intaglio
in-TAL-yoh
A specific type of geoglyph made by scraping away the dark surface layer of <a href="https://rewilding.mx/word/desert-pavement/" class="word-autolink">desert pavement to expose the lighter soil beneath, creating a sunken image outlined by the displaced rocks. The technique produces figures that are effectively carved into the earth's skin. The Blythe Intaglios along the Colorado River — human figures up to 171 feet long — were not seen by non-Indigenous people until a pilot spotted them from the air in 1931.
Etymology
Italian, from intagliare, to engrave or cut into. The word comes from printmaking, where an intaglio is an image incised below the surface of a plate. The desert application is the same process at the scale of landscape.
Notes
The Mohave and Quechan peoples say the human figures represent Mastamho, the creator of all life. Patton's tanks drove over several of them during WWII desert training before anyone thought to protect them.
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