Sheep in Glen Canyon
Petroglyphs are treasures: rock art created centuries ago by people both mysterious and familiar. Why did ancient people write on walls? Probably for many of the same reasons that modern people do today. Here are a few of my favorite petroglyphs from the past week in Utah. Some of these I read about in guide books, some I was told about by locals and a few I just stumbled upon while wandering in canyon country. Enjoy!
Newspaper Rock in Canyonlands National Park
Newspaper Rock detail: post-Spaniard glyph of horse and rider & monster man
Petroglyph Violence? Sand Island Petroglyph Panel, Bluff, Utah
Fremont Style Petroglyphs at Sego Canyon, Utah
Monster Men near Glen Canyon. One of the petroglyphs I stumbled upon on my own.
Bear & Hunters
The Original Ballers
Elaborate Headdress
Family?
The Birthing Panel, famous petroglyph along Kane Creek Road near Moab
Snake & Sunlight
Love rock art? Check out my previous posts on Urban Petroglyphs and Geologic Unrest and the Sego Canyon pictographs. Love graffiti? Me too!
I went to an exhibition last week at the British Museum, entitled Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind which was brilliant. I love all that Neolithic stuff. Will post about it soon, but saw some great (up to 40,000 years old) carvings and figures, and art created on mammoth tusks etc.Very cool and thought provoking.
These are wonderful. Many are probably quite recent – the horse being introduced by Europeans 400 or 500 hunderd years ago, and the bow and arrow only coming into use about 1200 years ago.
So cool!
xox
Have you ever been to Nine Mile Canyon in Utah? We went there last summer and loved it! It’s WAY out in the middle of nowhere, but I don’t think you’ll mind that 🙂
We had trouble spotting some of the petroglyphs, but there was some signage. I posted a few photos here…. http://goodstorysarah.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/have-love-will-travel-day-5/
really cool photos, I love petroglyphs. I’ve seen the ones at Sego. I was told there was a glyph of a life size man. Have you seen it? I never found it.
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I’ve been to some of these sites to see the petroglyphs personally. Pretty cool!
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