El Morro National Monument: Rock Art

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

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

El Morro National Monument

Campsite

This page contains a discussion of the rock art found at El Morro National Monument 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

At El Morro we find both ancient examples of primitive rock art, mainly petroglyphs, in association with historic signatures recording the passage of both Spanish and Anglo soldiers and settlers. Most of the images and signatures can be found along a high cliff face composed of soft sandstone. The petroglyphs are few in number, and weathered or obliterated in some area, but are none the less interesting. The historic signatures are in many cases quite elaborate and ornate, while other examples are mere scratches.

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 on this page shows a pair of shields as well as various other less prominent examples of the rock art at this location. The piece above is quite unusual and may be more historic than ancient. It is hard to determine just what it represents, but it looks a bit like the hand grip of a fancy sword. The sequential spirals are intriguing.

This petroglyph appears to show a pair of bear paws along the edge of a lake or other water source, with the water represented by the wavy line.

This zoomorph appears to be a quail, with its distinct body shape and little tuft of feather above the head. It is a very simple, straight forward use of lines to depict a common image.

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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.

Rock Art
Anthropomorphs With Four Fingers and Three Toes With Raised Arms With Raised Arms, Spread Fingers With Rectangular Body With Short Arms With Square Body With Arms Wide Fat Hand Print Female Anthropomorph Female with Missing Head Gray Anthropomorph Hand Print 1 Running Anthropomorph Two Hand Prints Geometric Designs Bird Flying Church with Cross Crosshatched Line Figure Eight Lightning Rams Horns Spanish Cross 1 Spanish Cross 2 Spiral with Dagger Spur Straight Lines and Angles	Panels Large Hand with Crossed Rectangle Lightning and Face Lightning, Shield, and Other Objects Mixed, with Zoomorphs Mixed, with Zoomorphs and Signatures Zoomorphs Bear Paw with Claws Desert Big Horn Four Desert Big Horn in a Row Lizard with Raised Tail Parrot with Long Tail Running Lizard Small Mammal Unidentifiable Bird Unidentifiable Critter

Signatures
In most cases it was easy to distinguish the historic signatures from the ancient petroglyphs. Though most of the text was written in Spanish with various shortcuts to reduce the number of characters that had to be carve into the stone, it can still be read by those who know the language. At some point over the intervening years someone has traced the characters in some examples with some form of graphite or charcoal. The following examples are noted by a prominent feature or word within the image. My interpretations may not be accurate.
1692 1737 1737 Zoacio Alphanumeric Panel AMERRIL Antonio de Zaias Aquis Stuh Auho Baley Baltimore Benit Boxed Inscription 1 Boxed Inscription 2 Bradley, Williams and Williams C. Wallen Corner Panel Diego Nez E. Pen Lang (Large) E. Pen Lang (Small) F. Engle Franluxan Gomes Hernando Gonzalez Isaac T. Holland J. A. Lucero J. C. O. 1890 J. M. Taylor J. McCormick J. Steha John 1852	John Kermode Jos. TO Joseph Diego Josph Juangosoles July 18 K. T. Barnes Lopez Main Panel MIA P. Gilmer Breckenridge P. H. Williamson Papa Pasamos Por Aqui Paso Por Aqui 1 Paso Por Aqui 2 Polen PS R. B. Ensey R. E. Comins R. H. Orton Rope Arch Panel Sandoval Simpson and Kern Suez Thos. A. Stombs Unreadable Fine Script W. Cherty YTLB

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This page was last updated Monday, June 15, 2009

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