Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Newspaper Rock on the way to Canyonlands

Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument is in eastern Utah, western United States, located on Hwy 211, 25 miles before the entrance to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

The 200-square-foot (19 m2) rock is a part of the vertical Wingate sandstone cliffs that enclose the upper end of Indian Creek Canyon, and is covered by hundreds of ancient Indian petroglyphs (rock carvings)—one of the largest, best preserved and easily accessed groups in the Southwest. The petroglyphs have a mixture of human, animal, material and abstract forms, and to date no-one has been able to fully interpret their meaning.

The first carvings at the Newspaper Rock site were made around 2,000 years ago, and although a few are as recent as the early 20th century, left by the first modern day explorers of this region, the main groups have been assigned to the Anasazi (AD 1 to 1300), Fremont (AD 700 to 1300) and Navajo (AD 1500 onwards).[citation needed]

The petroglyphs were carved by Native Americans during both the prehistoric and historic periods. Some glyphs depict riders on horses. While precisely dating the rock carvings has been difficult, repatination of surface minerals reveals their relative ages. The reason for the large concentration of the petroglyphs is unclear, making the rock somewhat of a mystery.

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Teri is busy with the camera.

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