CHRIS MARKES ROCK ART PHOTOGRAPHY - AN EXAMPLE OF REAL ART:

Birthing Rock, Moab, Utah. Photograph Chris Markes.

From time to time I receive communications from readers of RockArtBlog who share their work and studies with me. I have even published some of these on this blog. I have recently had the pleasure of receiving the pictures below from Chris Markes of Moab, Utah. Instead of recording rock art as an archaeological/anthropological or scientific endeavor, Chris is pointing at the artistic qualities of rock art panels, enhancing their mood with night time long-exposure shots. The sheer beauty of these pictures immediately grabbed me and I want to share this with all of you. As you view these pictures try to temporarily shut off the rock art studies or recording frame of mind and approach them as if they are still life or trompe l’oeil works of art. I like to imagine a bright moonlit night, one of those that is almost bright enough to read a newspaper by, with the beautiful universe behind and above the rock art panel.

Birthing Rock, Moab, Utah. Photograph Chris Markes.

In describing his approach to these beautiful time lapse photographs he said; “I go for around 2600-2800 kelvin for lighting in order to get that nice warm vs. cool look between the night sky and the art!  I moved to using a small RGB LED panel, so the light is constant.”  Chris added that his illumination level setting is “at 1% of 100% and on these, they’re actually bouncing light from the ground, then back up to the art.” I find the result to be quite striking and unforgettable.

Birthing Rock, Moab, Utah. Photograph Chris Markes.

In Chris’ words “Visiting the panels is a rather transformative experience in a present time where existential nihilism is the pill of the day – the panels to me serve as a reminder about imagining a time where meaning, purpose and survival were brought into the present moment. While many of us, due to modern conveniences, presently watch/observe life, the idea of truly living life – taking it in, and experiencing it, serves as a profound reminder that our time here is transient, limited, and important.” Well said Chris.

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah. Photograph Chris Markes.

Additionally, Chris sent me a time-lapse video compilation at Arches National Park. (Cut and paste into your browser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwF8Q6WhkjQ). If you look closely, at 2.18 of the video you can see a satellite crossing the sky over Arches (music by Vangelis).

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah. Photograph Chris Markes.

While Chris is not the only person doing this sort of photography his work is a really excellent example of using photography to focus on the mood of a rock art panel instead of merely recording the reality of its presence. He is literally establishing its beauty and presence in the universe. As a student of rock art since 1979 from a background of Art History instead of Archaeology I appreciate the beauty of Chris’s presentations. Thank you Chris for sharing and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

700-YEAR-OLD PETROGLYPHS VANDALIZED NEAR MOAB, UTAH:

"Birthing Rock" site near Moab, Utah. Online photograph, public domain.

Writing for KSL.com, Carter Williams has had the sad duty of describing the vandalism of two petroglyph panels this year near Moab, Utah.

The so-called "birthing panel" near Moab, Utah. Photograph Peter Faris, 3 August 2000.

Birthing Rock Vandalism: I have never been able to see the petroglyph that this site was named for as an instance of giving birth. If anything, it looks to me like a case of medical prolapse, but whatever it is, it is an example of rock art and now this site has been vandalized. “Birthing Rock includes birthing images drawn on the rock by Native American groups at least as far back as the Ancestral Puebloan Culture, a couple of thousand years ago. More petroglyphs were added through the years. Judging from photos, Elizabeth Hora, and archaeologist for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office, said it appeared most of the damage was to petroglyphs left by people from the Fremont Culture. The Fremont in that area stretched from 500 A.D. to about 1300 A.D.” (Williams, April 2021)

Vandalized panel at "Birthing Rock" site near Moab, Utah. Online photograph, public domain.

A party, or parties, unknown wrote “White Power” across a portion of the petroglyph panel. This makes very little sense as Moab, Utah, is a bastion of white power if ever there was one. According to figures from the 2019 Census, white alone (not Hispanic or Latino) population is 73.6%, the Hispanic or Latino proportion of the population is 16.6%, with American Indian and Alaskan Native at 4.9%, and Black or African American coming in at 0.6% (U. S. Census 2019). This strikes me as sort of like praying for rain in the middle of a flood.

Vandalized Mill Creek Canyon site, Moab, Utah. Photograph ksl.com.

Mill Creek Canyon Vandalism: And in another unbelievably stupid act - “Pictures of the vandalism show the unknown vandal or vandals wrote ‘Petroglyphs’ and what appears to be the names ‘Taylor’, ‘Tray’, ‘Wes’ and ‘Travis’ plus the date of Aug. 3.” (Williams 2021)  This destruction was apparently done with a motive of photographing for social media. “The vandalism was discovered by someone visiting Mill Creek Canyon, southeast of Moab, on Aug. 10, according to Rachel Wootton, a public affairs specialist for the Bureau of Land Management. She said the petroglyph is believed to have been drawn by northern San Juan members of the Ancestral Puebloan Culture likely between 350 B.C. and 1300 A.D.” (Williams, August 2021)

 Restorer treating the vandalism at the Mill Creek Canyon site, Moab, Utah. Photograph ksl.com.

Moab has had an official policy of publicizing the locations of rock art for the purpose of attracting tourists. This has made it a popular destination for students of rock art, but apparently it also attracts more than its share of idiots and fringies.

You will notice I have not tried to be politically correct in my descriptions of the perpetrators of this vandalism. These morons need to be called out, arrested, and made examples of. If anyone knows anything about these crimes you should call the Police Department, Moab, Utah.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts, Moab, Utah, Population estimates, July 1, 2019, accessed 29 October 2021

Williams, Carter, 2021, 700-year-old petroglyph vandalized in southern Utah, 25 August, 2021, KSL.com

Williams, Carter, 2021, ‘This is not an accident’: $10K reward offered after well-known Moab petroglyph found vandalized, 27 April 2021, KSL.com

POLYDACTYLISM REVISITED:

Six-toed footprint, Potash Road,

Moab, UT. Photo: Peter Faris,

7 October 2001.

On October 28, 2017, I publish a column titled Another Push-Me-Pull-You about a Fremont Style image from a remarkable site West of Moab, Utah, along Potash Road. Here I wish to present another image from the same site, another example of polydactylism - a six-toed footprint.

Closeup of six-toed footprint,

Potash Road, Moab, UT.

Photo: Peter Faris, 7 October 2001.

I have written previously about H. Marie Wormington's theory about polydactylism. Early in her long career she had excavated a Fremont burial with six fingers on each hand and grave goods indicating that the burial was a high-status individual. She explained that her interpretation of this was that a person with extra digits (or otherwise "different") was perhaps seen as "special" and treated accordingly within the clan or tribe. That fact influenced her to interpret Fremont Style hand-and-foot-prints with six digits as representations of important individuals who also possessed this genetic trait (Wormington, personal communication).

We do find numbers of six-fingered-or-toed representations in Fremont rock art, and Ms. Wormington's hypothesis seems to me to be an eminently reasonable explanation.  In any case they are interesting to find, and speculate about.

REFERENCE:

Wormington, Hannah Marie - personal communication, 1982.

ANOTHER PUSH-ME-PULL-YOU OUTSIDE OF MOAB, UTAH:

Dinosaur tracks, Potash Road,

West of Moab, UT.

Peter Faris, 7 October 2001.

In Grand County, Utah, on the west side of the Colorado River across from Moab, along Potash Road, is a remarkable spot with a panel of dinosaur tracks as well as a Fremont rock art site. Given the uncertainty of identifying the animal who left the footprints, dinosaur tracks are commonly named independently of a species of actual dinosaur. These are referred to as either Grallator or Eubrontes tracks (the uncertainty here is mine, my notes have disappeared since the visit).

 Push-me-pull-you, Fremont

rock art, Potash Road,

West of Moab, UT.

Peter Faris, 7 October 2001.

Now, I don't think I can imagine anything more interesting than having both dinosaur tracks and Fremont rock art at the same location, but if I could it would probably involve finding a Fremont push-me-pull-you there. Well, here it is! He is attached to a trapezoidal bodied anthropomorph by a zig-zag line often referred to as a "power line". The animal itself has a desert bighorn head at each end as if it is going both ways at once. As before, I must confess that I don't know what it represents, and in total absence of evidence it would be irresponsible of me to speculate that it is a mythical animal inspired by the dinosaur tracks, but wouldn't that be something?

A BIGHORN SHEEP TRAP PETROGLYPH NEAR MOAB:

Sheep trap petroglyph near Moab, UT. Photo Dell Crandall.

This first illustration is a petroglyph that was provided by Dell Crandall in Moab, UT., it apparently shows a bighorn sheep trap. This might be a natural trap like Dead Horse Point near Moab where a high pinnacle is connected to the rest of the mountain by a narrow neck and once the animals were driven out onto it they could be confined easily with no way down.

The petroglyph consists of a circular shape with a funnel-shaped entrance, and what appears to be footprints or animal tracks entering it and then circling around. This seems to represent exactly what we would expect to see happen in real life in such a scenario. Outside the wings of the trap are a group of quadrupeds (apparently bighorn sheep) which may illustrate the herd grazing on the slope below the trap.

Bighorn sheep trap wings with corral section at center, near 

DuBois, WY. Photo Peter Faris, September 1998.

The other photographs are of an actual constructed bighorn sheep trap in the Shoshone National Forest of the Wind River mountains above DuBois, Wyoming. This trap was constructed by the Shoshone group called “Sheep Eaters” and may, in fact, be early historic in date. Assembled of wood (stumps, trunks, and branches) it consists of a central corral and a long pair of fences in a “v-shape” leading to the opening of the corral. This trap is located on a high mountain saddle in heavily forested area.

Bighorn sheep trap central corral section, near 

DuBois, WY. Photo Peter Faris, Sept. 1998.

We assume that the way that these traps worked was for a group of people to start somewhere down near the bottom of the slope at a time that bighorn sheep were known to be grazing there. As a long line the people would then start up the slope making noise. Any animals above them on the hillside would presumably want to be farther away so they would also begin to drift upward toward the saddle that would allow them to cross to the other side and down into the next valley. As they approached that saddle they would run into the wings of the trap deflecting them toward the center. In the center there was a low wall that they would want to jump over at some point to continue to escape the approaching people, but this led them into the corral.

In either case a limited amount of exertion by a group of people would presumably reward them with a large amount of game. If we are to assume that some rock art actually does represent hunting (which I think very few would deny) then this petroglyph is quite likely to represent exactly what it looks like, a bighorn sheep trap. 

VISUAL PUNS IN ROCK ART:

Fremont figure, Old Airport site, Moab, Utah.

Photo Peter Faris, September 2000.

On a couple of previous occasions I have published postings of images that I called Optical Illusions. These generally consist of images that can be seen as more than one thing (note: also see Visual Puns). This week’s offering is an excellent example of that phenomenon.

This image is from the old airport site near Moab, Utah, and consists of images produced by the Fremont Culture. The panel contains a mix of Fremont figures (anthropomorphs) and four-legged animals or quadrupeds (zoomorphs generally identified as desert bighorn sheep). The figure that I focus on here, however, contains elements of both. The large anthropomorph to the right of center is a traditional Fremont Classic figure with a plumed headdress; except the plumes of the headdress are also the horns of two of the quadrupeds standing nose to nose where the figure’s head belongs. Thus the head and the headdress can be seen either as just that, a head with headdress, or as two animals facing each other, or as both.

Since this image combines elements of both human and animal features I suppose it should also be classified as therianthropic. In any case the artist who produced this image was obviously thinking about the identifying qualities of his figures, and combined elements of them to overlay the double meaning or identities in the same figure. Personally, I see this as an example of real creativity, the combining of images to make another image that has never existed before, as well as a possibly intended joke or visual pun.