phoenician letters (bet, gaml, tet, and wau).  These letters, based on some simple comparisons to Phoenician letter meanings in Wikipedia, may be telling us the following words:  House, Camel, Wheel, and Hook.  My interpretations may be incorrect, but I have to wonder if they are telling us that when they came here about 4,000 years ago, they came from their home that had camels via a sea wheel and that they used hooks because they were fishermen and travelers of the waters.  My research continues on this subject as the story of red-haired giants in Nevada go back to the Pauite people and seem to match up well with the hypothesis that visitors from ancient Phoenicia came to America some 4000 years ago and probably earlier.  The arrowheads per the time of these people shown in the Valley of Fire visitor center match the arrowhead design of the Clovis and Solutrean (European) people.


Here are a few more petroglyphs from Sloan Canyon:












I'll be writing more about these petroglyphs in time.  Enjoy for now and imagine the people who travelled through this hot area 4000 years ago and that they were telling you who they were and what they saw in the desert at that time. 
 
 


Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia

Nevada

I went to Nevada to check out the Petroglyphs.  There was plenty to see on the strip.  The Caesar Hotel had a lot of statues from Greek mythology.  They also had a robotic show about the fall of Atlantis.  The Red Rock Canyon scenic drive was amazing.  Valley of Fire had a lot of Petroglyphs and an amazing trail walk through red rocks and plants that were bluish-green and green.  Sloan Canyon was very hard to get to, but we did it.  Hoover Dam was simply amazing.  Before I show some of the Petroglyphs, let me show you some pictures from the places I just mentioned.  See if you can figure out who the statues are of.


Driving through downtown Las Vegas:



 

 
 
Inside and Outside the Hotels/Casinos:


 
 
Caesars:
 




 
 





 
Red Rock Canyon (Scenic Drive and Visitor Center)
 






A display of desert tortoises.  I was told they only need to fill up their water tank once a year and can look for food the rest of the year.  They dig holes in the desert that are used by other animals and are very important to the desert chain of life.








 
 
Valley of Fire is about an hour north of Las Vegas.  It is amazing.  I will show the petroglyphs in the next article.


 
 





 
 
Hoover Dam. 
 





 
 
 
Hoover Dam Star Map/Calendar.  The ball at the top of the flag pole is aligned to the position the sun was in when the dam was dedicated in 1935 by President Franklin Roosevelt. 
 










 
 
Sloan Canyon, just south of Las Vegas.
 


 
 
Green Man display inside the plant display in the Bellagio.


 
 
Famous Guys who have a Pawn Shop on the strip and their own TV show.