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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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Scene On Potash Road
• 0:29 Rock Art 101: How To Read Panels
• 1:16 First Petroglyph Panels And Figures
• 4:20 Dinosaur Tracks On Fallen Sandstone
• 5:43 Poison Spider Panel And Symbols
• 7:24 Vandalism, Preservation, And More Tracks
• 9:41 Odd Creatures, Final Impressions, And CTA

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Hi there. I'm at the 279 for Utah Highway 279 Rock Art Site. It is right off the highway on Pod Ash Road, which goes to some Potash collection places that you can see from Dead Horse Point. There's a number of different deals here. So we're gonna check those out. So you'll know what you're looking for. This is what you're looking at. And the difference between a pictograph, pictographs are painted, petroglyphs are pecked or incised or chiseled. Now you have anthropomorph anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, which are human versus animal characteristics. This was created a long time ago. Somewhere around 6000 to 1000 BC, 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 have other animal shapes showing hunters. You have other shapes showing more anthropomorphic shapes. It's a very busy street, so don't ignore the traffic and definitely don't touch the stuff or damage it anyway. Let's go take a look. These are really gonna be hard to see at this angle because I'm gonna have to stand on the edge of the road here. But it looks like right there, there's kind of a long cylindrical line along with a human figure, like right underneath it, and some bighorn sheep looks like. So really cool. We have the figures that are oversized, almost like caricatures. Lots of bighorn sheep and other things. There's another panel over here. And that one's pretty cool as well. Almost missed this panel here. All kinds of stuff here. Anthropomorphic, zoomorphic swirls and spirals and all kinds of stuff. Now this one right here kind of looks like Intestine Man. Right there. Zoom in on that guy. Hmm. Interesting. Well, not for something completely different. You have information panel here talking about information panel here talking about maybe hard to read. Theropod dinosaurs. This is Navajo sandstone. They're pretty common here. This rock that we're gonna look at in a second fell from the cliff above. At some point. There's ten different individual animals that were here. The larger tracks were Ubrantes and Gralitor, or the smaller prints. And you see kind of both of those up there on the slab. Isn't that cool? You're not supposed to do anything to the tracks. Don't touch them, don't put plaster in them and how to cast them. Best thing to do is take a picture or video of them and just leave them alone. Some of the animals, the smaller ones, 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, the larger tracks, would have been about 5.6 at the hip. So a little bit bigger than that. Apologize for the noise. Got a bunch of side-by-sides going up the hill here. So at the top of the trail on Poison 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 something that was used in this area. Not sure though. But you definitely have anthropomorphic figures. You have some zoomorphic, like bighorn sheep. That guy doesn't have a head. His head's kind of blown open. And you got more, looks like more like elk up there. And you got a lot of graffiti on this face right here. Don't know if there's anything really real on that one. There's a few things. But not as much as graffiti on there. Remember, it is unlawful to damage any of these features here. More figures here. You've got anthropomorphic ones. This is an interesting one. I'm sure that was added later with the question mark, because that probably wasn't something that they necessarily understood. But you have a question mark and a little. There's like a dog-looking figure. Not sure what's going on with that. But you definitely have lots of anthropomorphic figures in a row, along with some zoomorphic above them. Looks like maybe snake, bighorn sheep, maybe some rabbits. And then you've got people with kind of antenna on their head. Which I'm assuming is a deity or some kind of priest or something like that. That's a really cool one up there. That one you can see all the pec marks on it. It's pretty interesting. The detail in that's amazing. Some other ones down here. I'm not sure. Apologizing for all the noise. We got a lot of side-by-sides coming up on the road behind me to go to another place. These are pretty neat. Considering they're primitive tools, this is an all-day experience just to make one figure, probably. That probably took them sun up, sun down to make some of these figures. And it's like this one right here, maybe has broken off. There's part of a humanoid figure and some zoomorphic ones that have broken off as well. Wow, pretty neat. Pretty neat. Alright, getting less and less here. Again, you have some vandalism. It's pretty recent, 2009, because I actually signed their name or their initials and the date. Great job, guys. But looking over here, there's a slab of dinosaur tracks. They're difficult to see. Vandalism can be hard to remove and it damages people, people's experience. But these over here is more the same ones we saw earlier, the Eubrontis and the Gralidor. But also Enomius Moabidensis. We'll come over here and get a better look at them. Was first described, excavated in 1965. Tracks are not as deep as the other one. But the slab was on the hillside above and it'd been hidden for millions of years. Couple interesting ones here. This one is really interesting because it's almost like either a llama or a camel. I'm not really sure what we're looking at here. Weird. But you have your other stuff. Looks like almost like some rams or sheep with more human-like heads. I'm not really sure what to make about that. All of them have kind of more of a more prominent head. Maybe a little artistic leisure.

SPEAKER_00: 10:31

Alright. So, hope you enjoyed that video. Lots of interesting petroglyphs at that site in that area. And a wide variety of things to see. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up. Think about subscribing to the channel for more content. Or if you have any questions, let me know. And leave those below. If you're listening on the podcast, just click that link to send me an email and let me know what you're thinking. Okay, till next time. We'll see you on the trail. Okay, bye.