El Cerro Tome: Rock Art

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

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

El Cerro Tome

Campsite

This page contains a discussion of the rock art found at El Cerro Tome in New Mexico. 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

The rock art at El Cerro Tome can be found in two areas along the base of the hill. On our visit we were only able to view the petroglyphs along the southeastern edge of the location. There are large exposures of volcanic basalt and weathered boulders upon which the early occupants of this area have left their marks. This was an exciting location to visit, and showed many fine examples of the Rio Grande Style of petroglyphs.

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.
Archaeological Resources Protection Act Hotline: 800-227-7286.
See Archaeological Site Etiquette.

The main image at the top of this page appears to show a pair of bear paws. There were several examples of bear paws throughout the site, alone and in conjunction with other images.

This image seems to be of a Kachina mask, or, perhaps just a graphic image. It was the only image of this type that we spotted at this location.

One of the features at this site was the presence of several images, mostly faces, carved on the edge of a rock surface, splitting the face in half. With appropriate shadows that made for some interesting images. Apparently this is an indicator of the Rio Grande Style of Ancestral Puebloan petroglyphs.

In this case, we see what looks to be a Thunderbird or eagle carved near the top of a bolder, again along the edge or corner of the stone, splitting the bird and giving it somewhat of a three dimensional look.

Along with the many bear paws and Rio Grande edge faces, there were also many fine examples of the famous Kokopelli figure. In this example it is easy to make out the long flute and the hump or pack on the back. This sample also shows the obvious phallic nature of the character, as he encourages fertility.

| Top |

More Rock Art

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.

Anthropomorphs

Geometric Designs

Panels

Zoomorphs

| Top

This page was last updated Monday, June 15, 2009

The Last Page of the Internet