Newspaper Rock: Largest collections of Native American petroglyphs engraved over 2000 years

[Kazimiera]

The Newspaper Rock: One of the largest collections of Native American petroglyphs engraved over the course of 2,000 years

Source: http://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/0...of-2000-years/

Located just outside the entrance to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park in Utah, the Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument is like a living museum with an amazing selection of over 650 Native American petroglyphs.

The 200-square-foot rock site is a part of the Wingate sandstone cliffs that enclose the upper end of Indian Creek Canyon, known as a prominent climbing area, and it is one of the largest collections of petroglyphs in the country and one of the West’s most famous rock-art sites.


One of the largest known collections of petroglyphs that record perhaps 2,000 years of human activity in the area.

These remarkable petroglyphs have a mixture of human, animal, and abstract forms that record perhaps 2,000 years of human activity in the area. The series of images depict a variety of figures such as buffalos, deer, lizards, antelopes, and riders on horses. Some designs are pecked over older ones and measure up to 5 feet in height. The site was used by multiple cultures for a long period of time and many generations of people saw these markings and contributed their own.


Remarkable for the clarity of its figures.

The main groups responsible for this fantastic panel of prehistoric and historic petroglyphs are the Archaic Indians, the Anasazi, Fremont, Navajo, and Pueblo. The more recent rock art on the panel, such as the figures mounted on horseback, is thought to have been created by the ancestors of the Ute people, the oldest residents of Colorado, inhabiting the mountains and vast areas of Wyoming, Northern New Mexico, Arizona, Eastern Nevada, Colorado, and Utah.


No-one has been able to fully interpret their meaning.

The rock is called Tse’ Hane in Navajo, which translates to a “rock that tells a story“ because it is believed that these drawings form a written language with which early people communicated. However, there is no linear story and the exact purpose and meaning of these symbols, or even why so many of them are concentrated in one small area, is still not clearly understood.

Much is left for individual admiration and interpretation. According to some scholars, the symbols could be some sort of family or clan symbols, migratory routes, or spiritual totems. Some believe that some of the symbols mark territory boundaries or even calendar events.


Figures were engraved by removal of the rock’s covering of what known to geologists as “desert varnish“.

The many figures and patterns have been inscribed into “desert varnish“ or “rock varnish“, a natural occurrence usually found on exposed rock surfaces in arid regions. It’s a one micrometer thick mineral-encrusted rock surface which forms over thousands of years primarily composed of clay minerals along with iron and manganese oxide minerals which often colors entire mountains and is black or reddish brown. Most rock varnish appears black because of the manganese, a chemical element which occurs in wet environments and often found in minerals in combination with iron.


Newspaper Rock in 1972.

Using sharpened tools, the ancient artists produced these images by incising, picking, carving, or abrading the dark “desert varnish” surface of a rock to expose the lighter rock beneath.

The difference between the older and younger or more recent petroglyphs is that the first are more dark-colored and have a partial development of another layer of desert varnish. Petroglyphs tend to last longer than rock art paintings, known as pictographs, which are painted onto rock.


Designated as a State Historical Monument in 1961.

These petroglyphs are considered one of the finest examples of Indian rock art anywhere in the U.S. The site is one of the few petroglyph sites that are very easily accessible and the petroglyphs can be seen at very close range from a trail half a mile from US 191 northeast of the city of Moab.

In 1961, the site was designated a State Historical Monument, and in 1976 it was also added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in San Juan County, Utah, as Indian Creek State Park.

[Kazimiera]

“The Rock That Tells a Story”: Native American petroglyphs in Utah and Arizona depict lives of centuries ago

Source: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/...ewspaper-rock/



It’s all the news that’s fit to print–2,000 years’ worth of it, in fact–crammed on a 200-square-foot surface. Now if we only knew how to read it.

Newspaper Rock is a sandstone panel in San Juan County, Utah, that is covered with hundreds of petroglyphs. Snakes and broad-shouldered animal-headed men are crammed in with shapes that resemble wagon wheels, bighorn sheep, lizards, and turtles. Men on horseback are also shown late in the art’s history–starting about 650 years ago.

Herds of deer and lone bison dodge hunters and oversized human footprints stride carefully through it all.

The art was made by using a sharp object to peck away the desert varnish, a hard, dark film of oxidation that forms on rock in the arid Southwest. The lighter cream-colored rock beneath glows brightly still, making for a dramatic picture.

So who made it? Some of the area’s earliest dwellers. Archaeologists say the artwork was carved by Native Americans in both prehistoric and early historic periods.


USA, Utah, Canyonlands National Park, newspaper rock petroglyphs

The work has been attributed to peoples from the Archaic, Anasazi, Fremont, Navajo, Anglo, and Pueblo cultures, and while rock art is difficult to date, evidence indicates that the first engravings were done about 2,000 years ago. Many of the clans and cultures that produced it are gone; the story of what happened to them is lost to the desert winds.

The Navajo are still in the area, and they have their own name for the site. They call it “Tse’ Hone”–the rock that tells a story.


Newspaper Rock is a well known petroglyph site located in southcentral Utah.

Rock art sites can be found all across the Desert Southwest, some of them nothing more than a hand print or a few scratches and many of them tucked in discreet places, such as under a small rock ledge.

Newspaper Rock is the motherlode of such work. It checks all of the boxes on a park ranger’s or archaeologist’s dream list: it’s well-preserved, easily accessible, and one of the largest groups of pictographs found in the world. More than 650 images have been identified.


“Detail of petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock in Utah, near the entrance to Canyonlands National Park.”

While the cream-colored Wingate sandstone provides good contrast against the desert varnish canvas, some of the older art samples are darkening, disappearing in time under the desert varnish that is taking hold where it had once been chipped away.


Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument in Utah, USA. One of largest known collections of petroglyphs.

Newspaper Rock was designated a state historic monument in 1961. In 1976, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Indian Creek State Park.

Luckily for visitors, the site is not far from the well-traveled access road to the popular Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. It’s also just over 50 miles from Moab, Utah.


Newspaper rock is a protected wall with ancient Anasazi Indian petroglyphs

It’s hard not to be mesmerized by the images left so long ago, and there’s good “news” for those who really want to see more. There’s actually another Newspaper Rock, this one in Arizona. It’s part of the Petrified Forest National Park in the northeast part of that state.

As with the Utah site, there are about 650 different images, but there are also key differences. In Arizona, for instance, the “newspaper” is on more than one rock, although the rocks are grouped near each other.

Still, the large collection of images is impressive.


Canyonlands National Park: Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument is a Utah state monument featuring a rock panel carved with one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs. It is located in San Juan County, Utah

In some cases, people who stop in to see the petrified wood that gives the national park its name have no idea that the petroglyph collection is part of the park. And for many, the ancient rock art ends up overshadowing the fossilized logs and stumps lying on the edge of the Painted Desert.

As with the Utah-version, the Arizona images have varied style, indicating an array of artists and periods. It’s hard to pin down where they all came from, but experts believe many came from the nearby Puerco Pueblo. Some of the rock art samples are believed to indicate calendar events, family and clan symbols, territory markers, and even spiritual symbolism.