Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Pictographs...

in Horseshoe Canyon, an isolated district of Canyonlands National Park, Utah, are superb examples of Fremont culture rock art (click to enlarge.) This image shows only a small portion of the Great Gallery; the entire sandstone panel is ~ 200 feet long and ~ 15 feet high, and the Barrier Canyon Style paintings consist of life-sized anthropomorphic figures. The largest individual, the so-called Holy Ghost shown above, is about seven feet tall. I last visited this site in 2006 during a traverse of Bluejohn Canyon when I snapped this pic.

Pop quiz: what's the difference between a pictograph and a petroglyph?
Posted by J.P. Buchanan at 5:25 AM
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2009 at 9:02 AM

    A pictograph is a rock painting, whereas a petroglyph, is an image that was scratched or carved into a rock surface.


    -Ben Budge

    ReplyDelete
  2. J.P. BuchananFebruary 25, 2009 at 9:14 AM

    BB wins the cigar. Indeed, one is painted, the other is pecked (usually through a thin veneer of "desert varnish.")

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 26, 2009 at 9:39 AM

    mmmmmm cigars......


    -BB

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