Ancestral Pueblo rock art in the socio-cultural and environmental context: Sand & Rock Creek Canyons in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Colorado, USA

Summary

This is an abstract from the "(Re) Imagining Rock Art Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Castle Rock settlement community dated to the 13th century AD located in Sand Canyon and Rock Creek Canyon in the Canyons of the Ancient National Monument, in southwestern Colorado, has been investigated since 2011, among other things focusing on the studies of relations between settlement, rock art, and landscape. In 2023, basing on a few tips from local archaeologists and archival research, our team explored the upper parts of these two canyons, almost unknown previously. Our team revealed poorly known or previously unknown spectacular rock art panels, and associated architecture and pottery sherds in a few cases.

We recorded more than 20 panels located in difficult-to-access places. Particular panels have been documented with hand tracings complimented by extensive digital photography and partly 3D terrestrial laser scanning. Initial documentation and preliminary analyses led us to change our perception of this Ancestral Pueblo community, including reassessment of its size, demography, and social and religious life. Based on the distinctiveness of these sites, it also opens doors to other questions, for example regarding the meaning of the iconography, but also prioritization of extensive engagement with cliff surfaces such as abrasion, grooving, and drilling over image-making per se.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• (Re) Imagining Rock Art Research

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51539