Iceaxe
04-27-2009, 05:12 PM
Inadequate protection puts 5,000-year-old rock art at risk
By Andrew Gulliford
Friday, April 24, 2009
Of the thousands of Indian rock-art panels in the Southwest, none are older than Barrier Canyon pictographs found throughout the San Rafael Swell. From tiny, 5-inch animal figures to stunning 7-foot tall human shapes with no arms or legs and alien-like bug eyes, Barrier Canyon-style images are always a dark, blood-red color. Some may have been painted 8,000 years ago; many panels are at least 5,000 years old.
For a week this spring, friends and I drove four-wheel-drives and then hiked into remote locations in Emery County, Utah, to photograph these spectacular ochre-red paintings. The images of eerie, elongated figures with shortened arms and legs are hard to decipher. The anthropomorphs, or human figures, often have large eyes, no ears or noses, and no obvious gender. Snakes writhe in their hands or above their heads. Yet circling these fierce, faceless creatures are delicate menageries of exquisitely painted birds, ducks, geese, deer, and occasionally free-floating eyeballs with wings.
David Cooper from Grand Junction and Durango resident Steve Allen were our guides. Allen, who wrote one of the first guidebooks on the San Rafael Swell, said,
By Andrew Gulliford
Friday, April 24, 2009
Of the thousands of Indian rock-art panels in the Southwest, none are older than Barrier Canyon pictographs found throughout the San Rafael Swell. From tiny, 5-inch animal figures to stunning 7-foot tall human shapes with no arms or legs and alien-like bug eyes, Barrier Canyon-style images are always a dark, blood-red color. Some may have been painted 8,000 years ago; many panels are at least 5,000 years old.
For a week this spring, friends and I drove four-wheel-drives and then hiked into remote locations in Emery County, Utah, to photograph these spectacular ochre-red paintings. The images of eerie, elongated figures with shortened arms and legs are hard to decipher. The anthropomorphs, or human figures, often have large eyes, no ears or noses, and no obvious gender. Snakes writhe in their hands or above their heads. Yet circling these fierce, faceless creatures are delicate menageries of exquisitely painted birds, ducks, geese, deer, and occasionally free-floating eyeballs with wings.
David Cooper from Grand Junction and Durango resident Steve Allen were our guides. Allen, who wrote one of the first guidebooks on the San Rafael Swell, said,