Arizona Daily Sun-
Much more than doodling
By SARA KINCAID
Sun Staff Reporter

Northern Arizona University professor Kelley Hays-Gilpin looks at rock art in her book “Ambiguous Images: Gender and Rock Art,” which recently received the Society of American Archaeology book award. The book challenges the reader to set aside preconceived notions when interpreting images. …

Hays-Gilpin has spent a career trying to convince other archaeology scholars of rock art’s importance and to challenge popular interpretation. Hays-Gilpin began her career in anthropology as a ceramics analyst. Conveniently, some of the images used in pottery also are used in rock art.

“Symbols and meaning can transcend media,” she said. …

Many rock art images are tied to religious ceremonies. A one-meter image of a young woman giving birth at a place in northern Arizona could depict Changing Woman giving birth to the twin heroes of the Navajo creation story or it could be a fertility shrine, Hays-Gilpin said.

One of the important aspects of interpreting rock images is speaking with descendants of the people who might have made the images, she said.

She’s studying images at Chaco Canyon of people who are missing appendages. While such an image might appear to depict a violent scene, there are other interpretations, including the artist not finishing or the figures emerging from the rock. Given the extent of figures without appendages, it is less likely the artist did not finish, she said.

The area could be a separation between this world and the spirit world.

“That rock could be a surface veil out of this world and the spirit world … we can resolve this by talking to descendants,” she said.