Canyon Pintado National Historic District

Archaeological Reassessment of Rock Art in Canyon Pintado
Rio Blanco County, Colorado

Phase II of this project continues a major preservation, research, and public archaeology initiative for rock art resources in Canyon Pintado National Historic District located south of Rangely, Colorado in Rio Blanco County. A team of archaeologists and technical specialists organized by Dominquez Archaeological Research Group (DARG) are revisiting and intensively recording high-value rock art sites in the District using advanced, high-resolution digital imaging and computational image processing techniques. Project data will be organized for review, assessment, and curation by tribal, Federal and State agencies, and professional research partners, and will establish baseline recording protocols for future phases of the project. Selected digital products will be shared with public archaeology and education partners. The project will leverage long-term collaborative relationships among professional, tribal and preservation partners. It will encourage newly formed coalitions promoting public archaeology, site stewardship, historic preservation and heritage tourism.

Phase II: Featured Site, 5RB696

During the current phase of research, DARG investigators observed depictions of leather armored horse and riders. As shown above, most leather armor was multi-layered, sometimes shown with decorations such as pigment, fringe, and feathers. Some armor was constructed of overlapping scalloped leather or rawhide segments.
Though relatively rare, the majority of armored horse and rider rock art occurs in the northwestern Great Plains and is well documented by Greer, Greer, and Keyser (2019) and in Canada by Keyser (1977). Armored horse and rider rock art is also present in southeastern Colorado as documented by Mitchell (2004). Greer et al. (2019) provide excellent information on armored horse and rider rock art. They propose a general chronology of styles. Of note in later rock art images are triangular shaped riders and the increasing realism in design with elongation of the horse neck and head.
The Canyon Pintado armored horse images reflect this late stage with one entire set of images suggestive of the later style of armored horse as they exhibit a longer neck, sometimes with an open head, as described by Greer et al. (2019). The Canyon Pintado images were likely created in the early to mid 1800s. The Canyon Pintado site in western Colorado is an exceptional panel depicting five armored horse and rider pictographs and a possible sixth. Riders A, C, D, and E wear body armor represented as triangular coverings tapering from the head and situated within the armor covering the horse. Figure B, is too faded to confidently determine the presence or style of full horse and rider body armor although the neck of the horse appears to have an armor collar. Rider F appears incomplete, but the outline style suggests horse armor.
As noted in Plains images documented by Greer et al. (2019) the outline of the horse body armor of image C offers a transparent view of aspects of the horse’s body within. Reins are visible extending from the horse’s muzzle back to the rider. The horse’s head is ornamented and the breastwork of the armor bulges forward possibly indicating padding. The rider’s armor, indicated as a triangular form seated atop the horse, has indications of decoration.
References:

Mavis Greer, John Greer, and James D. Keyser (2019) Armored horses in Northwestern Plains Rock Art. Archaeology in Montana, Vol. 60, Number 2. Ann Johnson, Editor.
James D. Keyser, (1977) Writing-On-Stone: Rock Art on the Northwestern Plains. Canadian Journal of Archaeology/Journal Canadien d'Archéologie, No. 1, pp. 15-80 Canadian Archaeological Association.
Mitchell, Mark (2004) Tracing Comanche History: Eighteenth-Century Rock Art Depictions of Leather-Armoured Horses from the Arkansas River basin, South-Eastern Colorado, USA, March 2004, Antiquity 78(299):115-126

For more on armored horses, see our 2022 Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologist's 2022 Annual Meeting Presentation, click here:

5RB696 enhanced — Image modified to saturation at 400% and sharpened by 25% for enhanced visibility.

Phase I: Featured Site, 5RB687

As best discerned, there are 10 red-painted images with an overlay of pecking that was likely done at a later but undeterminable prehistoric date. The art of the site is intriguing in several aspects when examined in relation to the imaginary landscape represented on the sandstone medium and the site’s surrounding, physical landscape.
The east section of the overall panel displays two apparent female anthropomorphs – with “squash blossom” hair styles – portrayed on either side of a bison head-like or skull-like image. The bison head originates in a crack, a symbolization of the bison spirit‘s emergence from earth. Above the skull motif is a representation of a human neck and head with a horned headdress. Together this combination is possibly representative of the spirit of the bison being brought into that of a shaman with the assistance of the two females. The west section of the panel has a repeated combination of two females bordering a shaman image where an apparent bison head is part of the male body motif. It also exhibits a large female image that dominates that portion of the panel. Keyser and Klassen (2001:177-179) note ethnographic evidence of bison-female human themes in rock art as related to fertility, fecundity, and the sacred relationship between women and bison.
This panel may be related to a bison-hunting people identified in Wyoming that utilized corrals for their trap/kill sites. At the Wardell Buffalo Trap (48SU301), a kill site situated in a small side canyon along the main Green River drainage, trapping the bison was based on a sophisticated system that included construction of a corral built of logs and posts within a “box” side-canyon (Kornfeld 2010:125). The hunt involved interception of bison moving to water at the river and directing them into a containment structure for their harvest using bows and arrows and atlatls. Use of the corral over a 500-year period (about AD 300-800) was indicated by five feet of stratified bison bone levels that were radiocarbon dated (ibid.:212). Importantly, however, at the Ruby site (48CA302, a buffalo corral impoundment dated 1670±135 BP, ca. AD 280; GX-1157) located in east-central Wyoming, Frison (1971) reports extensive religious activity as represented by a large ceremonial structure (with altar) closely associated with the impound area and drive line. It is particularly notable that the rock art panel at 5RB687 is situated in an overhang overlooking a small, (box-end) side-canyon of Douglas Creek where a corral-style kill site could have been located.
References: George C. Frison (1971) The Buffalo Pound in Northwestern Plains Prehistory: Site 48CA302, Wyoming. American Antiquity 36(1):77-91. James D. Keyser, and Michael Klassen (2001) Plains Indian Rock Art. University of Washington Press, Seattle. Marcel Kornfeld, George C. Frison, and Mary Lou Larson (2010) Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the High Plains and Rockies (3rd ed.). Left Coast, Walnut Creek.

5RB687 enhanced — Panel with DStretch applied

enhanced zoom — Close of up bison-shaman motif

RESEARCH GOALS

applying advances in digital media to meet preservation and conservation responsibilities

building value with legacy data

supporting community-based cultural resource stewardship and collaborative preservation research

providing information rich interpretive content for public archaeology and heritage tourism