caa a22 4500 388078251 CHVBK 20180307125204.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199910 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0959774300015390 doi S0959774300015390 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0959774300015390 Sally's Rockshelter and the Archaeology of the Vision Quest [Elektronische Daten] Quartz, the most common mineral on earth, is almost universally associated with shamans. Why this ritual association occurred worldwide has remained unexplained scientifically, at least in part because western scientific thinking assumes that religious beliefs and practices are epiphenomenal and not worthy of study. This association is archaeologi-cally evident at Sally's Rocksheiter, a small rock engraving-vision quest site in the Mojave Desert, where quartz rocks were placed as offerings in cracks around the rock art panel. SEM and electron microprobe foreign materials analyses of Mojave rock engravings show that the association between quartz and rock art was common: almost 65 per cent contained remnants of quartz hammerstones, used to peck the motifs. A combination of ethnohistory and physical sciences explains why quartz, shamans and vision questing were so strongly associated: triboluminescence causes quartz to glow when struck or abraded, which was believed a visible manifestation of supernatural power. Recognition that this belief and behavioural association were based on quartz's physical properties aids our ability to identify the antiquity of the vision quest in the far west, suggesting that Mojave Desert shamanism is the oldest continuously practiced religious tradition so far identified in the world. Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1999 Whitley David S. W&S Consultants, 447 Third St, Fillmore, CA 93015, USA Dorn Ronald I. Department of Geography, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-0104, USA Simon Joseph M. W&S Consultants, 447 Third St, Fillmore, CA 93015, USA Rechtman Robert Paul H. Rosendahl, Ph.D., Inc., Hilo, HA 96720, USA Whitley Tamara K. W&S Consultants, 447 Third St, Fillmore, CA 93015, USA Cambridge Archaeological Journal Cambridge University Press 9/2(1999-10), 221-247 0959-7743 9:2<221 1999 9 CAJ https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774300015390 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774300015390 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Whitley David S. W&S Consultants, 447 Third St, Fillmore, CA 93015, USA NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Dorn Ronald I. Department of Geography, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-0104, USA NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Simon Joseph M. W&S Consultants, 447 Third St, Fillmore, CA 93015, USA NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rechtman Robert Paul H. Rosendahl, Ph.D., Inc., Hilo, HA 96720, USA NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Whitley Tamara K. W&S Consultants, 447 Third St, Fillmore, CA 93015, USA NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Cambridge Archaeological Journal Cambridge University Press 9/2(1999-10), 221-247 0959-7743 9:2<221 1999 9 CAJ CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge