Nine Rock Art Sites in the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, Southeastern Colorado

摘要

In 1988, personnel from the University of North Dakota completed a rock art recording project in the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site of southeastern Colorado. Nine rock art sites were studied. On six of the sites it was possible to establish a series of varnish profiles on petroglyphs; the order of these profiles was substantiated by seriation studies of the petroglyph types and the whole sequence was placed between the Middle Archaic Period and the Late Archaic period by the cation ratio dates. In sum, a series of curvilinear and rectilinear petroglyph forms are dominant at the beginning (circa 5000 B.P.), but quadrupeds are part of the sequence from as early as 3300 B.P. Quadrupeds increase through time until their percentages are equal to those of some of the abstract categories by 1500 B.P. Humans in action scenes are popular in the Ceramic Stage circa 700 B.P. Horses and riders were part of the rock art in protohistoric and historic times.