Sources: An Illustrated Dictionary of Rock Art Terms, compiled by Frankie Harris 1992 Second Revised edition 1996; Polly Schaaafsma 1994, 1971 The Rock Art of Utah, University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City; 1998 URARA Conference Annual Symposium in Delta Utah; The Buckhorn Wash Pictograph Panel, n.d. brochure by the Emery Co. Lasting Legacy Project.
A Cautionary Tale: As David Whitley and others have pointed out, humans who are asked to draw descriptive pictures following altered states of consciousness will draw using different "styles" which may represent the different stages and things perceived during one event. Dating petroglyphs and pictographs by style may thus not be a straightforward endeavor. Nevertheless, panels seem to be more geographically isolated and distinctive in style than elsewhere in North America (e.g. in the Upper Midwest where different time periods were clearly using the same site for 5000 years).
An abstract style consisting of circles, wavy lines, and curving and meandering lines tied together haphazardly. (See Heizer and Baumhoff, 1962 p.173, Table 3 and Polly Schaasfma's Table of Great Basin Curvilinear styles in The Rock Art of Utah 1994, p. 26, for examples of abstract figures with definitions).
Types of abstract elements include the following: circle, concentric circles, bisected circle, sectioned circle, spoked circle, tailed circle, circle and dot, circle cluster, connected circles, chain of circle, sundisc, clockwise spiral, counterclockwise spiral, connected spirals, curvilinear meander (wandering line), rake, convoluted rake, dot, dot design, connected dots, dumbell, wavy lines, vulva form (deer hoof shape), bison hoof, rectangular grid, oval grid, cross, star, bird track, parallel straight lines, sawtooth triangles, lozenge chain (diamonds), zig zag, 1 pole ladder, 2 pole ladder, rectilinear meander (90 degree angles), chevrons (V's), radiating dashes, cross hatch, plantform, rectilinear spiral, maze.
A style with bodies with fluid movements and distinctive forms of bodies for animals and people. Realistic. Hairstyles. "Rainbow" parallel arcs. A transitional style. Relatively fewer sites. Jesse Warner, a co-founder of the Utah Rock Art Research Association (URARA), postulates that there are several symbolic solar interactions at the Rochester Creek site with the shadow of a pregnant woman crossing the petroglyphs at the winter solstice, symbolic cones of light coming from the mouths of figures at certain times of the year (ethnographic sources suggest this may be "speaking with light"), and sexual imagery that involves male figures fertilizing female figures with light. Charlie Bailey and Chuck Bailey have recently produced a video with Jesse Warner to illustrate these proposed symbolic solar interactions.
A style consisting of linear, bar bodied figures with small heads and small extremities. Figures are outlined. Small heads and arms may be a perspective device to make the figures appear as "giants." A Glen Canyon V figure is pecked over a Rochester Creek style figure at the Mussentuchit site near Rochester Creek.
A style consisting of often life-sized, dark, painted, ghostly, figures with atenuated (stetched out), tapering bodies, frequently without arms painted in alcoves or overhangs. Sometiomes they have arms holding snakes, strings (like Inca Kepu's?), giving an "angel-like" apearance, sometimes mummy-like, often with dots, rays, and crowns above their heads and accompanied by birds, snakes, insects, and dogs. Mostly pictographs but some petroglyphs. Abstract elements at sites are rare.
From: The Buckhorn Wash Pictograph Panel visitor's brochure (Emory Co. Lasting Legacy Project).
"Current Interpretation
What you see may be 'pictures of a shamans experiencing symbolic death and at times transformations, probably into a supernatural or animal form...' (Schaasfma, 1986).
The birds, insects, snakes and dogs depicted on the Panel are well known for their powerful associations as spirit helpers. They enable the ecstatic journey of the healer to the sky and beyond or to the underworld.
Pictographs are painted on the surface of rock with natural pigments. Black was made from yellow ochre, pinyon gum and sumac. When stirred together they form a black powder. Reds were made from red ochre and the roots of mountain mahogany. Rabbitbrush was a source for yellow. Likely binding agents were plant oils and animal fats. . . .
Likely tools: brushes made from human hair, dog hair, or yucca fibers; flint or other stone chisel and hammers; fingers; hollow bird bones filled with pigment; mouths - paint could be blown out of the mouth and onto the rock creating a negative image often associated with handprints."
A style with broad shouldered anthropomorphs (human shaped) with tapered torsos (trapezoidal), elaborate headgear and headdresses, hair bobs, necklaces and sahes, bucketheads (sometimes upright or inverted), earbobs (ears have lines with dots at the end), fingers are splayed, if shown. Large anthropomorphs may carry heads and small shields, may wear kilts, bead or yoke necklaces, armbands, and have facial features, tear streaks. Abstract elements are prolific at Fremont sites. Unbaked clay figurines from the Fremont culture are similar.
The following is Polly Schaasfma's current interpretation of the Dry Fork Canyon heads being held by the Fremont ("Classic Vernal") style anthropomorphs at McConkie Ranch, Vernal, Utah (Preface, The Rock Art of Utah, 1994).
". . .there is now substantial evidence from the San Juan Basketmaker region to indicate that the apparent fetish heads in the hands of the imposing Classic Vernal style figures . . . are in fact just that - scalps that include the face. . . . In the Southwest such trophies or fetishes have rain bringing functions in connection with corn cultivation."
San Juan Basketmaker - handprints and large broad shouldered anthropomorphs in rows.
Ute - historic period representations; horses, European clothing, peace pipes; owls and eagles are common, and sheep. Stylistically crude.