Mesa Prieta horned figure

Source term: bullroarer

On a basalt face at Mesa Prieta, above the northern Rio Grande, a figure in a horned headdress stands with one arm thrown out to the side. At the end of that reach, pecked into the rock, is a long narrow shape. The Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project, which recorded the panel as a three-dimensional model, says the figure appears to be using a bullroarer, and notes that its sound is likened to rushing wind or rolling thunder. Nobody has dated the panel, on a mesa whose images run from the Archaic to the present day.

This figure, wearing a horned headdress, appears to be using an instrument called a bullroarer.

Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project, description of its 3D model of the panel (published 7 May 2024)

Particulars

Object

Pecked rock-art panel, recorded as a photogrammetric surface model. A horned anthropomorph stands with one arm extended laterally toward a long, narrow pecked element. No physical object is involved. The model does not cleanly resolve a cord between hand and element, nor a circular motion arc.

Function

Depiction identified by the recording project as a figure using a bullroarer, with the sound likened to rushing wind or rolling thunder; no rite, performer role or context is recorded for the panel itself.