North American Rock Art
An example of the beauty of North American rock art
 V-Neck Style
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Although there is no known precise technique with which to date rock art, dates have been generalized through analyzing the changes in the rock art styles. Another way of generalizing dates of rock art is to identify the objects depicted in the rock art itself. This style of dating is called absolute dating. This is found through the subjects depicted, consistent association with the datable deposits, stratified dating, deposit dating and direct dating of the art itself. Another form of dating is called relative dating. Relative dating uses techniques such as the degree of weathering, stylistic analysis and inter-site patterning to determine the date of the rock art.
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There are three general dates of human figures. The V-Neck and rectangular paintings of humans, shown to the right, are of prehistoric and historic times. The Triangular Body Style, shown at the right, appears with historic counterparts therefore is considered historic. The Shield Bearing Human Figures, depicted to the right, were late prehistoric. |
| The three main dates of animal figures are the Mature, Boat-Form, and the Naturalistic styles. The naturalistic is the oldest style and the mature style is the most modern with the boat-form in the late prehistoric. |
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| Much of the art was of shamans. The shamans went into hallucinogenic states in order to talk to the spirit world. In conversations with the spirits, the shaman would ask these spirits to save a sick child or tell the bad spirits to leave the sick. Many people, even the shamans themselves, would paint or carve what they saw on the "canvas" of the limestone or rock. |
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A petroglyph is an image on a rock created by carving or digging into a rock to create a desired image. Before metal tools were invented, most petroglyphs were scratched into the rock with bones and antlers. A pictograph is created by painting on a rock with such things as animal blood, plant materials, and other pigment materials. This can be done at home with dandelions, which have the yellow pigment. |
Examples of the many thousands of rock art of the North American Indians are shown under the following headings: Fremont, Ute, Anasazi, Mogollan, Colorado, Wellner-Hagemann site, and Misc.
