Art Talk: Rock Art

On my trip to Southern Utah I was able to see some cool petroglyphs.

Section of Newspaper Rock

What is Rock Art?

In archeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces.

What is a petroglyph?

A petroglyph is an image that is carved into a rock.

What is a pictograph?

A pictograph is a drawing or painting that is created on a rock.

We saw petroglyphs in both Capitol Reef National Park and at Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument in southern Utah.

Newspaper Rock

This was a fun stop that I didn't know anything about before we stopped here. We had been in Capital Reef and saw some petroglyphs the day before. Newspaper Rock is great because the rock is dark and the art stands out so well!

Newspaper Rock is one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs (over 650) and is on a 200 square foot well preserved rock. It is believed that the first carvings at Newspaper rock were made around 2,000 years ago by people from the Archaic, Anasazi, Fremont, Navajo, Anglo and Pueblo cultures.

According to the plaque at the site

In Navajo, the rock is called "Tse' Hane" (Rock that tells a story). Unfortunately, we do not know if the figures represent storytelling, doodling, hunting magic, clan symbols, ancient graffiti or something else.

It was fun looking at the rock together. We speculated on how they might have carved the higher pieces? Did they have ladders they put up against the wall? What are some of the figures? What do they mean?

Here are a few pictures to give perspective of the size of the rock. It is also interesting to see that is protected by the rock overhang.

Capitol Reef Petroglyphs

After our hike in the Grand Wash we went to see petroglyphs. It was in the early afternoon and the harsh sun made it hard to see the rock art and even harder to photograph.

There is a nice bridge that goes along side of the cliff that you can walk on and look for the art on the stone.

Most of the petroglyphs in Capitol Reef are attributed to the Fremont Indians which lived in Utah from AD 600-1300.

Human-like figures

Animal-like figures

We saw both human-like and animal-like figures.

Anthropomorphic (human-like) figures usually have trapezoidal shaped bodies with arms, legs and fingers. The figures are often elaborately decorated with headdresses, ear bobs, necklaces, clothing items and facial expressions.

A wide variety of zoomorphic (animal-like) figures include bighorn sheep, deer, dogs, birds, snakes and lizards.

Then down another bridge there was some really great pictures and an audio recording about the Fremont Indians. The Fremont people lived in pit houses and natural rock shelters. They were closely tied to nature and the environment.