#respectandprotect
TMW Pictographs, Emery County, UT. Another famous Utah site with more examples of both Fremont (Slide 1) and Barrier Canyon Style (Slide 2) pictographs. The anthropomorphs in Slide 2 are considered some of the largest in all of Utah, measuring over 6 feet tall without considering the parts that have fallen away due to erosion. Easy visible from a busy road, this site has seen its fair share of vandalism, especially the unfortunate horned figure peppered with bullet holes.
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BD Pictographs, Emery County, UT. A great and somewhat frustrating site containing prime examples of Barrier Canyon Style rock paintings, dating back to the archaic period, meaning these images are between 1500-4000 years old. I’m always blown away by the ingenuity of the Ancient Ones, painting on a rock surface using only natural pigment and materials, exposed to the elements for thousands of years, and still these images remain. It’s just mind-boggling. This particular panel shows the unfortunate results of outlining the images with chalk, a once-common practice (HARD eye roll). The chalk outlines are said to be from the 40′s and attributed to a man named John Simonson, who incorrectly outlined multiple figures to create the dragon-like image from Slide 1, which this canyon is named after. For a while the dragon image was considered to be a possible depiction of a pterosaur (a winged dinosaur), leading young-Earth creationists to claim this was proof of human-dinosaur co-existence. Luckily science put an end to all that when, in 2015, an x-ray fluorescence gun and DStretch were used to enhance and isolate the pigments in the panel, showing the presence of at least 5 separate images (I’ve outlined the 3 main images in Slide 2). All this because some dude thought he saw a dragon on the wall and decided to outline it in chalk. Even though this panel no longer provides proof that The Flintstones was based on real-life, this is still one of the more impressive Barrier Canyon panels in all of Utah, in my humble opinion.
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R Panel, Secondary Panel, Emery County, UT. Located near the famous main panel, this one is just around the corner and contains some really interesting glyphs. My favorite is the figure with the atlatl and an erection in the lower left.
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Warrior Panel, Sevier County, UT. Attributed to the Fremont Culture, dated between 700-2,000 years old.
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CRFS Panel, UT. A mix of petroglyphs, pictographs, historical graffiti, and not-so-historical graffiti. You can basically trace the timeline from the pictographs to the petroglyphs to the graffiti and really get a feel for how long this site has seen human activity over thousands of years. This was a sun-blasted day, so it’s not easy to see all the details and layers in this panel, but there are quite a few faded anthropomorph pictographs around the concentric circle design. And of course, bullet holes.
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Hero Twins Petroglyphs, San Juan County, NM. Possible representations of the Navajo Hero Twins, Tóbájíshchíní (Born of Water), and Naayéé’ neizghání (Monster Slayer) often depicted with an ornate headdress. There are varying origins of these Spirit People, but a general belief is that they were born from White-Shell Woman, the daughter of the Earth and Sky, and they defeated monsters that threatened their people. I want to be careful sharing information like this because I am not Native American, and I am passing along what I have read from Navajo sources. If you wish to learn more about the Navajo Creation Beliefs, please do your own research and know that many of these stories are not known to the non-native world. We are lucky to learn what little bits the Navajo choose to share with us.
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FISP Petroglyphs 4, Sevier County, UT. What do you see? These petroglyphs weren’t pecked out on the usual sandstone surface, making them much more difficult to make out. It must have been quite the chore to hollow out the bodies on some of these. I’ve traced out some of the images I think I recognize in Slide 2, but it’s very hard to tell what most of these images are meant to be.
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MS Pictographs 1, Emery County, UT. Some interesting but faded pictographs that look to be mostly Barrier Canyon Style. Slide 1 shows the rainbow-type motif that can be found at numerous sites in the area, often with figures below the arching lines. What’s especially interesting about this particular panel is the arch-shape has smaller arches with figures beneath it. I’m guessing the right side of the image had the same repeating design, but is now almost completely faded. Slide 2 has some typical Barrier Canyon hollow-eyed anthropomorphs (The “crown” above one of the figures is made of fingerprints). Slide 3 is greatly faded but shows a white pigment that has withstood the test of time better than the iron oxide color, though this white may have been a later addition. Notice the large horned head in the bottom right. These pictographs don’t have as much of an overhang above them as many other sites, so their exposure to the elements has really worn them down. I can only imagine how fantastic these must have looked when they were originally created thousands of years ago.
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BW Petroglyphs 5, Emery County, UT. Armpit Magic & Facehugger. Not pictured: Huge bulletholes that spell out some asshole’s initials.
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PS Panel, Emery County, UT. I like to call this one “Pet Sheep Panel” because of the waving anthropomorph with what looks like a sheep on a leash. I understand this is an incorrect interpretation. No need to explain to me that I’m wrong in the comments.
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