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Show r mate M33A lataasi aw Moab Happenings April 1997 19B The Moab area has numerous examples of Indian rock art to enjoy. This article briefly discusses some types, dates, the artists and their cultures and how to take care of these irreplacable sites. WHAT IS INDIAN ROCK ART? There are two types of rock art: petroglyphs (motifs that are pecked, ground, incised, abraded, or scratched on the rock surface) and pictographs (paintings or drawings in one or more colors using mineral pigments and plant dyes on the rock surface). Although many images may have originally been executed as a combination of both techniques, most now appear only as a petroglyph because the paint material has faded or washed away over many years. THE PEOPLE Rock art was produced by a number of prehistoric and historic peoples over thousands of years. Their histories in the area are very complex. A big game hunting people, known as Paleo-Indian- s, are considered to be the first human users in the area. Their game included Pleistocene fauna such as mammoths and mastodons. A later culture called Archaic, probably used central based camps during their seasonal round of activities based on harvesting wild plants and animals. They did not build permanent habitation structures, but lived in caves and in small brush shelters built in the open. The Anasazi whose culture centered south of Moab in the Four Comers area, concentrated much of their subsistence efforts on the cultivation of com, beans and squash. These sedentary people, also harvested a wide variety of wild resources, such as pinion nuts, grasses, bighorn sheep and deer. The Fremont were contemporary with the Anasazi people, also grew com, and were apparently more dependent on hunting and gathering wild resources than were the Anasazi. Their territory was mainly north of the Colorado River, but overlapped the Anasazi at Moab. The most recent inhabitants, the Utes have been in southeast Utah since the 1200's. They were a very mobile hunting and gathering people who moved in from the Great Basin. They used the bow and arrow, made baskets and brownware pottery, and lived in brush wickiups and tipis. The No-ta- h (Ute people) lived freely throughout western Colorado and eastern Utah until about 1880, now-extin- ct SITES If you have trouble locating rock art once you are near a site, don't be discouraged. You will develop a New sense of which types of rocks and surfaces are appropriate areas to look for petroglyphs and pictographs. Petroglyphs are commonly found on the black or brown surface (called desert varnish) of rock cliffs. The straight, smooth, red sandstone found in the Navajo and Wingate formations is a good area to look for pictographs. As you spot one image, look carefully around the adjoining surface areas. Often there are numerous images at any given site. The main panel might have one or more subpanels nearby. Some of the images may be very faint, having faded or eroded through the years. Website Visitor Center Launched by Canyonlands National Park Internet users looking for information on resource. a new have now National Park Canyonlands The park launched its official Website Visitor Center on the World Wide Web on Friday, February 7. This website, accessed from the park's home page at http:www.nps.govcany, provides information on trip planning, park activities, commercial trips, backcountry use, as well as natural and cultural resources. It also provides a forum for publicizing items such as news releases, interpretive schedules, and visitor center hours which are changed or updated frequently. The creation of a website is part of an effort by the park to meet the increasing demand for public information, especially concerning backcountry use. According to Park Superintendent Walt Dabney, the Internet is a highly way of providing information that benefits all visitors. For the roughly 50 percent of visitors that have access to the Internet, the website will be a tremendous convenience, said Davney. They will receive timely and extensive information, and well be saving thousands of dollars in postage. Meanwhile, those without Internet access will compete with fewer people to obtain information through traditional channels." Website developers Julie Gillum and Neal Herbert, both employees of the parks backcountry reservation office, say that this is just the first stage. Weve tried to make as much information available as we can right now," Herbert said, but the site will evolve and broaden its scope as more people become involved in the process. Eventually, wed like to offer information on scientific research, environmental education, volunteer and employment opportunities, and management issues." 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