Pondering Petroglyphs: A Shamanistic Possibility

A discovery of Glen Canyon Style 4 and 5 petroglyphs along the Escalante River in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Part of a large petroglyph panel along Escalante River near Neon Canyon illustrating images of differing styles and age.

Fred and I found this huge petroglyph panel near the Escalante River in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument's Egypt section while looking for Neon Canyon's entrance.  It overlooks a wide grassy meadow lined with cottonwood trees and tells a story that spans hundreds, possibly thousands of years about early indigenous peoples to modern-day ranchers and explorers.

Utah is a paradise for those who love rock art and wonder about the people who created it.

We were in a remote part of one of remotest places in the U.S. - the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, within the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  No one near us for miles.  Sublime mixture of moqui marbles, orange sand, yellow wildflowers, junipers and soaring orange/purple-red canyon walls.  Paradise!

​The relative age of each petroglyph can be guessed by identifying its "style" and the extent to which it has become repatinated (rock varnish regrowth).

The newer images are obviously the horse with saddle, names and numbers, and the large figure to the right wearing a hat with arms raised.  There's also many abstract images (wavy lines) as well as zoomorphs (animals) and anthropomorphs (human-like) images.

Possibly Glen Canyon Style 5 petroglyph - before 1050 A.D.
Notice the sheep lower left - it may be older because it has had more time to become repatinated.

The petroglyph that caught my eye is the figure standing with small arms relative to its long trapezoidal body, wearing what might be a headdress - maybe a shaman?  Or a chief?  I went to the library, perused the internet to learn more of who might have made it and when.  It appears to match the characteristics of Glen Canyon Style 5, the earliest style (pre-1050 A.D.) made by Basketmaker and Pueblo I cultures in the Glen Canyon region.

Glen Canyon Linear Style
This petroglyph style was identified by Turner in 1963 when he spent three years documenting various petroglyphs in the Glen Canyon region, which is supplied by the Colorado and San Juan Rivers.  What he called "Style 5," was switched to the term "Glen Canyon Linear Style" by another rock art expert, Polly Schaafsma.  The Escalante River, where this panel is found, drains into the Colorado River just north of Glen Canyon.   

Elaborate headdresses, rectilinear forms, and small arms and legs pecked with a single line are characteristic of Style 5, or Linear Style.  The cross-hatching present in the lower part of the torso is highly diagnostic for this style, which predated the Anasazi.  Vertical and horizontal lines in the interior of the body in quadripeds (usually sheep) is a defining characteristics of Style 5.

If you look at the petroglyphs on the panel above, you will see more images diagnostic of Glen Canyon Linear Style:  the long wavy line with the knob at the end to represent a snake possibly, as well as zigzags, and plant images.

Is it a Shaman?  Or Warrior?  Or Leader?  Or Hero?
​This figure seems to suggest a person of special significance because it's more elaborately attired than others on this wall.  Headdresses like feathers and horns often signified supernatural shamanic power.

Warriors are often depicted with shields, weapons (bows, arrows and atlatls) and helmets.  However, Schaafsma says that figures with feather headdresses can symbolize chiefs or warriors.

Shamans, in many native American cultures, were the link between the physical and spiritual world.  They represent a deep connection to the Divine through all things, and the natural force in everything.  Shamanism is a primal belief system common to many ancient peoples and predates established religion of today.  Shamans would enter the spirit domain via a trance to communicate with spirits for healing, information, so they could heal the mind, body, or soul of their subject.  These special people weren't always called "shamans" by native Americans, but mystics, healers, and medicine people instead.

Shamanism and the Sensuous
A quote from David Abram, an ecophilosopher, from his book The Spell of the Sensuous describes the shaman's role:
"The traditional or tribal shaman, ....acts as an intermediary between the human community and the larger ecological field, ensuring that there is an appropriate flow of nourishment, not just from the landscape to the human inhabitants, but from the human community back to the local earth.  By his constant rituals, trances, ecstasies, and "journeys," he ensures that the relation between human society and the larger society of beings is balanced and reciprocal, and that the village never takes more from the living land than it returns to it—not just materially but with prayers, propitiations, and praise."

​For me it's fun to imagine what people looked like while they were pecking these petroglyphs.  How long did it take?  What did they use?  What were they thinking while making them?  Were they portraying their idols, just like we do today?  What were they trying to communicate?  What was their life like?  What did they think about life......and death?

These questions can't always be answered - so we can keep on imagining and wondering, adding to the mystique of petroglyphs.  We know that petroglyphs were pecked with hammerstone and chisel, or a very sharp hammerstone or even a bone.  Some petroglyphs and pictographs portray something pretty obvious - like hunting and birthing scenes, however with many of these images, their mystery lives on.

Additional petroglyphs on this panel along the Escalante River.  The lines drawn inside the figures is diagnostic of Glen Canyon Linear Style, the oldest of the Glen Canyon petroglyphs.  Look how high up the wall they are!

In the Glen canyon style, sheep have exceptionally large rectangular bodies with disproportionately small heads and legs.
This petroglyph is on the Tempi po-op Trail in Ivins, Utah.  

Neon Canyon photos - on the way to Golden Cathedral.  This petroglyph panel is near the mouth of this canyon.
Hike Golden Cathedral/Neon Canyon via Beeline Trail.

Related Posts

Golden Cathedral/Neon Canyon

Petroglyph/Pictograph page

Cosmic Ashtray

Corn Springs Petroglyphs: Vision Quests

Incredible Parowan Gap Petroglyphs

Black Dragon Canyon/Temple Mountain

Sources
Turner II, C.  1963.  Petrographs of the Glen Canyon Region:  Styles, Chronology, Distribution and Relationships from Basketmaker to Navajo.

Schaafsma, P.  The Rock Art of Utah.  1971.  

Schaafsma, P.  1980.  Indian Rock Art of the Southwest.  School of American Research, Southwest Indian Art Series.

Indian Traders.  Native American Shamanism.

Patterson, Alex.  1992.  A Field Guide to Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest.

​Abram, David. 1996. The Spell of the Sensuous.  Vintage Books.