Thursday, September 25, 2008

Mongolian Skulls at Stone Macaw Panel




Exploring Rock Art in SE Utah

Mongolian Skulls


We spent a terrific 2 and 1/2 days with Bob and Sue Ludtke in the Bluff and Blanding areas of SE Utah. Bob and Sue were excellent hosts, with good knowledge of and experience in the area coupled with great patience. Unfortunately, we had to depart before the visits were finished, so we headed to Cortez. Along the way to Cortez, we visited the Stone Macaw panel in Montezuma Canyon (note the two macaws in the top right of the photo). A group of three professionals were recording the sunlight/shadow interactions on the panel, taking a photograph every 10 seconds, with the intention of producing a 20-second video. They became extremely excited as they watched and predicted the movement and the timing of the movement. Finally the shadow touched the top ring of the smaller spiral, and they were almost overwhelmed. However the highlight of this visit was that one of URARA's intrepid explorers, Wisconsin Jeff Allen, a distant cousin of the lesser known Indiana Jones, located 4 Mongolian skulls, one each of red, blue, green, and crystal color. One of the attached photos shows Wisconsin Allen with the red skull. Remember Indiana Jones took a full two hours of movie time to find one crystal skull and Wisconsin Allen found four skulls in less than 30 minutes. We will be doing more research on the Mongolian skulls, but we have been told that China is building a huge dam, and the excavation for the dam is yielding these skulls. The skulls are being sold to help finance the dam. An international connection for URARA.