What is history?

I recently had the opportunity to visit Grapevine Canyon at the southern end of Lake Mead National Recreation Area with an archaeologist. It was an amazing experience. The sheer number of petroglyphs are overwhelming. The one shown above is by photograper Marc Sanchez and you can see more of his excellent photographs at mjsimagez.com.

So, I'm standing in front of the petroglyph and I ask the archeologist to tell me about it. He replies: "Well, because there is no organic matter associated with petroglyphs we cannot carbon date it." I say: "Then you don't know how old it is?" He replies: "No, it could be prehistoric or it could have been done in the historic period after the coming of Europeans to this area." Well," I ask "Was it made by Paiutes or their ancestors?" "It's possible, but because we don't know how old it is we cannot say." I pause and look at the petroglyph then say, "Well at least it is easy to figure out what the artist was saying, don't you think?" He laughs, then replies, "We do not interpret petroglyphs because they were created by a culture that probably no longer exists. We have no written records that would explain their cultural context. The petroglyph maker could have had many intents, even just practicing his craft with no implicit story."

So, here I am thinking that this is so like non-fiction history meeting historical fiction. I clearly see that Untu-we had just returned from a successful hunt of a Bighorn Sheep. It was his first kill and he has provided for his entire clan. The next day Untu-we patiently chips at the desert varnish with concentration and patience. He needs to record the moment and in the deadly noon-day heat it is pleasant to sit in the shade of an overhanging rock and chip his story into stone.

From my own research I know that most preliterate cultures had little sense of perspective in their created imagery. In this petroglyph the arrow killing the Desert Bighorn Sheep was the most important image so it became the largest. I have an entire story in my head about Untu-we but it is imagination based on assumptions the archaeologist or historian will not make.

I'm currently reading Karen Essex's Kleopatra. In the novel she brings to life Kleopatra's early years. However, almost nothing is known about those years but Ms. Essex creates a vivid world, a good, in my opinion, approximation of Alexandria under the Ptolomies. It's a compelling read, the best yet of the many Kleopatras I have read. Historians only have the Roman account of her life and it is good to see Ms. Essex carefully stripping away the Roman biases and presenting this last Macedonian Queen in the light she deserves. Like the Petroglyph, imagination has to fill in the story.