Western Message Petroglyphs: Esoterica in the Wild West

Summary

A particularly enigmatic form of rock art referred to as "Western Message Petroglyphs" has been identified at thirty locations in the American West scattered between no fewer than eight western states. Relying on standard rock art research approaches, this body of work is assigned to the historic mining boom years of the mid to late nineteenth century based on geographic distribution, symbol typology, and style analysis. A significant number of the sites are associated with the Mormon Trail and early Mormon settlements in the Utah Territory. An incorporation of icons from Obibway/Sioux Indian pictographic writing and other esoteric symbol systems allows us to formulate a hypothesis about the themes and authorship of these rock art panels.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Rock Art Research: A Regional Analysis   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage