Sunday, September 21, 2008

Spanish Monuments, The Head

A while back I wrote an article about Spanish faces. This article could be considered a continuation of that article however I will probably contradict a little of what I said in the first article. Am I changing my mind about the way to interpret things? No, I have just come across a variation on the face monument and how it is interpreted so I thought I would share. Remember, as I always say, there are very few absolutes in treasure hunting.

I would also caution you again that these articles are about how certain clues have worked, actually being worked out in the field and not making a guess at what they might mean. The articles are intended to show you how things have worked so you will have ideas on how to work the things you find.

This particular marker, which I have posted a photo of, is a head with one eye. Even though the head can be seen from a distance and from more than one direction, it is meant to be seen from a specific spot. The spot that you should be looking at the head from is a flat area in a wash or gully below the head.

The head itself is giving you three pieces of information. Two of those pieces are telling you where to look and the third is telling you what to look for. This particular marker or monument isn’t telling you the exact location of the hole but it is telling you where to look for the hole at.

When it comes to faces and heads the most obvious thing to do is look in the direction they are looking. In the case of this head, the first and foremost piece of information is how the head is situated. This head is located at the top of a ridgeline and it is looking up. The most obvious thing to do is “look up”. On this head you aren’t looking up in the same direction the head is, the information the marker is imparting is simply “look up” from the spot you are standing at. This can be determined from the fact that if you looked up in the direction the nose of the head was pointing all you would see is sky. There are no hills or mountains close behind you to look up at. So this leaves you with the simple interpretation of “look up”.

The second piece of information is the eye on the head. In this case the eye is on the right side of the head, which would normally tell you to look to the right, but this eye is made with a deep cut and set back some from the nose which gives the impression of looking to the left. Of course this would be to the left as you are standing in the wash looking up at the head. This means you are looking up and to the left from the place you are standing at.

The third piece of information and the most cleverly imparted is the eye itself. The eye is long and deep like a gully or wash. From where you are standing in the wash below the head, if you look up and to the left you will see a wash or gully/ arroyo shaped like the eye (long and narrow) in the side of the mountain. So not only does the eye give you a direction to look but it also gives you a 3D picture of what to look for. This gully is the first gully you come to going to the left of the head and the head is only about 100 yards from the gully.

This large head corresponds with the location on a map I am currently working on and the wash that is the eye is where the map says to look for the hole.

Once winter arrives and I can get back to this spot without all of the snakes, bugs, brush and heat I will have more for you about the other markers on this trail. And hopefully a really nice picture of an empty hole! What? You don’t really think I would post a photo of a hole full of gold do you?

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