When the world is primitive, daytime struggle to find food and shelter coupled with a nightly struggle with fear leaves little time for leisure, reflective thought or artistic expression. The account of the end of the Roman Empire in Europe tells us that some fourteen hundred years ago, barbarians arrived and their violence led to the Middle Ages when disorder ruled, literature was destroyed, and social systems failed. It took some time for people to recover and again create social order and intellectual endeavor.
When viewing the Jeffers Petroglyphs it is possible to envision a life in which there was enough safety and leisure time to create artistic symbols that would have a continuing presence. A civilization of some kind would seem to be a safe assumption. We can say that the glyphs are set before us as human creations linking civilizations over millenia.
We find a window into society some 5000 years ago in mid continent when we observe these petroglyphs. An observer recently said that in looking at the picture at the upper right corner of this site, she feels as if she is looking at kind of map of the earth. The lichens can be imagined as continents. The turtle glyph can be thought of as representing a land mass. In Native traditions the turtle is of thought of as a symbol of the earth. Perhaps our minds can connect with people across vast reaches of time.
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