Mural #26
NEWBERRY CAVE

Treasure of the Mojave Desert

This ancient site, excavated in the 1950s, overlooking the remains of Pleistocene (Ice Age) Lake Manix contained 11,000-year-old Ice Age bones of extinct animals, such as the ground sloth and dire wolf.

But human artifacts found in Newberry Cave were so impressive that some archaeloogists have called the years from 4,000 to 3,000 years ago the “Newberry Period.” Found here were what might be a male-magical, hunting ritual site. Human artifacts found were the atlatl, a spear or dart throwing stick, along with atlatl darts and points—used in the Mojave Desert before bows and arrows, mountain sheep dung pendants, and especially3,500-year-old split-twig figurines of animals. On the cave walls were rare white, black, red and green pictograph (wall paintings). Because of these artifacts, we now have the “Newberry Period.”