Lone Mountain Archaeological Services
Old Spanish National Historic Trails
Rock Art Sites
Hiener Spring and Deer House Pueblitos
ROCK ART OF ENCINADA MESA AND CARRIZO CANYON
This project, conducted for the Bureau of Land Management, involved the inventory of thousands of rock art motifs throughout the Encinada Mesa-Carrizo Canyon area of the upper San Juan valley, many of which have never been recorded. The area encompasses numerous Gobernador-phase Navajo pueblitos (defensive structures) such as Hill Road, Gomez Canyon, Gomez Point, and Adolfo Canyon. The rock art sites reflect Anasazi, Navajo, and Historic Hispanic and Anglo-American use of Carrizo Canyon and Encinada Mesa. Art styles include, in chronological order, the San Juan Anthropomorphic, Rosa Representational, Later Anasazi Rock Art, Gobernador Representational, Historic Navajo Rock Art, and Non-Native American Historic Rock Art styles.
Much of the Upper San Juan area appears to have been abandoned by A.D. 1050, though the area may have been used as a travel corridor or for resource procurement. Some Native American presence during the post-abandonment period is indicated by the presence of later Anasazi and Rio Grande art styles. This indicates that late Puebloan people used the area to at least a limited extent.
The panels often reveal glimpses into the lives and culture of the artists. One panel bears an interesting pictograph of a parrot, possibly a scarlet macaw, in flight (see picture to right). Macaws are not native to northern New Mexico, but the feathers were imported as ritual or status items and live birds were sometimes imported from Mexico. A number of deliberate macaw burials have been found in New Mexico, attesting to their cultural importance.
