Canyon de Chelly National Monument: Rock Art

A cairn found in Cohab Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park.

Frank and Anne's Canyon Country Hiking and Camping Notebook.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

Campsite

Ancient Ruins
and Rock Art

Duck pictograph from the White House Ruin, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona.

This page contains a discussion of the rock art found within Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona. All photographs are from our our personal collection. If you'd like to see more rock art from this location, or if you'd like to see higher resolution or larger images, send us an e-mail message and we'll see what we can do.

Rock Art

Unfortunately we only had a few hours to visit Canyon de Chelly and so were limited to what we could see from the North and South Rims. A good zoom lens helped in some cases, and the ability to hike to the White House Ruins gave us a close up look in that single instance. It is our intent to return to the Monument and to take one or more of the guided tours into the heart of the canyons, where we will get close-up views of many more instances of the pictographs and petroglyphs left on these sandstone walls.

The Antelope House Ruin pictographs were photographed using a 10X zoom lens from the rim across the canyon. The ruins were named after the antelope (pronghorn) pictographs on the canyon wall nearby. Local Navajo attribute the craftsmanship to Dibe Yazhi (Little Sheep), a highly respected Navajo artist who lived in the 1830s. The prehistoric Puebloan occupants of Antelope House had earlier created hand outlines and the figures in white paint.

For more information on how to preserve and protect these priceless historic treasures:

See American Antiquities Act of 1906.
See Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979.
See Archaeological Site Etiquette.
Archaeological Resources Protection Act Hotline: 800-227-7286.

The zoomorphic image at the top of this page looks to represent some sort of duck or water bird. It is interesting to note how it is bent over, similar to the Bent Over Bird Pictograph listed at the bottom of the page. However, note the bright red dot painted over a position on the body that would no doubt represent the location of the animal's heart. The mouth is also open, as if taking in air. There may be some similarity between this and the "heart line" seen is many Zuni images.

The zoomorphic pictograph to the left is from the White House Ruin and probably represents a scorpion. That is how a young Navajo tribal member described a similar image to us.

This anthropomorphic pictograph from the White House Ruins area also has several of the bright red paint daubs similar to the one on the top image on this page. However, they are obviously not over the heart region, and one does not even come into contact with the white image.

This may represent some sort of Kachina, with its single horn (or feather) and what appear to be large ear rings. However, the figure may also represent a female character in some sort of fertility rite.

There were two of these graphic pictographs within sight at the White House Ruins. The other is listed below as the White Plus Graphic with Ball Tips. There have been various interpretations of this type of image, including some sort of celestial calendar or representations of the morning star or a super nova.

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More Rock Art

We were able to get within about fifty yards of the ruins and rock art at the White House Ruins. Many of those photographs came out better. Those images taken of the Mummy Cave pictographs were shot from an overlook from across the canyon and enlarged, so there may be some blurring of the images.

All of these photos have been resized and manipulated in Photoshop to give the best representation of the image. Some color distortion is inevitable. If you would like to see higher quality versions of these shots, or if you would like to use these images for any purpose, please contact us and we would be glad to help if we can.

Antelope House Ruins

White House Ruins

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This page was last updated Monday, December 1, 2008

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