Reading Rock Art: Petroglyphs, Dinosaurs, And Time

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We trace Utah's Potash Road to packed petroglyph panels and nearby dinosaur tracks, unpacking how to identify motifs, read track slabs, and protect fragile surfaces. Along the way, we confront vandalism, clarify what not to touch, and share simple steps to leave no trace.

• difference between pictographs and petroglyphs
• anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures on multiple panels
• Archaic and Fremont period styles and dates
• roadside access and safe viewing tips
• theropod track types on Navajo Sandstone
• Why chalking, casting, and touching cause harm
• how vandalism alters meaning and experience
• quick methods to photograph and document responsibly

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Hi there.
I'm at the 279 for Utah Highway279 Rock Art Site.
It is right off the highway onPod Ash Road, which goes to some
Potash collection places thatyou can see from Dead Horse
Point.
There's a number of differentdeals here.

(00:22):
So we're gonna check those out.
So you'll know what you'relooking for.
This is what you're looking at.
And the difference between apictograph, pictographs are
painted, petroglyphs are peckedor incised or chiseled.
Now you have anthropomorphanthropomorphic or zoomorphic,
which are human versus animalcharacteristics.

(00:43):
This was created a long timeago.
Somewhere around 6000 to 1000BC, or during the Fremont
period, which is 450 to 1300.
And you have archaic stuff,which is just different shapes.
You have animal shapes, you haveother animal shapes showing
hunters.

(01:04):
You have other shapes showingmore anthropomorphic shapes.
It's a very busy street, sodon't ignore the traffic and
definitely don't touch the stuffor damage it anyway.
Let's go take a look.
These are really gonna be hardto see at this angle because I'm
gonna have to stand on the edgeof the road here.
But it looks like right there,there's kind of a long

(01:31):
cylindrical line along with ahuman figure, like right
underneath it, and some bighornsheep looks like.

(03:25):
So really cool.
We have the figures that areoversized, almost like
caricatures.
Lots of bighorn sheep and otherthings.
There's another panel over here.
And that one's pretty cool aswell.

(03:48):
Almost missed this panel here.
All kinds of stuff here.
Anthropomorphic, zoomorphicswirls and spirals and all kinds
of stuff.
Now this one right here kind oflooks like Intestine Man.
Right there.

(04:11):
Zoom in on that guy.
Hmm.
Interesting.
Well, not for somethingcompletely different.
You have information panel heretalking about information panel
here talking about maybe hard toread.

(04:33):
Theropod dinosaurs.
This is Navajo sandstone.
They're pretty common here.
This rock that we're gonna lookat in a second fell from the
cliff above.
At some point.
There's ten different individualanimals that were here.
The larger tracks were Ubrantesand Gralitor, or the smaller

(04:57):
prints.
And you see kind of both ofthose up there on the slab.
Isn't that cool?
You're not supposed to doanything to the tracks.
Don't touch them, don't putplaster in them and how to cast
them.
Best thing to do is take apicture or video of them and
just leave them alone.

(05:21):
Some of the animals, the smallerones, would have been about the
size of a modern-day turkey,which would be about one and a
half feet tall at the hip.
Whereas the other one, thelarger tracks, would have been
about 5.6 at the hip.
So a little bit bigger thanthat.
Apologize for the noise.
Got a bunch of side-by-sidesgoing up the hill here.

(05:43):
So at the top of the trail onPoison Spider, there's another
panel.
Very interesting.
Some numbers.
I think there's a Zuni symbol,which is from where I live in
New Mexico.
I don't think that was somethingthat was used in this area.

(06:04):
Not sure though.
But you definitely haveanthropomorphic figures.
You have some zoomorphic, likebighorn sheep.
That guy doesn't have a head.
His head's kind of blown open.
And you got more, looks likemore like elk up there.
And you got a lot of graffiti onthis face right here.

(06:27):
Don't know if there's anythingreally real on that one.
There's a few things.
But not as much as graffiti onthere.
Remember, it is unlawful todamage any of these features
here.
More figures here.

(06:49):
You've got anthropomorphic ones.
This is an interesting one.
I'm sure that was added laterwith the question mark, because
that probably wasn't somethingthat they necessarily
understood.
But you have a question mark anda little.
There's like a dog-lookingfigure.
Not sure what's going on withthat.

(07:09):
But you definitely have lots ofanthropomorphic figures in a
row, along with some zoomorphicabove them.
Looks like maybe snake, bighornsheep, maybe some rabbits.
And then you've got people withkind of antenna on their head.
Which I'm assuming is a deity orsome kind of priest or something

(07:35):
like that.
That's a really cool one upthere.
That one you can see all the pecmarks on it.
It's pretty interesting.
The detail in that's amazing.
Some other ones down here.
I'm not sure.

(07:58):
Apologizing for all the noise.
We got a lot of side-by-sidescoming up on the road behind me
to go to another place.
These are pretty neat.
Considering they're primitivetools, this is an all-day
experience just to make onefigure, probably.

(08:21):
That probably took them sun up,sun down to make some of these
figures.
And it's like this one righthere, maybe has broken off.
There's part of a humanoidfigure and some zoomorphic ones
that have broken off as well.
Wow, pretty neat.

(08:42):
Pretty neat.
Alright, getting less and lesshere.
Again, you have some vandalism.
It's pretty recent, 2009,because I actually signed their
name or their initials and thedate.
Great job, guys.
But looking over here, there's aslab of dinosaur tracks.

(09:05):
They're difficult to see.
Vandalism can be hard to removeand it damages people, people's
experience.
But these over here is more thesame ones we saw earlier, the
Eubrontis and the Gralidor.
But also Enomius Moabidensis.

(09:35):
We'll come over here and get abetter look at them.
Was first described, excavatedin 1965.
Tracks are not as deep as theother one.
But the slab was on the hillsideabove and it'd been hidden for
millions of years.

(09:55):
Couple interesting ones here.
This one is really interestingbecause it's almost like either
a llama or a camel.
I'm not really sure what we'relooking at here.
Weird.
But you have your other stuff.
Looks like almost like some ramsor sheep with more human-like

(10:17):
heads.
I'm not really sure what to makeabout that.
All of them have kind of more ofa more prominent head.
Maybe a little artistic leisure.

SPEAKER_00 (10:31):
Alright.
So, hope you enjoyed that video.
Lots of interesting petroglyphsat that site in that area.
And a wide variety of things tosee.
If you like this video, give ita thumbs up.
Think about subscribing to thechannel for more content.
Or if you have any questions,let me know.
And leave those below.

(10:52):
If you're listening on thepodcast, just click that link to
send me an email and let me knowwhat you're thinking.
Okay, till next time.
We'll see you on the trail.
Okay, bye.