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avid
Junior Nomad
Posts: 41
Registered: 7-10-2008
Location: SW Oregon
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
If it where Graham Mackintosh (or the ancient natives), it would mean dinner time! 
Snake, it not just for brakfast anymore! |
No doubt, but in the dark prey and preyed upon can go topsy turvy.
avid
Ashland, OR
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
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Twas a tribe's winter place on the SOC. They probably decorated it with rock walls and berms same as y'all spend your free time building crazy
landscapes in your yard. The walls make the site a bit more interesting than your usual collection of "sleeping circles." We'll never know the
deeper meaning as our euro-trash ancestors slaughtered the indians before we got interested in anthropology and archeaology. We'll never know. Oh
well, we learn from our mistakes, one hopes.
Hope!
Yes we can!
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wilderone
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I think the site was a lookout post, and the walls were something to hide behind. I've read where offshore tribes were particularly hostile, and
coastal tribes needed to defend their food sources from pillage. The circles lined with rocks could have had religous significance - but as the above
article relates, these circles are found by the hundreds all over the SW. The slick is evidence that perhaps women-folk would come and process some
food for the look-out soldiers.
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David K
Honored Nomad
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The upper end of the mesa is all covered by lava rocks, and if that is where they wanted to sit, sleep, whatever... clearing away the rocks for some
flat ground would have been necessary... A lookout/ fort/ etc. is what that site seemed to me, as well...
The two walls were both very low and one was way long to be much use for humans...? The long wall climbs way up to the higher part of the hill/ mesa.
Shorter, taller walls would have made good fighting/ defensive barriers... perhaps... but who knows for sure? Where's that time machine??!!
Thanks for the ideas, Cindi!
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avid
Junior Nomad
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Location: SW Oregon
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I am starting to feel like I have loaned my brain to the SETI project. 
Could these stone circles be informational kiosks. Perhaps ways of denoting that someone(s) has been here before or is here. That this is a good
location for habitation and perhaps even with remnants of the food available nearby left behind to inform or remind those that come afterwards.
Circles where chosen because they weren't found in nature, were quick to build and obviously stable. Maybe it was a standard practice common among
aboriginals to survey an area from a high spot before making one's presence known. Therefore it was obvious the high point was the place to leave a
mark. It would help avoid unnecessary conflicts and to assist others if there was no one around.
I guess I am trying to say it was the earliest know form of BajaNomads.
avid
Ashland, OR
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BAJACAT
Ultra Nomad
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Maybe was used as a landmark sort of thing, to mark a trail or area of interest.
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David K
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The rock circles are on top of the tall hill, mesa... Only those flying over can see them... Perhaps avid has a point about aliens or ancient
astronauts?
[Edited on 1-23-2009 by David K]
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Barry A.
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All the "sleeping circles" I have seen (mostly in the So. Cal deserts, and Baja Norte) have been associated with points of exceptional strategic
advantage in that the visibility in several directions was good to exceptional.
Then I tried to "put myself" in their shoes, and speculate:
To me that indicated that "visibility" was the chief advantage, and therefore I associated them with sleeping and sitting points for "watchers".
(for enemies, animals, or ???)
Yes, a "time machine" would be most helpful.
Barry
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avid
Junior Nomad
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Location: SW Oregon
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
I like the cat better than the ram...
The rock circles are on top of the tall hill, mesa... Only those flying over can see them... Perhaps avid has a point about aliens or ancient
astronauts? |
I wasn't referring to extraterrestrials but how my brain feels. Like I have my gray matter logged into a project that is using my bandwidth went I am
not. 
I am sticking with the idea of a message left for self or others. I think that it was just the MO to head for the highest point before entering a new
area. When you arrived there if there were circles of recent origin then you might assume there were already people living there. If they were older
then you could make an assumption that someone before you found the area habitable. Inside the circles there could have been bones, seeds, etc. that
provided information about what was good to eat in this area. They also could be ways to remember a tribes previous occupation. If you were nomadic
there is a chance you might think a place looked familiar but you couldn't remember exactly the facts about it. For instance, children could have been
there with their parents and now they have returned with their children. By looking at the circles there could be clues to previous experiences.
avid
Ashland, OR
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Mexitron
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David--in your description of the walls' positioning with the chute it sounds like the walls form an area that is contiguous with the chute--as in
they are an extension of the chute onto the mesa...?
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avid
Junior Nomad
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I was just looking the area over on Google Earth. Actually I travelled all the way down to Santa Rosalia looking for similar habitat. I found
nothing like this huge wash with a large area of sub-irrigated, it would appear, vegetation. It looks like a place any grazing mammal would head for
if their legs would carry them. I can see no reason a sheepherder would have built a drift fence in this location. The way the sides of the mesa are
shaped makes them a natural trap. The walls are built in the low spot between the two insets in the mesa. Looks like a perfect place to ambush
antelope, bighorn or maybe jackrabbits and drive them up the hill. The walls could have broken up a herd and caused them to head in different
directions or there could have been individuals waiting behind the walls. If my diet was clams day after day I might put a lot of effort into getting
a large mammal.
North of San Francisquito I noticed what appears to be prospecting going on. What are they hoping to find, gold or copper?
avid
Ashland, OR
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David K
Honored Nomad
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Mexitron
David--in your description of the walls' positioning with the chute it sounds like the walls form an area that is contiguous with the chute--as in
they are an extension of the chute onto the mesa...? |
The top of the chute is near the north end of the shorter wall... not connected to it, however. I will try and draw a simple sketch...
Looking down to the 'saddle' area between the walls:
Looking towards the walls from 'near' the top of the chute:
[Edited on 1-23-2009 by David K]
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Sharksbaja
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I think the circles were built by arriving seasonal nomads. They were built as needed ignoring the existing ones that may have been home to dangerous
nocturnal critters.
The chute was for rolling stones down to further progress on the "other" walls that helped funnel wild animals to the spring and associated
vegetation.
The walls on the ridge were built to befuddle people, and it still works today!
The fact that two walls run parallel on that slope is really wierd imo.
DON\'T SQUINT! Give yer eyes a break!
Try holding down [control] key and toggle the [+ and -] keys
Viva Mulege!
Nomads\' Sunsets
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Taco de Baja
Super Nomad
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It is my belief that the rock circles went around the bases of their brush houses. They were not "open air" sleeping circles, as they appear now. They
are essentially prehistoric footings.
In several thousand years people may speculate as to the purpose of all the concrete rectangles; all that is left our houses after the walls have
rotted away.....
Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions
-Herbert Spencer
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David K
Honored Nomad
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Exactly Brooks! In the future we will all be in geo-domes... Why would someone live in a rectangle!
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avid
Junior Nomad
Posts: 41
Registered: 7-10-2008
Location: SW Oregon
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David,
Does the Mesa build from valley floor level on the South as it appears in Google Earth? In other words, does it ramp up slowly till you have a nearly
vertically sided mesa? If this is the case, it would appear similar to a Buffalo Jump. Except in this case there was no jump just walls that
concentrated the game into a kill zone.
avid
Ashland, OR
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Mexitron
Ultra Nomad
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Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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Thanks for the drawing David...it does look though like the chute and the walls are kinda part of the same operation...(?) Wow, what a great
mystery...
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64857
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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| Quote: | Originally posted by avid
David,
Does the Mesa build from valley floor level on the South as it appears in Google Earth? In other words, does it ramp up slowly till you have a nearly
vertically sided mesa? If this is the case, it would appear similar to a Buffalo Jump. Except in this case there was no jump just walls that
concentrated the game into a kill zone. |
Yes... good idea! Chase the game (deer, rams, ?) up the mesa... and at the north end they come down into the saddle area where the hunters wait
behind the walls to hit them with arrows/ spears... Not sure how men on foot could force the animals on the desert to head up the mesa... but ???
Here is the mesa from the south, shortly after taking the right branch, 7 miles from the San Francisquito road.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64857
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Mexitron
Thanks for the drawing David...it does look though like the chute and the walls are kinda part of the same operation...(?) Wow, what a great
mystery... |
From the road to Animas, circleing around the mesa and heading back south on the west side of the mesa... Here looking southeast you can see the long
wall and saddle area...
A bit further south and a look east towards the wall and saddle area.
Here without zoom...
[Edited on 1-26-2009 by David K]
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 18398
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
| Quote: | Originally posted by avid
David,
Does the Mesa build from valley floor level on the South as it appears in Google Earth? In other words, does it ramp up slowly till you have a nearly
vertically sided mesa? If this is the case, it would appear similar to a Buffalo Jump. Except in this case there was no jump just walls that
concentrated the game into a kill zone. |
Yes... good idea! Chase the game (deer, rams, ?) up the mesa... and at the north end they come down into the saddle area where the hunters wait
behind the walls to hit them with arrows/ spears... Not sure how men on foot could force the animals on the desert to head up the mesa... but ???
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I am really curious -- what makes you think the desert once had abundant game to drive into traps? I am not aware of any significant evidence for
such existing in last thousand years. Given seismic activity and erosion potential, doubt the walls and circles and soil berms are more than 500
years old.
The walls were probably decorative, maybe were just someone's rock wall that they enjoyed building to decorate their winter camp on the ocean. Why do
y'all think the walls had any practical or religious function?
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