The signposted Sand Island Petroglyphs Panel has Native Indian rock art which spans centuries of inhabitation – nearly the entire time that humans were known to inhabit the Four Corners area. The petroglyphs range from 300 to 3,000 years old, with markings from the early Basketmaker period through to the Pueblo III period (AD 1150 to 1350), and, more recently the Ute and Navajo people. There are hundreds of petroglyphs over the 100-yard (90m) long panel, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is considerd to be one of the finest examples of easily accessible Anasazi rock art.
Archeologists believe this place along the river held special significance for ancient peoples by the amount of petroglyphs and the time span of the rock art: the area may have been a meeting place. The motifs include human figures, hunters, many types of animals, geometric patterns, hand prints, scalp figures, and numerous Kokopelli figures (including one with a very oversized phallus, which can be seen in the centre of the photo below).
The Sand Island Petroglyphs Panel has five kokopelli – a fertility deity (usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player and often with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head) who represents story, growth, joy, and more to the people native to the Four Corners area. The figures with twin heads and twin lobes are found in Native creation stories.
A figure with a headdress and splayed hands are known as San Juan Anthropomorphs, and are unique to this area.
Another figure has an ornate head-dress.
The more angular or linear figures are are in a style known as Glen Canyon Linear, and are among the oldest petroglyphs on the Sand Island Petroglyphs panel. This style is characterised by ovoid human or ovoid-square zoomorphic figures, usually with little to no interior decoration.
A Basketmaker Culture petroglyph in the Sand Island Panel representing a female anthropomorphic figure.
Many sheep and other horned animals are depicted on the panel.
Getting to the Sand Island Petroglyphs
Located four miles from Bluff in Utah, the Sand Island Petroglyphs panel is near the Sand Island Campground (which has restrooms, camping, a seasonal ranger station, a boat launch and seasonal drinking water). At mile post 22.1, turn south into the signposted Sand Island Recreation Area, and follow the signs to the panel which is along the cliffs on the north side of the camp ground.
More information
- Bluff Utah – Bear Ears National Monument
- gjhikes – Sand Island Petroglyphs
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