Petroglyph Canyon
Loendorf photo
Lawrence Loendorf , Sacred Sites Research, Inc.
Also see Petroglyph Canyon Hike Guide.
Petroglyph Canyon contains a distinctive type of petroglyphs that are made by totally pecking out the bodies of the figures. This type has been recognized as the En Toto Pecked (ETP) style. The site was assigned a number (24CB601) and officially recorded in 1968 during the Pryor Mountain- Bighorn Canyon Archaeological Survey (Loendorf 1969).
A half century ago in the initial recording of Petroglyph Canyon, there was very little information about the regional distribution of petroglyphs like the totally pecked ones at the site, and even less understanding about the possible age of ETP petroglyphs. Fortunately, the Bureau of Land Management, who manages Petroglyph Canyon, recognized the significance of the site, to sponsor an extensive photography project (Loendorf 1984). This project included the identification of the site’s motifs and an initial comparison with similar figures at other sites in the region. Part of the research was test excavations which produced radiocarbon dates that are an important part of understanding ETP petroglyphs.
En Toto Pecked Petroglyphs
As their name implies, most of these petroglyphs are made by completely pecking away the interior of each figure. At some sites, however, there are lightly incised or scratched figures of human figures or anthropomorphs. It is also common to have scratch lines extending out from pecked anthropomorphs sometimes to create fingers and toes or head decoration. These scratch lines may represent a pattern for the artist to follow when pecking out the petroglyph (Loendorf 1984:67) but there is not universal agreement on this idea.
Human figures or Anthropomorphs
ETP petroglyphs are dominated by anthropomorphs. Individual sites can vary but at larger sites like Petroglyph Canyon there are more than twice as many anthropomorphs as quadrupeds. They frequently occur in rows or groups of standing figures, side by side, as though they are posing for a portrait. These groups often exhibit four or five and they can contain as many as ten figures. At the same time, there can be solitary anthropomorph figures which, when found, are usually more elaborate with head decoration. While ETP anthropomorphs are plentiful, they are not large imposing figures.
Figure 1. Typical ETP anthropomorphs. The left figure is an incised example that we think may represent a patttern that was followed in pecking out the finsihed figure. Male and female figure are obviosu by their sexual attributes. Paired figures can be found, but a row of several figures is more common.
The heads and bodies differ considerably across the assortment of ETP anthropomorphs. Some have round bodies with others that have linear bodies. Some have bulbous heads and others have no heads at all. The same is true for arm and leg arrangement. Some have legs oriented downward, and others have them straight out from the sides of the body. The presence of male or female genitals is common to many figures.
Finally, ETP anthropomorphs also include figures executed in a profile view. These are not common, but they are important because some are shown holding bows which is an aid for dating the petroglyphs. A few of these profile-view anthropomorphs are shown in sitting positions.
Figure 2. Bow and arrow users are good indicators the figures were made after the bow and arrow was in use or after A.D. 500. Figures that appear to be sitting are unusual.
Animals
The ETP quadrupeds are nearly as variable as the anthropomorphs. Three kinds of quadrupeds -- very crude varieties, more recognizable four-legged animals, and carefully made figures with horns and tails --constitute the most common ETP animal figures. Many are too crude to recognize the species but at the same time, there are ETP animals that are easily recognized. They are not abundant but for example there are good representations of bison. One example at Petroglyph Canyon has only two legs but it shows the obvious humped back of a bison and a bison-shaped head. This figure has blood coming from its mouth or nose that was added to it later in time.
Figure 3. Quadrupeds at Petroglyph Canyon. Note the upside-down bighorn sheep found in a crevice; a buffalo with blood coming from its nose; a thunderbird; and a likely scorpion.
Other quadrupeds appear to be look like canids, including one with an oval body and a dog-shaped head with prominent ears that may be a dog, coyote, or wolf. It has a long straight tail. There are other animals that have rectangular bodies with heavy rear ends, straight to slightly curved legs and short tails. Their heads are also canid-like. The Petroglyph Canyon example does not have claws, though, and they are nearly always an important identifying attribute for bears.
Bear feet or tracks are found in ETP petroglyphs. A row of four are found in a crevice at Petroglyph Canyon. They are the type with solid heels, although two have a bar across the arch. They have dots for toes and no apparent claws.
Two recognizable bighorn sheep are also found in a crevice at Petroglyph Canyon. The crevice is narrow but passable by sliding along the wall opposite the sheep which are oriented upside down with their straight legs pointing to the sky. The setting and the orientation of the sheep is not repeated at other regional sites. In fact, these two sheep are the only well-made sheep with horns over their backs that occur in ETP rock art.
Insects are rarely recognized in regional rock art, but one image at Petroglyph Canyon resembles a scorpion. Scorpions are not commonly found at other locations in Montana except the southern Pryor Mountains. This could account for a petroglyph of a stinging insect. To my knowledge no scorpion-like figure has been noted at another ETP site or any other regional rock art site. ETP sites do contain a few snake-like figures but other reptiles like lizards are not depicted.
A final ETP animal category is birds. A well-made bird with a linear body, outstretched wings with pendant feathers, and a fan-shaped tail is found at Petroglyph Canyon. The figure’s head, in profile, shows its beak. The figure is often considered as the traditional thunderbird found at other regional sites, but it could as easily represent an eagle or hawk in a hovering position.
Abstract Forms
As a rule, very few ETP petroglyphs are abstract. Occasional starburst or asterisk designs are found but they are rare. Some random pecked lines that meander without purpose are also found but in very small numbers.
There are examples of what appear to be horizontal arms, stretched apart, that end in hands with fingers. These are probably incomplete representational figures rather than abstract forms.
Tool Grooves
Tool grooves are an important component of ETP sites. Examples of the larger, banana-shaped type and the narrow, v-shaped type are found at Petroglyph Canyon (Feyhl 1980).
The tool grooves represent day to day activities associated with habitation activities. They suggest that ETP sites were used for more than making petroglyphs which is not surprising with the chipped stone tools and detritus found on the surface of ETP sites. Test excavations at Petroglyph Canyon and the Tillett site indicate that there are multiple cultural layers associated with the petroglyphs (Loendorf 1984; Loendorf and Porsche 1985). It is apparent that ETP sites, in addition to the rock art, were used for habitation.
Figure 4. Tool grooves used to sharpen and shape bone tools.
Summary of ETP Petroglyphs
ETP petroglyphs are dominated by full facing anthropomorphs, often in rows that include males and females. Although they are uncommon, some ETP anthropomorphs are depicted in profile views. There are also some made by incising or scratching out the form of the anthropomorph. Incised lines are often shown protruding from the hands, feet, and heads of the full-facing anthropomorphs with some head embellishment as incised line crown-like forms.
In addition to the rayed lines, the most complete ETP anthropomorphs have toes and fingers, and exaggerated sexual organs. Male and female genitals are oversized to the point where they dominate the figures.
Non-human animals include ungulates, canids, birds, and possible insects. Many quadrupeds are simple with little embellishment. On the other hand, there are some, like bison, that are good likenesses of the animal they are portraying. Short-pointed horns are found on some quadrupeds but there are no branching antlers. Bighorn sheep that are recognizable with horns swept back over their bodies, are known, but very rare.
Dates for ETP Petroglyphs
Three Montana ETP petroglyphs were sampled for radiocarbon age estimates using weathering rind organics (WRO) (Francis et al 1993). Cation-ratios (CR) were calculated on an additional eight petroglyphs to establish a chronology for ETP petroglyphs (Francis and Loendorf 2002). These eleven dates had an age range of 2600 ± 350 B.P. to less than 1000 years B.P. for ETP petroglyphs. The oldest figures were the simply made quadrupeds at Petroglyph Canyon while the most recent age of less than a thousand years was for the Petroglyph Canyon thunderbird figure.
These dates were accepted as accurate estimates because the radiocarbon dates for excavated cultural deposits at Petroglyph Canyon were 1270 ± 125 B.P. and 850 ± 50 B.P. Another reason the ETP dates seemed reasonable is the presence of bows, held by anthropomorphs, in several panels. The bow and arrow, as a replacement for the atlatl and dart, is dated about 1500 B.P. so the ages of the bow wielding anthropomorphs is consistent with the use of the bow and arrow.
As petroglyph dating research progressed, it was learned that the WRO dates need refinement (Dorn 1996). Since WRO dates are used to set the curve for CR dates, the ages for ETP petroglyphs are not totally resolved.
However, in 2013, I noted a roasting pit feature that was exposed near the mouth of Petroglyph Canyon. (Figure 5). The Bureau of Land Management, obtained two charcoal samples from the feature, one from the bottom with an age of 1820 ± 30 B.P. and one from about the middle with and age of 1740 ± 30 B.P. These dates should be considered with the other radiocarbon dates from the canyon.
It should be clear that no petroglyphs have been directly dated. However, the radiocarbon ages let us know that people inhabited Petroglyph Canyon for 1000 years between 1820 and 850 years before the present.
Figure 5. Roasting pit exposed at the mouth of Petroglyph Canyon in 2013. Radiocarbon dates suggest is use around 1700 to 1800 years before the present.
Distribution of ETP petroglyphs
Petroglyph Canyon is the largest ETP site and clearly the center of ETP petroglyphs in Montana and Wyoming. There are a few sites to the north of Petroglyph Canyon like a single panel of two figures at the Joliet site, about 100 kilometers north. A few isolated figures or figures within other sites are known on the Musselshell River in central Montana but ETP petroglyphs are not a part of the traditional rock art in central Montana.
Sites in the immediate Petroglyph Canyon vicinity include several in the Weatherman Draw-- Cottonwood Creek area, a few kilometers to the north and west. There are also several sites, to the east, with two at the mouth of Crooked Creek canyon. A good example of an ETP site is in the Little Buffalo basin to the south of Meeteetse, Wyoming.
Comparable sites with petroglyphs that resemble ETP anthropomorphs are found in Nevada. Some of these have remarkably similar figures with hands that show fingers, rayed lines from heads, and enlarged genitals. In fact, figures that are like all the ETP anthropomorph and quadruped types are common at Nevada sites and southern Idaho sites.
This should not be surprising as both areas were occupied by bands of Shoshone Indians. An ancient antiquity for Shoshone peoples is widely accepted in Nevada where some bands have been living in the same regions for 3500 to 4000 years or more. There is less agreement among scholars as to the length of time the Shoshone have lived in Wyoming. However, with recent discoveries in the Wind River Mountains and elsewhere that date to 3000 to 4000 years, archaeologists are recognizing a possible older presence for Wyoming’s Shoshone. It seems likely that one of the Shoshone bands is responsible for the Petroglyph Canyon petroglyphs.
Return to the Introduction to Pryor Mountain Archaeology page.
References
Dorn, Ronald I. 1996 A Change of Perception. La Pintura 23(2):10–11.
Feyhl, Kenneth. 1980 Tool Grooves: A Challenge. Archaeology in Montana 21 (1):1031.
Francis, Julie and Lawrence Loendorf. 2002 Ancient Visions: Petroglyphs and Pictographs in the Wind River and Bighorn Country of Wyoming and Montana.University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Francis, Julie E., Lawrence L. Loendorf, and Ronald I. Dorn. 1993 AMS Radiocarbon and Cation-Ratio Dating of Rock Art in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming and Montana. American Antiquity 58:711-737.
Loendorf, Lawrence. 1969 The Results of the Archaeological Survey in the Pryor Mountain-Bighorn Recreation Area -- 1968 Field Season. Unpublished manuscript on file with Bureau of Land Management Billings Curation Facility, National Park Service Bighorn National Recreation Area, Lovel, WY and Custer National Forest, Billings, MT.
Loendorf, Lawrence. 1984 Documentation of Rock Art: Petroglyph Canyon, Montana. Contribution No. 27. University of North Dakota, Department of Anthropology, Grand Forks.
Loendorf, Lawrence L., and Audrey Porsche. 1985 The Rock Art Sites in Carbon County, Montana. Contribution No. 224. Department of Anthropology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.