Everything with them. And when they ran into other cultures, they adjusted. They changed the colors of their vessels but they kept the same images, images of a landscape that is worn open, that is controlled by basic elements, by wind, by water, by gravity. See the shape of the world where i have spent my life, where i have been walking, looking for these stories. And just to give you a sense of scale here, thats me at the bottom of that pillar. And that pillar is just some old wall and thats all thats left of it, some memory of a canyon. Every place out there is a memory, a memory of water, a memory of humans. Most of those vessels that i just showed you they all came from museums. Here is one that i found a few years ago, a seed jar in utah underneath a ledge. And i didnt move it from the spot. In fact, the sand had just been barely swept away to show the face of it, but its still there. Its still under that ledge. I hope. Id like to take you on a route and show you a way down to one
Ledge. I had a thermorest with me and it wasnt as wide as the thermorest so i had to put a rock under the thermorest for my head and reagan slept on top of me. Nights are so solid, you dont move all night. Just to get our stuff out to that ledge, you couldnt actually go with a pack. You had to take your pack off because there is a drop. You kind of have to jump from left to right. So you come up against the wall, you put your foot around and you do that. And then we unloaded our packs piece by piece and then handed each piece across so that then we could set our camp on the ledge and in the morning, we continued down the face lowering our packs until you get down to the next level. And the next level falls out from itself. The ground constantly opening up. You can feel the wind and the water opening the earth as if there was no bottom to this, constantly finding the next route it take you from ledge to ledge to ledge, down through cracks and narrows, chimneys leading down step by step.
Shape, the pottery, i followed Genetic Information that you find in bones and teeth. I followed as many different pieces of information as i could and they sent me walking. I started in chaco canyon and walked north up to mesa verde, around to comb ridge in utah, down into the hopi mesa, across the mugion rim, to mexico and then into the sierra madre, following people, following routes. Because everything in the desert leaves a route that leads you somewhere. Everything out there is a story. And thats what im following, these stories, looking for ways, looking for grains of sand out of place, looking for stories out in the middle of nowhere. I can open this up for questions if anybody has any questions. I was wondering if they had any sort of metal or did they use hardened rocks of some sort to shape their stones . Most of what they did was stone. Metallurgy was just starting to move up into northern chijuajua at that time and they were working with copper. That was just ornamental, so
The mugion rim, to mexico and then into the sierra madre, following people, following routes. Because everything in the desert leaves a route that leads you somewhere. Everything out there is a story. And thats what im following, these stories, looking for ways, looking for grains of sand out of place, looking for stories out in the middle of nowhere. I can open this up for questions if anybody has any questions. I was wondering if they had any sort of metal or did they use hardened rocks of some sort to shape their stones . Most of what they did was stone. Metallurgy was just starting to move up into northern chijuajua at that time and they were working with copper. That was just ornamental, so there was no metal going on at all other than imported bells. And the shells, they went down to cortez not lake the cortez sea to get, was that mostly hard or brittle . It was hard but not tool hard. The Colorado Plateau is covered with chert, a glassy rock that is really really good for making
Canyon. Every place out there is a memory, a memory of water, a memory of humans. Most of those vessels that i just showed you they all came from museums. Here is one that i found a few years ago, a seed jar in utah underneath a ledge. And i didnt move it from the spot. In fact, the sand had just been barely swept away to show the face of it, but its still there. Its still under that ledge. I hope. Id like to take you on a route and show you a way down to one of these artifacts. Now, a lot of people look across canyon land, say, in southeast utah where this picture is, and its not really clear how you get around, how you get from place to place. But if you know this place well enough you know right over this lip of white sandstone, if you go right over the ledge and hang your foot over this side, you cant see it but you can feel it with the tip of your foot, theres a little toe hold down there, then if you get on that toe hold you drop your other foot down and theres another toe hold.