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Rock Art and Ruins

13 images Created 4 May 2010

Rock art is a term in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into petroglyphs (carvings into stone surfaces) and pictographs (rock and cave paintings).

Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Puebloans were an ancient Native American culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States, comprising southern Utah, northern Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and a lesser section of Colorado. The cultural group has often been referred to in archaeology as the Anasazi, although the term is not preferred by the modern Puebloan peoples. The word Anasazi is Navajo for "Ancient Ones" or "Ancient Enemy".

Archaeologists still debate when this distinct culture emerged, but the current consensus, based on terminology defined by the Pecos Classification, suggests their emergence around 1200 BC, during the archaeologically designated Basketmaker II Era. Beginning with the earliest explorations and excavations, researchers have believed that the Ancient Puebloans are ancestors of the modern Pueblo peoples. In general, modern Pueblo people claim these ancient people as their ancestors.

The Four Corners region is riddled with remnants of their culture, including dwellings and rock art.
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  • Innumerable petroglyphs mark Newspaper Rock, near Canyonlands National Park in Utah. This is perhaps the most highly visited rock art site in Utah and certainly one of the most elaborate. Petroglyphs are pecked into the rock, usually through a darkly patinated surface, to reveal the lighter rock below. Hundreds of figures have been created here during both prehistoric and historic times but are primarily Anasazi of the Abajo-La Sal style. The most recent Ute-style contributions include the horse and rider. The Navajo name for this site is Tse Hane, meaning "rock that tells a story." Located along a pre-historic travel corridor and perennial stream which flows off the Abajo Mountains to the south, thousands of people must have passed this way over the ages. Many of these people obviously paused to add their contribution to this slab of Wingate sandstone.
    UT_Newspaper_Rock.tif
  • Petroglyphs at the entrance to Three Fingers Canyon, in Utah's San Rafael Reef.<br />
<br />
Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading.
    UT-ThreeFingersCanyon-Petroglyph6.tif
  • Petroglyphs at the entrance to Three Fingers Canyon, in Utah's San Rafael Reef.<br />
<br />
Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading.
    UT-ThreeFingersCanyon-Petroglyph4.tif
  • Petroglyphs at the entrance to Three Fingers Canyon, in Utah's San Rafael Reef.<br />
<br />
Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading.
    UT-ThreeFingersCanyon-Petroglyph3.tif
  • Petroglyphs at the entrance to Three Fingers Canyon, in Utah's San Rafael Reef.<br />
<br />
Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading.
    UT-ThreeFingersCanyon-Petroglyph2.tif
  • Petroglyphs at the entrance to Three Fingers Canyon, in Utah's San Rafael Reef.<br />
<br />
Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading.
    UT-ThreeFingersCanyon-Petroglyph5.tif
  • UT-ThreeFingersCanyon-Petroglyph1.tif
  • Cliff dwellings in Fry Canyon, Utah. <br />
<br />
The canyon is a tributary of Utah's White Canyon, which makes a gorgeous, serpentine cut through Cedar Mesa, near Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. But it remains unprotected.<br />
<br />
It lies at the heart of the proposed Glen Canyon Wilderness, where the vast expanse of Paleozoic-era sandstone known as Nokai Dome eases its way to the upper reaches of Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.  This region also includes the soaring Wingate Cliffs of the Red Rock Plateau, Mancos Mesa, Moqui Canyon with its meandering stream, Red Canyon, and the serpentine side canyons of White Canyon. This is one of the most remote regions of the state, but it lacks protection and is threatened by increasing ORV use.<br />
<br />
It is all part of the San Juan-Canyonlands region of Southeastern Utah is one of the most iconic landscapes recommended for protection in America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, boasting dramatic geologic features wrought by elemental forces, as well as internationally significant cultural sites of the Ancestral Puebloans and the Mormon Pioneers. Adorned with buttes and arches, vast stretches of slickrock deposited over 250 million years ago, ancient pinyon-juniper forests and an artist's pallet of red-hued sandstone, the San Juan-Canyonlands region has inspired explorers since the days of John Wesley Powell, and its wonders represent some of the greatest unprotected wilderness in the country.
    UT-WhiteCanyon-FryCanyonDwelling.tif
  • Cliff dwellings in Fry Canyon, Utah. <br />
<br />
The canyon is a tributary of Utah's White Canyon, which makes a gorgeous, serpentine cut through Cedar Mesa, near Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. But it remains unprotected.<br />
<br />
It lies at the heart of the proposed Glen Canyon Wilderness, where the vast expanse of Paleozoic-era sandstone known as Nokai Dome eases its way to the upper reaches of Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.  This region also includes the soaring Wingate Cliffs of the Red Rock Plateau, Mancos Mesa, Moqui Canyon with its meandering stream, Red Canyon, and the serpentine side canyons of White Canyon. This is one of the most remote regions of the state, but it lacks protection and is threatened by increasing ORV use.<br />
<br />
It is all part of the San Juan-Canyonlands region of Southeastern Utah is one of the most iconic landscapes recommended for protection in America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, boasting dramatic geologic features wrought by elemental forces, as well as internationally significant cultural sites of the Ancestral Puebloans and the Mormon Pioneers. Adorned with buttes and arches, vast stretches of slickrock deposited over 250 million years ago, ancient pinyon-juniper forests and an artist's pallet of red-hued sandstone, the San Juan-Canyonlands region has inspired explorers since the days of John Wesley Powell, and its wonders represent some of the greatest unprotected wilderness in the country.
    UT-WhiteCanyon-FryCanyonDwelling2.tif
  • Cliff dwellings in Fry Canyon, Utah. <br />
<br />
The canyon is a tributary of Utah's White Canyon, which makes a gorgeous, serpentine cut through Cedar Mesa, near Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. But it remains unprotected.<br />
<br />
It lies at the heart of the proposed Glen Canyon Wilderness, where the vast expanse of Paleozoic-era sandstone known as Nokai Dome eases its way to the upper reaches of Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.  This region also includes the soaring Wingate Cliffs of the Red Rock Plateau, Mancos Mesa, Moqui Canyon with its meandering stream, Red Canyon, and the serpentine side canyons of White Canyon. This is one of the most remote regions of the state, but it lacks protection and is threatened by increasing ORV use.<br />
<br />
It is all part of the San Juan-Canyonlands region of Southeastern Utah is one of the most iconic landscapes recommended for protection in America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, boasting dramatic geologic features wrought by elemental forces, as well as internationally significant cultural sites of the Ancestral Puebloans and the Mormon Pioneers. Adorned with buttes and arches, vast stretches of slickrock deposited over 250 million years ago, ancient pinyon-juniper forests and an artist's pallet of red-hued sandstone, the San Juan-Canyonlands region has inspired explorers since the days of John Wesley Powell, and its wonders represent some of the greatest unprotected wilderness in the country.
    UT-WhiteCanyon-FryCanyonDwelling3.tif
  • Pictographs in Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
    UT-HorseshoeCanyon_Pictographs.tif
  • A visitor gazes up at the sights of the Great Gallery, Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
    UT-HorseshoeCanyon-GreatGallery1.tif
  • A visitor gazes up at the sights of the Great Gallery, Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
    UT-HorseshoeCanyon_GreatGallery2.tif
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