20 ఏప్రిల్, 2026

"The cloud-being in the pictograph... includes the symbols of a snake, which is associated with lightning, and a hummingbird, which is believed to be..."

"... a messenger with prayers to bring rain. The outstretched arms of the cloud being have rain as well as its full body consisting of rain. The lightning snake under its arm is stimulating the rain to fall. It looks like a storm cloud with lightning that has a heavy downpour in one region and lighter rain falling in others. There are examples of cloud beings with lighting that have a very similar appearance to modern photographs of storm clouds that have captured lightning bolts. Clouds can seem to be standing on lightning feet, which look like plant roots going down into the ground...."

From "Prehistoric Art of the Colorado Plateau: It’s All About Clouds!" (Cloud Appreciation Society).
వీరిచే పోస్ట్ చేయబడింది Ann Althouse వద్ద 5:33 AM
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23 కామెంట్‌లు:

Mike (MJB Wolf) చెప్పారు...

Any evidence the paintings are part of a larger project to capture dawn on cave walls over a period of time?

20-04-26 5:48 AM
baghdadbob చెప్పారు...

It's clouds illusions I recall, I really don't know clouds at all.

20-04-26 6:00 AM
rhhardin చెప్పారు...

As a literary matter this is called pastoral. The wisdom and goodness of various forms of lower class people.

20-04-26 6:17 AM
john mosby చెప్పారు...

I really don't know clouds. At all. CC, JSM

20-04-26 6:21 AM
Quaestor చెప్పారు...

Cloud beings exist in the eye of the beholder.

I have this nagging suspicion that the Cloud Appreciation Society consists of its chartered officers, and no one else.

20-04-26 6:31 AM
Enigma చెప్పారు...

People who lived outside in close contact with nature saw, thought about, and drew what was there. Clouds predict weather and correlate with seasons (i.e., essential for finding food, safety, planning, assessing the need for migration). Many ancient cultures watched the stars at night too. That gave us proto-astronomy, astrology (fortune telling), and oceanic navigation.

Per the posting theme of the day: First the nouns and then the verbs.

20-04-26 6:33 AM
narciso చెప్పారు...
ఈ కామెంట్‌ను రచయిత తీసివేశారు.
20-04-26 6:50 AM
Quaestor చెప్పారు...

Everyone with eyes to see associates rain with clouds, obviously. Rain doesn't fall from a cloudless sky. However, most ancient mythologies credit rain and storms to other beings who in turn command the clouds. For example, the Hittite god called Tarḫunna was responsible for all sorts of weather, including drought. He was depicted as human-like being who stands or rides on clouds, but not those billowy froths of airborne ice particles themselves, which is typical structure of ancient pantheons. Zeus wields thunder bolts like an earthbound warrior wields a spear, but he isn't the bolt itself. The same is true of the Canaanite god spoken of in the Book of Ezekiel as Baal, who strongly resembles the Hittite Tarḫunna. Lightning is the weapon of Baal. Rain is his beneficence. In a land prone to droughts, a god like Baal would be too important to be addressed by just anyone, According to Ezekiel, that was the job of the priests of Baal. The evidence we have regarding Tarḫunna suggests that only the king himself was exalted enough to deal with that rain god. Casting against type, the Norse thunderer had little to do with rain or weather generally. Those were duties assigned to Freyr of the Vanir, the god of crops and agricultural abundance generally. Evidently, rain and storms were so common in the northern lands that the people didn't consider them a matter of divine activities.

20-04-26 7:01 AM
Scott Patton చెప్పారు...

The image captioned: "This petroglyph in Indian Creek, Utah, dated 600-1250 CE, shows a cloud being with a cloudburst of rain reaching the ground. The gesture of arms outstretched and arched like this represents the sky. "
looks like David Byrne

20-04-26 7:03 AM
gilbar చెప్పారు...

it's IMPORTANT, to remember, that Carol Patterson, PhD
is not just a Woman.. she is a college grad!
this means, doubly, that what SHE FEELS is correct.

because she is a Woman, her feelings about these paintings CANNOT be questioned by ANY man.. EVER
because she is a PhD,
her feelings are just THAT MUCH MORE IMPORTANT!
just LOOK at this!
James Cook University, Ph.D. Anthropology, 2004.
Columbia Pacific University, M.A. 1989-1992.
University of New Mexico, B.A. 1973-1982

it Only took her TEN YEARS to get her 1st degree!
then, JUST TEN YEARS LATER; she was a MASTER of Arts!
and ten (or 12) years after that; POST HOLE DIGGER!!
and LOOK at those schools!
James Cook University, in Australia or someplace!
and Columbia Pacific University! a "distance learning facility"!
that was closed by court ordera few years after awarding Carol her degree.. and WHY was it closed by court order?
Among other items, the administrative appeals judge found that CPU:

awarded excessive credit for prior experiential learning to many students;
failed to employ duly qualified faculty; and
failed to meet various requirements for issuing PhD degrees.[2]
California Deputy Attorney General Asher Rubin called the correspondence school "a diploma mill which has been preying on California consumers for too many years" and "a consumer fraud, a complete scam".
The suit also referred to Columbia Pacific University as a "phony operation" offering "totally worthless [degrees]....[14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Pacific_University#Closure_and_appeals:_1995%E2%80%932000

but HEY!
she talks about clouds.. so THERE! SHUT UP men!

20-04-26 7:10 AM
boatbuilder చెప్పారు...

My wife joined the Cloud Appreciation Society several years ago. Got a nice book identifying various cloud formations. Glad to hear that it is still going.

20-04-26 7:17 AM
Enigma చెప్పారు...

@gilbar --

Regardless of this particular case, a long gap before getting a PhD is not rare. Those who get degrees when young/no lag compete for a tiny number of academic positions with a thin resume. The PhD is worth literally zero without a track record, as the degree is notorious for attracting high-ego, low-execution divas and dilettantes.

Those who wait sometimes develop an idea while working and then go back to school to address a specific thesis. That's often to develop a new device, tool, or analytical method that's not yet employable or sellable...but not to study clouds.

20-04-26 7:20 AM
MadTownGuy చెప్పారు...

So, even back then, they had the cloud. Huh.

20-04-26 7:34 AM
Aggie చెప్పారు...

Maybe the pictographs represent the most recent efforts of the people making use of the cave, and maybe they represent the impending failure of the group because of drought. Maybe they were getting desperate, praying to the gods that rain would come. It's thought that many of those agrarian groups in that region died out because of a disruptions to their food supply, slowly making their existence more and more tenuous. They should have given up their SUVs.

20-04-26 7:36 AM
Bob Boyd చెప్పారు...

The first picture at the link looks like a depiction of what a Chinaman sees when he suddenly looks up while taking a dump in his car in the alley behind a police station.

20-04-26 7:49 AM
planetgeo చెప్పారు...

Mike (MJB Wolf): "Any evidence the paintings are part of a larger project to capture dawn on cave walls over a period of time?"

Yes. It became popular after the invention of the iCharcoal.

20-04-26 8:19 AM
gilbar చెప్పారు...

i guess my point was, that it's tedious to keep hear white women "explain" about ancient prehistoric things.
People tend to overlook the fact that this lady is just making it ALL UP, based Solely on Her "feelings".
BUT! we HAVE TO listen, and Agree.. BECAUSE!

20-04-26 8:20 AM
Howard చెప్పారు...

Yes, before and during the periods of significant drought that led to the abandonment of settlements by the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly referred to as Anasazi) in the 13th century, the Southwest relied heavily on seasonal monsoonal thunderstorms for summer rainfall.
Drought.gov
Drought.gov
+3

20-04-26 9:16 AM
Howard చెప్పారు...

I had the same thought, Aggie. However, due to the seasonality of the summer monsoons, maybe it was a long-standing tradition to pray that that keep returning. They probably already experienced minor drought periods throughout their their existence in the four corners area prior to the mega drought that ended presence in that area.

20-04-26 9:19 AM
Peachy చెప్పారు...

We are told by the religious left that drought is a new phenomenon - drought never occurred before, and is a modern problem ONLY caused by man made climate change

20-04-26 9:26 AM
Smilin' Jack చెప్పారు...

Because of my deep understanding of meteorology and zoology, I sometimes see animals in clouds.

20-04-26 11:06 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit చెప్పారు...

"Prehistoric Art of the Colorado Plateau: It’s All About Clouds!"

Did AI come up with that?

There is word that AI has decoded whale songs/language.

20-04-26 12:37 PM
Steve Austin Showed Up For Work. చెప్పారు...

I lived in SW Colorado for half my life. Yes, this makes complete sense. It's a desert, and clouds do look like that, especially when you see them in the distance and they are raining. You can see a long way. Also, other than some snow runoff which isn't worth a damn if you don't live near a river, you depend on rain for agriculture. The ancients would have, so being obsessed with clouds would be a way of life.

21-04-26 9:22 AM

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