Rock Art For Dad!

Hey Dad (and everyone)-

Here are a couple of petroglyphs and pictographs we have at Hovenweep and in the surrounding area. I know you were asking about them, Dad. I gave some lead interpretations on what they mean. Of course, we have no idea their true intentions. Only the people who drew them know what they really mean.



The panel that we have below Tower Point at Square Tower Group- the spiral with the tail is a migration symbol, the T-shape represents their T-doorways that were used for ceremonial purposes and the bird on top of the T-shape is a macaw whose feathers were found in the SW for ceremonial purposes. The general interpretation is that the people were migrating towards another level of their lives (the Ancestral Puebloans measured their lives in levels) and they were trying to get towards this higher level or next step, but because the tail does not reach the T, perhaps they had to leave the area before they reached that level or step.



Hand prints at Painted Hand Pueblo (BLM not NPS). One or a couple hand prints represent "The One" or themselves- their way of saying "I am here." Hand prints can be both negative and positive. Positive meaning they place the paint on their hands and press their hands against the surface (see Hackberry below). Negative hand prints are where they press their hand against the surface and either put the paint in their mouth or in a straw and blow the paint around their hand, leaving the outline, like you see above. Negative hand prints are often lighter then positive and harder to find, but we don't think there is meaning attached to either one. Some sites we find both positive and negative hand prints like at Hackberry.



Rock Art at Cajon, one of our outlier sites. The main design has steps or lightening bolt pattern within a spiral. Animals surround it as well as some single hand prints. I don't know what this means.



Below the Hackberry site. A whole panel of hand prints. While the single hand print represents one person, multiple repeating hand prints are used to banish evil. They call on the power of the community, of all the people, to remove whatever they believe to be hurting them- evil spirits that cause drought, pestilence, violence, etc. There are both positive and negative hand prints throughout the panel, but only the positive are seen above. There are also red hand prints as well as the usual white in this panel.



A set of positive hand prints also at Hackberry with a strange negative circle design. Not sure what it means.