Bouse Northern Wash Intaglios (La Posa Plain Extension)
Bouse Northern Extension Geoglyphs · La Posa Wash Intaglios
Late Prehistoric (Patayan II–III)·Patayan / Hakataya (Yuman)·🇺🇸 Arizona, La Paz County, La Posa Plain north of Bouse, Colorado River corridor, United States
About
About Bouse Northern Wash Intaglios (La Posa Plain Extension)
Northern extension of the Lower Colorado River intaglio province on the La Posa Plain, 8 km north of the Bouse main group. Harner-style survey (Arizona State Museum 2010–2018) recorded 9 anthropomorphs and 4 quadrupeds 9–18 m long formed by scraping varnished basalt cobble pavement to pale fanglomerate — stylistically classic Patayan (1000–1500 CE) but one bifurcated-tail zoomorph returned AMS charcoal 880±40 BP, indicating Late Archaic rehearsal. Figures include a 14-m stick-figure human with outstretched arms aligned to summer-solstice sunrise over Dome Rock, and a 10-m rattlesnake with cairn rattle. CRIT and BLM co-management; vandal Jeep tracks are the main damage.
Why it mattersExtends Colorado River intaglio province northward, demonstrating Patayan cosmology's reach.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Solstice alignment intentional
Theories
- 01Colorado River migration memory
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.900 – 1500 CE (Patayan, with Archaic antecedent)
- Period
- Late Prehistoric (Patayan II–III)
- Culture
- Patayan / Hakataya (Yuman)
- Builders
- River Yuman (ancestral Mojave–Quechan) desert groups
- Purpose
- Clan origin and river pilgrimage marking at wash confluence
- Abandoned
- c.1600 CE (river shift)
- Rediscovered
- 1932 G.E. Harner; 2010 ASM re-survey
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1932
Harner aerial photos Blythe-Bouse corridor
2018
ASM records northern extension 9 figures
On the ground
Structures & features
33.9800° N · 114.0800° W · 350 m · 2 mapped features
Stick-Figure Human (14 m)
geoglyph14-m outstretched-arm anthropomorph aligned solstice
33.9820° N · 114.0820° WRattlesnake Intaglio (10 m)
geoglyph10-m rattlesnake with cairn rattle at wash mouth
33.9780° N · 114.0780° W