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Melissa Florence Baird
"Devouring Our History: An Inquiry into the Destruction of California Rock Art"
Sponsor: Professor Margaret Conkey, Anthropology Department

• Project Description
• Scholar's Photo
• Scholar's Journal

Melissa's interdisciplinary inquiry into the destruction of pre-historic rock art sites in California promises to shed new light on a relatively new but important field of archeological preservation. Through a combination of library research and field work in Mexico and the United States, Melissa will attempt to account for the neglect of these visual images left by ancient hunter-gatherer societies and to argue for the importance of their conservation and preservation. In addition to launching her Anthropology Senior Honors Thesis this summer, Melissa will be acquiring skills in a variety of archeological field methods in preparation for a professional career as an archeological researcher and conservator.

May, ARARA Annual Conference.

The conference was an "eye-opener" in many respects. I expected a conference similar to the Society for American Archaeology annual conference, which consists mainly of professional archaeologists, but the American Rock Art Research Association (ARARA) consists mainly of avocationalists--those who are not professionals, but who enjoy rock art research. Rather than be disappointed because the conference was not as "professional" as I had hoped, I found it an excellent opportunity to explore the role of the avocational archaeologist in rock art research. In addition, we visited local rock art sites in the Coso Range, and I discovered not only beautiful pictographs and petroglyphs, but the limitations of using a cheap camera. All four roles of film were indecipherable, so I will have to return in the fall to retake some shots with my new (well, almost new!) handy, dandy, Canon AE-1, purchased with funds from the Haas Scholars Program!