Scattered throughout rocky sections of North America are great numbers of
curious paintings and carvings. Many
of the pictures are done with great care
and skill – others are mere scrawls. In
some regions the drawings are highly abstract while in others the dominant style
is realistic. Are they messages left by
one person for another? Religious
symbols representing cultural values, superstitions worldviews, or simply
artistic outlets for creative minds?
We search for meaning in the symbols, and wonder about the brief glimpse
we get into the lives of people from long ago who left the art as their
legacy.
It is not surprising that most rock pictures are found in the
West. From the Rocky Mountains to
the Pacific, the land mass is folded into innumerable rocky ranges cut by great
river systems. Smooth stone surfaces for the artist’s brush or stone chisel
are to be found almost everywhere.
Petroglyphs are the most common form of rock art in North America and they occur by the thousands, especially in the Southwest and the Great Basin area. They consist of drawings on stone that are pecked, carved, scratched, or abraded, or a combination of these techniques. Most petroglyphs are procured by rock pecking. This can be done in two ways – by striking the surface of the rock with a sharp piece of harder stone, or for more precise control, by chiseling the rock, using a hammer stone to pound on the stone chisel. Flat tones are indicated by close all-over pecking or by abrading the surface. The three rocks most frequently used are sandstone, volcanic basalt, and granite, though rock art has been found on almost every kind of stone in the country.
Most of the rock paintings found in North America
are painted in various shades of red, ranging from a bright vermilion to a dull
brown. The enduring pigments used in the rock painting were earth
colors. Red was almost universally
made from the iron oxide hematite. Yellow
made from limonite, diatomaceous earth gypsum or kaolin.
The sources from black included manganese ore, charcoal and roaster
graphite. Greens and blues were
derived from copper ores. Pigments
were ground and mixed with oil binders such as animal oils, white of eggs, or
vegetable oils such as those found in the common milkweed plant.
Application of the paint to the rock surface was usually done with brushes made
from frayed ends of yucca, twigs, sticks or fingers.
Determining the age of prehistoric paintings and
carvings is difficult and absolute datings are rare.
Petroglyphs are engraved on cliffs or rocks that are covered with a coat
of “desert varnish.” Desert
varnish is a thin layer of brown or bluish black material that is believed to be
the residue of bodies of dead bacteria which have been impregnated with iron and
salts leached from the rock itself. When
a patinated surface is broken by the pecking, the original much lighter rock
color is exposed. This gives the design excellent contrast, thus creating a
picture.
As soon as the petroglyph is made, the desert varnish begins to
form again, very slowly, in the lines of the petroglyph.
Over time these lines become “repatinated” with the new varnish,
until they approach the color of the original desert varnish – the darker the
lines, the older the petroglyph.
There is no proof that any meaning of rock art is
correct. It is generally agreed that the culture of a people determines the
meaning of their symbols. The
American Indian world was filled with symbolism and mysticism.
It is certain that great numbers of the rock pictures in North America
were made ceremonially to aid in getting all good things – health, fertility,
rain, prosperity, good hunting or increase of animals.
There is evidence that some symbols have more than
one meaning, even in a single culture. People
of many culture patterns have been living in this land of rocks for many
thousands of years. We can know
only in a general way the reasons for the drawings; precise meanings could come
only from the original creators.
Reference Books:
ROCK ART SYMBOLS OF THE
GREATER SOUTHWEST
Alex Patterson, Author
ROCK ART OF THE WESTERN
CANYONS
Denver Museum of Natural History Colorado Archaeological Society
Editors, Jane S. Day, Paul D. Friedman and Marcia J. Tate
ROCK ART OF THE AMERICAN
INDIAN
Campbell Grant, Author
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