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Point 200 B.C.
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Paleo-Indian Atlatl Point
8150-8010 B.C.
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Barrier Canyon Rock Art of the
Southwest
by
O. Ned Eddins
Paleo-Indians
Anasazi Mesa Verde
Fremont Indians
Barrier Canyon
Hovenweep
Monument Valley
Petroglyphs
Out of the mid-Archaic Period, a group of Indians appeared in the Canyonlands area of Utah that are classified as Barrier Canyon Indians. Barrier Canyon style rock art is found on the canyon walls of the northern Colorado Plateau in southeastern Utah, western Colorado, and northern Arizona. Classification is based on the pictographs and dated by clay figurines found by Dr. Jesse Jennings of the University of Utah in Cowboy Cave. Cowboy Cave is about eight miles beyond the Great Gallery in Barrier Canyon. The clay figurines found in Cowboy Cave match the style of some Barrier Canyon pictographs.
There is a road to Barrier Canyon from the town of Green River, Utah and another one across from Utah’s Goblin Valley State Park. Located in the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park, the name has been changed to Horseshoe Canyon on recent maps.
Barrier Canyon Trailhead
The Barrier Canyon style pictograph rock art consists of larger-than-life-size anthropomorphic (manlike) forms. The identifying characteristics of these figures are vacant looking or missing eyes, the frequent absence of arms and legs, and the presence of vertical body markings (Horseshoe Canyon Archeology).
Trail into Barrier Canyon
Early Visitor - Three Toed Dinosaur
April Rains in Barrier Canyon
Unique to the Southwest, the Barrier Canyon pictographs are regarded by many as finest rock art in the United States. The Great Gallery in Barrier Canyon is more than three-hundred feet wide with over sixty figures.
Barrier Canyon Great Gallery
Archeologists speculate that the life-sized human-like figures (anthropomorphic images) were painted by different individuals across an extended period of time. Despite this several thousand year period, there are very few occurrences of images being painted over by other Indians. To me, this indicates the spiritual, or mystical, significance of the Prehistoric Indian pictographs to the Anasazi, Fremont, and historic Indians. As far as that goes, anyone that visits these sites cannot help but feel an aura of mystery.
Barrier Canyon Holy Man
Barrier Canyon Animals
These mountain sheep and deer with the hunters carrying spears on the left end of the Great Gallery site were probably added at a much later date than the typical Barrier anthropomorphic figures.
The Great Gallery area has several distinct panels. Not all of the art panels are from the same time period (Jacobs). Horseshoe Shelter contains a mixture of Barrier, Anasazi, and Fremont pictographs and petroglyphs.
Horseshoe shelter was under a huge rock alcove, much of which has broken off. Based on the rock art and other artifacts, this site was used as a shelter for thousands of years.
Horseshoe Shelter - Fremont
Late Barrier Canyon style rock art and Fremont petroglyphs panels are located in Buckhorn Wash.
Buckhorn Wash
This panel was covered with bullet holes and initials. Emory County and the BLM had it restored in 1996.
The most famous pictograph is the Buckhorn Wash Angels.
Buckhorn Angels
Buckhorn Wash empties into the San Rafael River.
Mexican Hat - San Rafael River
The Sego Canyon rock art site is at the end of an oiled road north of Thompson, Utah. This is an excellent site to see Barrier, Fremont, and historic Indian panels.
Barrier Canyon Style
Fremont petroglyphs imposed on older
Barrier Canyon pictographs
Sego Canyon Historic
- ~ 1800's
Horses were brought to Mexico by Cortez in 1519, and onto the Great Plains by Coronado in 1540, It is doubtful if horses reached the Canyonlands area before the late 1700's. The first known horses to reach this area were the horses with the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition in 1776.
The Prehistoric Indian article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.
Citation: Eddins, Ned. (article name) Thefurtrapper.com. Afton, Wyoming. 2002.
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Prehistoric Indians
Fremont
Anasazi
Mesa Verde
Hohokam
Buckhorn Wash
Sego Canyon Hovenweep
Monument Valley References
Barnes, F. A and Pendleton, Michaelene. Canyon country prehistoric rock art: An illustrated guide to viewing, understanding and appreciating the rock art of the prehistoric Indian cultures of Utah, the Great Basin and the general Four Corners region. Wasatch Publishers, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1989.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton, New York, N.Y. 1996.
Dillehay, Thomas D. The Settlement of the Americas. Basic Books, New York, NY. 2000.
Koppel, Tom. Did They Come By Sea? American Archeology Magazine, Spring. 2002.
Madsen, David B.. Exploring the Fremont. Utah Museum of Natural History/University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1989.
Schaafsma, Polly. The Rock Art of Utah. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. 2004.
Stone, Tammy. The Prehistory of Colorado and Adjacent Areas. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1999.
Taylor, Allan. American Colonies: The settling of North America. Penguin Books. New York, NY. 2002.
Internet Sources:
Archeology of Horseshoe Canyon
www.nps.gov/cany/horseshoe/
Barrier Canyon Rock Art
http://www.jqjacobs.net/rock_art/barrier1.html
Jacobs, James Q - These are
excellent sites.
http://www.jqjacobs.net/rock_art/ne_utah1.html
Paleo-American Origins
Pennsylvania Archeology
http://www.paarchaeology.state.pa.us/pub_penarch_over_prehisa.htm