Thousand Hills rock art site (23AD45) near Kirksville, Missouri.
The rock art at the site
is discussed by Diaz-Granados and Duncan (2000).
The site is protected in a State Park and open to the public.
http://www.mostateparks.com/thousandhills.htm
The petroglyphs at the Thousand Hills rock site do not contain
any stylistic clues to their age. The interpretative information presented by the
Department of Natural Resources estimates the age of the rock art to the Late Woodland Period
(ca. AD 600 to 900) based upon the absence of Mississippian/Southern Cult symbols.
The petroglyphs at Thousand HIlls rock art site are
executed in a method similar to the Mississippian Period (ca. AD 900 to 1400) panels at
Washington State Park and the Madden Creek rock art sites.
Possible petroglyph of Ta-he'-ba-xon bi
(Osage, "when deer
shed their antlers = the name of November, first month of the winter").
Possible petroglyph of wa-mon'-se-the cin-e-sta (Osage,
Deceitful Opossum) and other Spirits. La Flesche (1932:30) notes that opossum were killed
and used as food by the Osage. Mathews (1981) grouped the opossum with other
animals that raided his chicken coup.
Possible petroglyph of wa-mon'-se-the cin-e-sta (Osage,
Deceitful Opossum) and other Spirits.
Possible petroglyph of wa-mon'-se-the cin-e-sta (Osage,
Deceitful Opossum).
Petrolgyph of Arrows.
Possible petroglyph of Moh gru Stet se
(Osage, Releasing the Arrows Song).
Possible petroglyph of Paha Lusa (Osage, Talking Rattle).
Possible petroglyph of Paha Lusa (Osage, Talking Rattle)
among Animal Spirits.
The identification of specific petroglyphs
as deer, opossum and birds was made by the DNR archaeologists; I (Prof. Michael Fuller)
believe those interpretations to be very plausible. My use of the terms
Ta-he'-ba-xon bi, Paha Lusa, and wa-mon'-se-the çin-e-sta
is based upon Osage linguistic and religious evidence.
Neither the DNR nor my own interpretations
can be absolutely proven. There is a good chance that Osage was not spoken this far north
and that the relevant terms would be in either the Missouri or Iowa languages.
Using the Native American words does serve a purpose
of reminding modern Americans that the creators of the Thousand Hills rock art site did
not think or speak in English.
Full plan of the petroglyphs provided by
the Department of Natural Resources.
Shelter protecting the petroglyphs (rock art)
from acid rain and vandalism. The GPS location of the rock site is N40 degrees 11.324 minutes
by W092 degrees 38.446 minutes at an approximate elevation of 873 feet.
Burns, Louis F.
1984 Osage Indian Customs and Myths. Ciga Press, Fallbrook, California.
Diaz-Granados, Carol and James R. Duncan
2000 The Petroglyphs and Pictographs of Missouri. University of Alabama Press.
LaFlesche, Francis
1932 A Dictionary of the Osage Language. Smithsonian Institution.
Mathews, John Joseph
1945 Talking to the Moon. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Website Created 5 April 2004.