Crow Canyon Petroglyphs

Went on a little adventure this morning down to Crow Canyon to see the petroglyphs. It was a lot of fun and incredibly interesting. Teresa was a cryptographer for many years for the National Geographic and she really knows her stuff. She was able to decipher and tell the stories of the rock art and help us figure out the meaning behind the artwork. Overall, we discovered that the area had been used as a Cleansing Ground, where warriors went after a battle to purge their bodies of the weakness and evils they had taken on from the enemies they had killed during the battle. The warriors would be sort of put into a trance (hallucinogenic methods) and left in a cave for 4 days. The elders would watch over them and make sure the warriors did not get dehydrated or die of starvation during the 4 day fast, but this was a time for the warriors to be reborn with a clean slate. Likely during this time, the events of the battle would also be recorded in the stone at this location, so that all of the evils of war could be left at that place and the warriors could return home to their normal lives and not a word of the battles would be mentioned thereafter.

Here are some photos from the petroglyphs. I definitely can't remember most of the meanings, but I've included what I do remember.

A busy scene. The jagged lines on the LEFT mean a flash flood warning. There is also corn growing out of a pueblo building. The hourglass shape is actually two arrowheads pointed at each other and signify war. The man in the middle with the spikes coming out of his back is a healer. If you can see the people with horns on their heads, those signify power. There are also a couple of people on horseback.

Another scene with a lot of death. The commas are spirits, and the upside down people are dead. The carvings that look like bird prints are actually directional symbols, pointing toward the STEM of the bird print (mostly downward in this picture). It was interesting to see the foot prints too, with the circles around them. Teresa said those were symbolic of moccasins, which I believe were worn by the Ute tribe Native Americans.

A series of bows and arrows, and more of the symbols of war.

A photo of Teresa, explaining another petroglyph to us. I think she said those stalks were milkweed, and the person with the giant shield and the horns is a Kiowa Indian warrior.