Category Archives: Rock Art

Got back home yesterday. I’m still feeling a little wiped out from taking two trips close together (first the SAA conference, and then this one), so I’m just going to post some archaeology porn. All of these pictures were taken last December at Petrified Forest National Park. (Click to embiggen.)

This is at Puerco Pueblo, a structure of about 100 rooms dating from around AD 1250-1300. Just to the right of center is what looks to me like a giant bird holding a struggling person in its beak. It’s probably meant to be just a regular sized bird holding a frog though.

Another panel from Puerco Pueblo. This one features several anthropomorphic figures that may be dancers.

A short distance from Puerco Pueblo is Newspaper Rock. I had to zoom way in for this picture because the Park Service doesn’t allow people to get very close.

Unfortunately, we were only able to spend a few hours in the park. Next time I get down to Arizona I’ll try to go back and spend more time there.

No, I’m not about to present some wacky theory about ancient cross-Pacific migrations. The rock art in question is attributed to a community of Hawaiian Mormons who moved to Utah in 1889, then went back home again 30 years later. Past Horizons has the story.

Reeves and Pykles discussed their work at the SAA meeting, but unfortunately I didn’t see their presentation. Looking at the schedule, I was in the symposium on 3-D archaeological modeling. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get to attend this session because one of my particular interests is culture contact, and particularly the choices people make to preserve certain aspects of their culture while altering others.

More about Hawaiian Mormons in Utah here and here.

I mentioned this in a previous post. It was reported by David S. Whitley back in 1999 in the San Bernardino County Museum Association Quarterly 46(3), pp. 107-108. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be available online, and my copy is still in a box somewhere from my most recent move. I remember, however, that the site is somewhere in the Rodman Mountains. The photo did look something like a llama, although it could also potentially have been a female deer.

Found on a cliff in Utah. National Geographic has pictures of it here. Very cool.

I recall reading an article a number of years ago about a possible camelid petroglyph at a site in the Mojave Desert. I’ll have to see if I can track it down and post about it.