Spring/Summer 1997
JO ANNE VAN TILBURG Rock art itself is an irresistibly human message from the past that deserves to be protected, preserved, and cherished.	ROCK ART ARCHIVE Twenty Years of Rock Art Tradition at UCLA Anniversary provides chance to celebrate a renewal of commitment by Jo Anne Van Tilburg THE SYMPOSIUM on the rock art of Baja California marks twenty years of rock art research at UCLA. Dr. Clement W. Meighan founded the Archaeological Survey and championed Billy Clewlow as Chief Archaeologist, not least because of their shared interest in rock art. In 1977, Clem and Billy founded the Rock Art Archive as one of the two original research labs. Just as rock art is not often considered by professional archaeologists as real archaeology, the Archive was not always considered by the Institute to be a real lab. Because of Clem's persistent and stubborn insistence that rock art is a legitimate part of archaeological inquiry and his ability to garner volunteer support, the Archive has held its ground in the Institute of Archaeology. In 1987 Helen Michaelis and her son George established a modest (but vital) endowment for the Archive's continued operation. Now, the Archive is on the brink of a new beginning. A distinguished group of international scholars is assisting in the development of programs in field recording, teaching, and research. As a result, we could, with the encouragement and support of Richard Leventhal, convene the landmark program on Baja California. The first and only university-based library of information specializing in rock art in the Western Hemisphere, the Rock Art Archive is self-supporting and has a fully volunteer staff. It houses thousands of pages of field records and correspondence. Multiple volumes of slides and photographs document graphically the rock art of California, Baja California, and many other places. There are records of such distinguished archaeologists as Robert F. Heizer, but most of the information comes from so-called amateurs or avocationals, a group of original, independent, gifted mavericks who do what they do for the sheer love of rock art and for the challenge of seeing into the mind of the past. The Rock Art Archive is the product of a vision, guided from its inception by Clem Meighan. After nearly ten years in the Department of Anthropology and during an active teaching and research career, in 1962 Clem was invited by Erle Stanley Gardner to explore with him the Great Murals of Baja California. That fieldwork galvanized his long-standing interest in rock art. In his book Seven Rock Art Sites in Baja California, Clem wrote that "the sun-drenched silence of Baja California" holds "unsolved archaeological mysteries" (p. 256). Solving these mysteries means that the Great Mural sites must be put solidly into their archaeological, historical and ecological contexts.The Rock Art Archive, with its important holdings and by hosting such events, can aid in research. The Great Murals are a treasure of real historical, aesthetic, and cultural value to generations of the people of the Sierras. Rock art itself is an irresistibly human message from the past that deserves to be protected, preserved, and cherished. Jo Anne Van Tilburg is the Director of the Rock Art Archive of the Institute of Archaeology.
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