Raised in Arizona, Christopher E. Drover, PhD, RPA has over 50 years of experience including cultural resource assessments and academic research. He graduated from the University of California, Riverside in Anthropology-Archaeology in 1979, has been a tenured professor of this discipline at Golden West College in Huntington Beach from 1973 until his retirement in 2011. He is an ongoing lecturer of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine since 1984 and has been the Director of Cultural Resources at Chambers Consultants and Planners, the Keith Companies and TRW. His research and publications include the Southwest, California and Great Basin.
Rock Art Papers, Volume 19. Ken Hedges, Editor. San Diego Rock Art Association, 2018
Jane Hill, notes a prehistoric linguistic relationship in Uto-Aztecan language among flowers, fer... more Jane Hill, notes a prehistoric linguistic relationship in Uto-Aztecan language among flowers, fertility, life, and death, in a parallel chromatic universe, known as the " Flower World " (Hill 1992). These linguistic relationships were quickly recognized to be apparent in iconographic imagery in early Mesoamerican, and later southwestern agricultural societies (Hays-Gilpin 2010; Taube 2010). Visual application of this concept has provided an interpretation of thirteenth, and fourteenth century Puebloan rock art. We explore the breadth of icons associated with the meaning, function, and ritual use of Flower World imagery in the southern Colorado Plateau.
Rock Art Papers, Volume 19. Ken Hedges, Editor. San Diego Rock Art Association, 2018
Pueblo III, and IV petroglyphs found on Arizona’s Southern Colorado Plateau have been found to re... more Pueblo III, and IV petroglyphs found on Arizona’s Southern Colorado Plateau have been found to relate to “Flower World “ imagery outlined by (Hill 1992; cf. Jones, and Drover 2016). The “Flower World” is a spiritual world, accessed using a complex system of spiritualy, centered on the metaphor of flowers (Hill 1992: 117,122). We suggest that many Pueblo III, and IV petroglyphs are powerful symbol systems designed to propitiate spirits that inhabit, and manipulate the spirit world. We propose that certain petroglyph types, as visual prayers, are an additional aspect of an extensive cultural repertoire used to access the spirit world. Concurrently, influences of northwestern Mexican “Flower World” imagery on Pueblo culture of the same period are explored.
Journal of California and Great Basin Archaeology, 1985
The Navajo have probably been the subject of as much ethnological study as any Native American gr... more The Navajo have probably been the subject of as much ethnological study as any Native American group. Their capacity for assimilating both material and ideological culture traits from surrounding groups is well documented (Hester 1962; Witherspoon 1983: 533) and, as discussed by Aberle (1963) and Witherspoon (1975), may stem from a traditionally flexible lifestyle. This flexibility is evidenced socioeconomically by Navajo participation in railroad construction and maintenance from Chicago westward to California, including the Mojave Desert, and archaeologically by the establishment of rail associated occupation sites (Kluckhohn, Hill, and Kluckhohn 1971: 320). This article de scribes several Navajo structures in the Mojave Desert in terms of their architecture and ethnohistoric function. Documentation is also provided regarding the nature of general Navajo settlement patterns in southeastern California.
Radiocarbon determinations on marine shell have previously been used to provide evidence assignin... more Radiocarbon determinations on marine shell have previously been used to provide evidence assigning a fourth to sixth millennium B.C. age to ceramic objects excavated at the Irvine site, an early Archaic period shell midden located in coastal southern California. Objections have been raised concerning the reliability of the stratigraphic association of ceramics and the radiocarbon-dated marine shell materials. An examination of the thermoluminescence responses of two ceramic samples resulted in minimum TL ages of ca. 1500 B.C. Evidence for a presumably indigenous California ceramic tradition may also be present at two additional sites. This suggests that the arrival of ceramic forms into southern and central California by way of the southern Great Basin and Colorado River may be seen as a separate, comparatively recent (ca. A.D. 1000) phenomenon.
Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 1984
If a horizon is taken to be "a primarily spatial continuity represented by cultural traits and as... more If a horizon is taken to be "a primarily spatial continuity represented by cultural traits and assemblages whose nature and mode of occurrence permit the assumption of a broad and rapid spread" (Willey and Phillips 1958: 33), then Wallace's archaeological cultures are not, strictly speaking, horizons. While Warren's 1968 article failed to resolve the problems of horizons, Warren (this issue) does make the useful observation that Wallace's (1955: 228) brief discussion of southern California coast cultural development was one in which horizons became very much like stages of cultural development.
Rock Art Papers, Volume 19. Ken Hedges, Editor. San Diego Rock Art Association, 2018
Jane Hill, notes a prehistoric linguistic relationship in Uto-Aztecan language among flowers, fer... more Jane Hill, notes a prehistoric linguistic relationship in Uto-Aztecan language among flowers, fertility, life, and death, in a parallel chromatic universe, known as the " Flower World " (Hill 1992). These linguistic relationships were quickly recognized to be apparent in iconographic imagery in early Mesoamerican, and later southwestern agricultural societies (Hays-Gilpin 2010; Taube 2010). Visual application of this concept has provided an interpretation of thirteenth, and fourteenth century Puebloan rock art. We explore the breadth of icons associated with the meaning, function, and ritual use of Flower World imagery in the southern Colorado Plateau.
Rock Art Papers, Volume 19. Ken Hedges, Editor. San Diego Rock Art Association, 2018
Pueblo III, and IV petroglyphs found on Arizona’s Southern Colorado Plateau have been found to re... more Pueblo III, and IV petroglyphs found on Arizona’s Southern Colorado Plateau have been found to relate to “Flower World “ imagery outlined by (Hill 1992; cf. Jones, and Drover 2016). The “Flower World” is a spiritual world, accessed using a complex system of spiritualy, centered on the metaphor of flowers (Hill 1992: 117,122). We suggest that many Pueblo III, and IV petroglyphs are powerful symbol systems designed to propitiate spirits that inhabit, and manipulate the spirit world. We propose that certain petroglyph types, as visual prayers, are an additional aspect of an extensive cultural repertoire used to access the spirit world. Concurrently, influences of northwestern Mexican “Flower World” imagery on Pueblo culture of the same period are explored.
Journal of California and Great Basin Archaeology, 1985
The Navajo have probably been the subject of as much ethnological study as any Native American gr... more The Navajo have probably been the subject of as much ethnological study as any Native American group. Their capacity for assimilating both material and ideological culture traits from surrounding groups is well documented (Hester 1962; Witherspoon 1983: 533) and, as discussed by Aberle (1963) and Witherspoon (1975), may stem from a traditionally flexible lifestyle. This flexibility is evidenced socioeconomically by Navajo participation in railroad construction and maintenance from Chicago westward to California, including the Mojave Desert, and archaeologically by the establishment of rail associated occupation sites (Kluckhohn, Hill, and Kluckhohn 1971: 320). This article de scribes several Navajo structures in the Mojave Desert in terms of their architecture and ethnohistoric function. Documentation is also provided regarding the nature of general Navajo settlement patterns in southeastern California.
Radiocarbon determinations on marine shell have previously been used to provide evidence assignin... more Radiocarbon determinations on marine shell have previously been used to provide evidence assigning a fourth to sixth millennium B.C. age to ceramic objects excavated at the Irvine site, an early Archaic period shell midden located in coastal southern California. Objections have been raised concerning the reliability of the stratigraphic association of ceramics and the radiocarbon-dated marine shell materials. An examination of the thermoluminescence responses of two ceramic samples resulted in minimum TL ages of ca. 1500 B.C. Evidence for a presumably indigenous California ceramic tradition may also be present at two additional sites. This suggests that the arrival of ceramic forms into southern and central California by way of the southern Great Basin and Colorado River may be seen as a separate, comparatively recent (ca. A.D. 1000) phenomenon.
Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 1984
If a horizon is taken to be "a primarily spatial continuity represented by cultural traits and as... more If a horizon is taken to be "a primarily spatial continuity represented by cultural traits and assemblages whose nature and mode of occurrence permit the assumption of a broad and rapid spread" (Willey and Phillips 1958: 33), then Wallace's archaeological cultures are not, strictly speaking, horizons. While Warren's 1968 article failed to resolve the problems of horizons, Warren (this issue) does make the useful observation that Wallace's (1955: 228) brief discussion of southern California coast cultural development was one in which horizons became very much like stages of cultural development.
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