Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument is a Utah state monument featuring a rock panel carved with one of the largest known collections of

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s. It is located in San Juan County, along Utah State Route 211, northwest of

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

and south of

Moab Moab ''Mōáb''; Assyrian: 𒈬𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Mu'abâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Ma'bâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒀊 ''Ma'ab''; Egyptian: 𓈗𓇋𓃀𓅱𓈉 ''Mū'ībū'', name=, group= () is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territ ...

. It is along the relatively well-traveled access road into the Needles district of

Canyonlands National Park Canyonlands National Park is an American national park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their ...

, from

US 191 U.S. Route 191 (US 191) is a spur of U.S. Route 91 that has two branches. The southern branch runs for from Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican border to the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. The northern branch runs for from the nort ...

and from the park boundary. The rock is a part of the vertical

Wingate sandstone The Wingate Sandstone is a geologic formation in the Glen Canyon Group of the Colorado Plateau province of the United States which crops out in northern Arizona, northwest Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. Geology Wingate Sandstone is particularl ...

cliffs that enclose the upper end of Indian Creek Canyon, and is covered by hundreds of

s—one of the largest, best preserved and easily accessed groups in the

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

. The petroglyphs feature a mixture of human, animal, material and abstract forms. Newspaper Rock was designated a State Historical Monument in 1961, and was added to the

National Register of Historic Places listings in San Juan County, Utah This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in San Juan County, Utah. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in San Juan County, Utah, United ...

as Indian Creek State Park in 1976.

Petroglyphs

The first carvings at the Newspaper Rock site were made around 2,000 years ago, left by people from the Archaic, Anasazi, Fremont, Navajo, Anglo, and Pueblo cultures.Sign at Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument In

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest fe ...

, the rock is called "Tse' Hone'" which translates to a rock that tells a story. Newspaper Rock closeup

The petroglyphs were carved by Native Americans during both the prehistoric and historic periods. There are over 650 rock art designs. The drawings on the rock are of different animals, human figures, and symbols. These carvings include pictures of deer, buffalo, and pronghorn antelope. Some glyphs depict riders on

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s, while other images depict past events like in a newspaper. While precisely dating the rock carvings has been difficult, repatination of surface minerals reveals their relative ages. The reason for the large concentration of the petroglyphs is unclear. One suggested explanation is that the rock was used as a place for communication through the petroglyphs between travelers. The pictures at Newspaper Rock were inscribed into the dark coating on the rock, called

desert varnish Desert varnish or rock varnish is an orange-yellow to black coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid environments. Desert varnish is approximately one micrometer thick and exhibits nanometer-scale layering. Rock rust and desert patina are o ...

. Desert varnish is mainly made up (~70%) by clay materials, but gets its blackish color from iron and manganese oxide deposits that gradually form on exposed sandstone cliff faces owing to the action of rainfall and bacteria. The ancient artists produced the many types of figures and patterns by carefully chipping the coated rock surfaces with sharpened tools to remove the desert varnish and expose the lighter rock beneath. The older figures are themselves becoming darker in color as new varnish slowly develops.

Depiction of Polydactyly

Many of the petroglyphs appear to be depicting

polydactyly Polydactyly or polydactylism (), also known as hyperdactyly, is an anomaly in humans and animals resulting in supernumerary fingers and/or toes. Polydactyly is the opposite of oligodactyly (fewer fingers or toes). Signs and symptoms In hum ...

, the condition of having an extra toe or finger. In other Puebloan sites, burial remains with bifid metatarsals have been found near petroglyphs depicting polydactyly, suggesting that the pictures factually represent a real physical abnormality. One team of anthropologists excavated 96 skeletons from the nearby site of

Pueblo Bonito Pueblo Bonito (Spanish for ''beautiful town'') is the largest and best-known great house in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northern New Mexico. It was built by the Ancestral Puebloans who occupied the structure between AD 828 and 1126 ...

and found that 3.1% of the skeletons had an extra toe on the right foot. This is a significantly higher rate of polydactyly than is seen in current Native American populations. There was evidence towards those with six toes being buried with items associated with higher social status, like an ornate bracelet, and turquoise. Polydactyl is also considered a moderately heritable condition, with 30-35% of those displaying the defect also having a close relative with polydactyl. This means that it may be possible to use polydactyl to reconstruct ancient Puebloan lineages.

References

External links

US Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management page on Newspaper Rock

8.5 x 11, 600 dpi, black-on-white rendition of entire panel. {{authority control Archaeological cultures of North America Native American history of Utah Petroglyphs in Utah Protected areas of San Juan County, Utah Puebloan buildings and structures State parks of Utah 1961 establishments in Utah Protected areas established in 1961 Bears Ears National Monument

Petroglyphs

Depiction of Polydactyly

See also

References

External links