As we mentioned in our last entry, yesterday we also inspected several rock art sites. These were all in the San Rafael Swell area and easily accessible from the town of Green River.
The first was in Black Dragon Canyon.
The road into the canyon was narrow, rocky, and sandy.
It required taking a dirt road off I-70 and going through a closed cattle gate, but that is not unusual in this country. I am getting a little more confident in the abilities of the Jeep and the Cooper tires we put on it. If the Jeep proves its mettle, it will give us a lot more opportunities to explore the back country. Safari so-goody.
Again, we noted that the location of the panels was in the middle of an amphitheater-like plaza within the confines of the fairly narrow canyon. A good gathering spot.
The site had been used as a sacred spot by several different cultures for many centuries.
At ground level there was a cave.
The pictographs on the back wall of the cave were geometric, elaborate, and seemed to be to be more recent than either Barrier Canyon or Fremont; perhaps they were Ute, who came later.
Again, the long matrix of carefully placed dots was present, along with hand prints and abstracts of flowers or necklaces.
The prize pictograph was higher up.
In the middle of a series of Barrier Canyon style panels was a painted dragon (red, not black) after whom the canyon was named.
Note that the wing on the left is drawn across a cleft in the rock, indicating real imagination on the artists part. Nowhere else, so far as I know, is there an image of a dragon. That seems to be to be a Western notion, although Asian cultures from which American Indians derive also had dragon mythology. On the other hand, we looked closely at the image to see if it might be a misleading composite of a horned serpent and an anthropomorph that is obscured.
Near the dragon are two clear images.
The dog-like creature is animated and seems to be attacking something (the dragon?)
Near it is a more realistic looking anthropomorph, sans arms, wrapped in Barrier Canyon style ornamented robe, and seemingly walking.
Its shamanic master?
Finally, even higher to the left was an extended Barrier Canyon style panel of anthropomorphs.
You can see the disastrous effects of “chalking” an image, even if it appears to make it clearer.
The TV-man is intriguing and disconcerting at the same time.
These images have nothing to do with our modern notions of realism.
Thirty miles south of Black Dragon Canyon is a standing formation called Temple Mountain by locals. The road around it to the south has yet another Barrier Canyon panel.
This location was not a “canyon amphitheater,” but is was facing a large clearing in the path through the surrounding canyons and mesas. The largest figure is about 8 feet tall and holds a serpent.
Some of the smaller surrounding figures include a figure that is again TV-headed. I call this one the Tivo-guy.
One figure in black paint is clearly Fremont, not Barrier Canyon.
Another small but detailed Fremont style figure is bullet-ridden.
Multiple use again is apparent, even use by moderns.
More and more, we feel as if we are in the presence of creative visionaries, as well as insensitive goofs, with their guns and graffiti, who feel superior to the ancients.
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