Petroglyphs, pictographs and rock art

Articles & Papers about Rock Art		Petroglyph & Pictograph Sites Click on the site name to view images from that site. I update pictures & descriptions periodically and add new rock art sites and interesting articles every month or so. Be sure to bookmark this page and come back and visit us again.
Reproductive Symbolism in Great Basin Rock Art: Bighorn Sheep Hunting, Fertility and Forager Ideology. PDF file By: Alan P Garfinkel & Donald R Austin
Columbian Mammoth Petroglyphs from the San Juan River near Bluff, Utah, USA By: Ekkehart Malotki & Henry Wallace PDF
Myth, Ritual and Rock Art By: Garfinkel, Austin, Earle and Williams		Granite Mountain Archaic pictographs and petroglyphs in the eastern Mojave Desert. 12 photographs August 2011
Culture Crisis and Rock Art Intensification By: A. Garfinkel, G. Marcom and R. Schiffman		Wind Caves Chumash pictographs near Santa Barbara, California. 12 photographs May 2011
The Coso Sheep Cult of Eastern California By: Alan Garfinkel		Big Petroglyph Canyon Petroglyphs from the Coso Range near Ridgecrest, California. 10 photographs June 2010
Death Valley's Other Moving Rocks By: Geron Marcom		Sears Point Patayan and Hohokam petroglyphs along the Gila River east of Yuma, Arizona. 10 photographs November 2009
The Stahl Site Petroglyphs By: Donald Austin		Gold Butte Anasazi, Patayan and Southern Paiute petroglyphs from the red rock district of southeast Nevada. 11 photographs July 2009
Dating the Coso Range Projectile Point Petroglyphs By: Alan Garfinkel & J. Kenneth Pringle		Wood's Wash Petroglyphs and some pictographs from the western Lanfair Valley area, Mojave Desert, California. 12 photographs May 2009
In the U.S. NEWS		Chuckwalla Spring A petroglyph site in a small canyon on the eastern flank of the Panamint Mountain Range, California. 10 photographs March 2009
		Black Rock Well A petroglyph site in the hills below the Saline Valley, near Panamint Springs, California. 11 photographs December 2008
		Painted Rock Chumash and Yokut pictographs at a Carrizo Plain, California, rock art site. 12 photographs June 2008
Men sentenced for defacing pictographs By: Spokesman-Review March 2012 new window		Bates Well A small petroglyph site located near an old pioneer homestead in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona. 7 Photographs May 2008
Rock Art at the Pleistocene/ Holocene Boundry in Eastern South America By: WA Neves, AGM Araujo, DV Bernardo, R Kipnis, JK Feathers February 2012 new window		Old Woman Cave Pictographs & petroglyphs at a shaman's cave in the Old Woman Mountains, eastern Mojave Desert, California. 12 Photographs December 2007
Mojave Petroglyphs By: writingthefuture February 2012 new window		Anasazi Ridge A Virgin River Anasazi petroglyph site near St. George, Utah. 10 photographs June 2007
World will survive latest end-date By Bruce Tallman January 2012 new window		Sheep Canyon Petroglyphs in the Coso Range, near Ridgecrest, California. 10 photographs May 2007
Tribes join forces to save petroglyph site By: Pauline Arrillaga January 2012 new window		Little Blair Valley A Kumeyaay girls ceremonial pictograph site in the Anza Borrego Desert, California. 10 photographs April 2007

International NEWS		Upcoming Rock Art Training Seminar April 14-15, 2012 Ridgecrest, CA see seminar details www.rockart101.com

Andean rock art and apophenia: from the macro to the micro By: Maarten van Hoek March 2012 new window
Rock paintings of the precordillera region of northern Chile PDF file By: M. Sepulveda, T. Saintenoy, W. Faundes February 2012
Ughtasar: The Petroglyphs of Armenia By: Maro Siranosian December 2011 new window

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Rock Art Archives

What is rock art? In general, there are three basic categories: Petroglyphs are carved, pecked, chipped or abraded into stone. The outer patina covered surface of the parent stone is removed to expose the usually lighter colored stone underneath. Some stone is better suited to petroglyph making than others. Stone that is very hard or contains a lot of quartz does not work well for petroglyph making; however, a nice desert varnished basalt usually works very well. Pictographs are painted onto stone and are much more fragile than petroglyphs. The paint is a mineral or vegetal substance combined with some sort of binder like fat residue or blood. If the paint was not properly mixed with a binder it would not adhere well to the stone and the pictograph would quickly flake away. Pictographs were painted in locations where they would be protected from the elements: in caves, alcoves, under ledges and overhangs. Intaglios are large ground drawings created by removing the pebbles that make up desert pavement. Intaglios are usually in the outline of animals (zoomorphs) or human-like figures (anthropomorphs). Intaglios are found on mesas along the Colorado River more so than in other places.
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Who made them? Just about everybody. Rock art of one form or another occurs all over the world, Australia, Africa, Europe, North and South America. The U.S. has sites in most of its states, including some celebrated Hawaiian 'glyphs. Some states have more sites than others. Maine, I believe has only two; Kentucky has about twenty; Arizona, New Mexico and California each have thousands... and you can easily visit many of these western sites. Prehistoric people, starting tens of thousands of years ago, left a record of their presence on the stone walls of caves and canyons, and on boulders around springs and water holes. In many cases the rock art and stone tools they left behind is all that remains of their culture. Why did they make them?... When?... How... read more... Books about Rock Art and Pictographs
Rock Art Etiquette or go back to sites to view pictures Rock art sites have survived for thousands of years and will continue to survive for many thousands more... providing no one ever visits them again! In other words, the greatest danger to the sites is people. Many prehistoric sites have been flooded due to the building of dams along water courses where prehistoric people once lived, but millions of people now benefit from those dams. Many more sites have been destroyed by highway construction (wouldn't you know we need to put our highways right on top the very same pathways prehistoric people once used!), but hundreds of thousands of people now benefit from those highways. And today, sites are being destroyed to make room for housing projects that will benefit still hundreds of more people. Every year we build further and further into areas that were once protected only by their desolation. In the near future these prehistoric sites will be protected only by the attitudes of the citizens of this country. Sounds bleak for the rock art, and it is. Maybe public attitude and the situation will change, but until it does, there are some things that each of us can do. Don't trespass on other people's property. Ask for permission and if you get it, follow their rules. Don't drive right up to a prehistoric site. Walk the last half or quarter mile. It is good exercise, you might see some wildlife or other interesting stuff along the way, hold your kids hand and do some bonding. If you pick something up off of the ground - take a good look at it, check it out. Let the others in your group check it out too, and then put it back where you found it. Note: Petroglyph sites are not confined only to where the actual carved images are, they include the surrounding area as well. The surrounding area may include prehistoric campsites, villages, food processing locations, quarries, rock alignments, hunting blinds and a whole host of other archaeological interests. It is these other interests that help to give us supportive data about the carved images and they need to be preserved as well. Never carry glassware with you and what ever you carry in, carry out. And if you want to really help, carry out some trash that someone not as considerate as you left behind. Do take photographs or make sketches of the 'glyphs. Do show the pictures to all of your friends and family. Do look up information about petroglyphs on the internet and in books. Do not make 'rubbings'. Most people don't know how to do rubbings properly and then don't know what to do with them later. Besides, the 'glyph could easily be damaged. No touching the 'glyphs, especially pictographs (pictos'). Touching will dislodge lose pieces of stone or paint, and natural body oils (or whatever lotions you have on your skin) are not good for the 'glyphs. It is hard not to touch... so if you can't control yourself touch a nearby stone instead. Don't climb above the petroglyphs. You may dislodge loose stone that will fall and damage them. And if you fall you'll scrape yourself on the stone you'll bleed on the petroglyphs on the way down! (see no touching). Note: I didn't mention 'don'ts' that fall in the category of common sense. However, since it only takes one person to ruin things for everyone else, I'll sum up the common sense don'ts for them: Don't do anything to a petroglyph that you wouldn't do first to your own head. That includes painting it, shooting it or carving your initials in it. Final Note: Do have a good time, be safe and act responsibly. Enjoy the outdoors and remember, it is about appreciating and preserving prehistoric rock art, not about indulging ourselves.

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©2003 - 2012 All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution or other use of images without permission from the artist is prohibited. For comments about this website contact Don Austin daustin@petroglyphs.us

PETROGLYPHS.US
This site contains captioned rock art pages of mostly lesser known petroglyph and pictograph sites in the California Deserts and adjacent Southwest. Books about Petroglyphs What... Who... Why... Rock Art Etiquette Petroglyph Links Rock Art Archives
Rock Art Gallery pictographs & petroglyphs
it is a good idea to Bookmark this Page!	Fremont- Utah	Anasazi- Arizona	Desert Culture- California
Welcome to PETROGLYPHS.US This site is operated by avocational archaeologist Donald Austin to promote appreciation for prehistoric Native American pictographs and petroglyphs. I believe these ancient sites should be protected from destruction and should be appreciated for the beautiful prehistoric art they represent. The best way to protect these sites is with the cooperation of an informed and enlightened public. Petroglyphs are also called carved rock, Indian writing, picture writing and rock graphics. The ancient images shown on these pages were created by the Anasazi, Shoshone, Sinagua, Yuman, Kumeyaay, Hohokam, Ute, Fremont, Mohave, Paiute and Desert Culture people who lived in the prehistoric Southwest and Great Basin. This page contains links to my photographs of rock art. I've put several captioned photos from each site on separate pages for your ease of viewing. Each page may take a few minutes to download.

Petroglyph Question	Possible Interpretations

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Rock Art Gallery

pictographs & petroglyphs