PETROGLYPHS.US |
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This site contains captioned rock art pages of mostly lesser known petroglyph and pictograph sites |
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Rock Art Gallerypictographs & petroglyphs |
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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. |
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. |
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Are Numic Scratched Rock Art Drawings Women's Work? By Kish LaPierre & Alan Garfinkel PDF |
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Great Basin Bighorn Ceremonialism: ...a possible Sheep Shrine at the Rose Springs Site, Rose Valley, Alta California By: Robert M Yohe II & Alan Garfinkel PDF |
Komatke A Hohokam petroglyph site along the Gila River near Gila Bend, Arizona. 12 photographs February 2014 | |
Reproductive Symbolism in Great Basin Rock Art: Bighorn Sheep Hunting, Fertility and Forager Ideology. By: Alan P Garfinkel & Donald R Austin PDF |
Lake Isabella A Kawaiisu pictograph area in California's Eastern Sierras. 14 photographs July 2012 | |
Myth, Ritual and Rock Art By: Garfinkel, Austin, Earle and Williams |
Granite Mountain Archaic pictographs and petroglyphs in the |
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Culture Crisis and Rock Art Intensification By: A. Garfinkel, G. Marcom and R. Schiffman |
Wind Caves Chumash pictographs near Santa Barbara, California. |
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In the U.S. NEWS |
Big Petroglyph Canyon Petroglyphs from the Coso Range near Ridgecrest, California. 10 photographs June 2010 |
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Sears Point Patayan and Hohokam petroglyphs along the Gila River east of Yuma, Arizona. 10 photographs November 2009 |
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Gold Butte Anasazi, Patayan and Southern Paiute petroglyphs from the red rock district of southeast Nevada. 11 photographs July 2009 |
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Wood's Wash Petroglyphs and some pictographs from the western Lanfair Valley area, Mojave Desert, California. 12 photographs May 2009 |
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Kootenay pictographs vandalized by paintball pellets By: CBS News September 2013 new window |
Chuckwalla Spring A petroglyph site in a small canyon on the eastern flank of the Panamint Mountain Range, California. 10 photographs March 2009 | |
36-Gigapixil image captures petroglyphs in Texas By: Geoff Manaugh September 2013 new window |
Black Rock Well A petroglyph site in the hills below the Saline Valley, near Panamint Springs, California. 11 photographs December 2008 | |
Winter Solstice ceremony tradition returns By: Alan Garfinkel Gold August 2013 new window |
Painted Rock Chumash and Yokut pictographs at a Carrizo Plain, California, rock art site. 12 photographs June 2008 | |
Oldest Rock Art: Nevada Petroglyphs May Be North America's Most Ancient Carvings By: Megan Gannon August 2013 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 | |
International NEWS | ||
Mexico unvails stone age etchings By: unnamed August 2013 new window |
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Aboriginal rock art may depict first sea arrivals By: Amy Middleton August 2013 new window |
Read More Articles- See More Sites |
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Check out these Rock Art CDs |
Petroglyph Clocks |
What is rock art? In general, there are three basic categories:
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Click here for more Rock Art Terminology opens a new browser window |
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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...
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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.
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.
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:
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 - 2013 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 |