PETROGLYPHS— STEWARD 421 



Indians fleeing barefoot over the then molten lava! How this ex- 

 planation is thought also to account for footprints in sandstone, 

 which run up the sides and across the ceilings of caves is not clear. 

 The fact is that all such footprints were pecked into the stone by 

 means of a small stone held in the hand. 



One of the most interesting styles of painted petroglyphs seems 

 to have originated with the Basket Makers, the first farmers of the 

 Southwest who left various of their remains in sandstone caves of 

 northern Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah, and Colorado during 

 the last few centuries before Christ. These are simple anthropomor- 

 phic figures with triangular bodies and squarish heads, usually in 

 red, and generally occurring on the walls of caves known to have 

 been inhabited by the Basket Makers (pi. 4, A). 



Sometime during the following centuries, perhaps in the first mil- 

 lenium after Christ, a people living on the Colorado Plateau in east- 

 ern Utah borrowed this simple Basket Maker art and developed it 

 with extraordinary success. The modest figures were enlarged and 

 elaborated to become the finest petroglyphs north of Mexico. It is 

 possible that intensive study some day will reveal periods of growth 

 and interesting local variations. At present we can only know that 

 they all belong to the same general culture, a culture which had its 

 roots in the Basket Maker customs but was influenced by the subse- 

 quent Pueblo peoples. 



These striking figures are sometimes carved, sometimes painted, 

 sometimes both (pis. 3, 4, 5). Often whole canyon walls are covered 

 with imposing galleries of regal and unearthly beings which may be 

 gods or may be men. When painted, they are often in three and four 

 colors; when carved and incised, they are executed with a care and 

 precision unequaled elsewhere. The square-shouldered bodies are 

 surmounted by squarish heads which may well depict masks (but no 

 masks have ever been found in pre-Columbian Southwestern archeo- 

 logical sites) and which are surmounted by antlers of different kinds, 

 "feathers", and other ornaments which were undoubtedly identifying 

 symbols. The faces usually have eyes, a refinement rare among 

 petroglyphs elsewhere, and below the eyes are two thin lines, which 

 strangely resemble but are certainly not connected with the "tear 

 marks" on faces in Tiahuanacoid drawings in ancient Peru. Ear- 

 rings and necklaces are shown in great profusion and often the body 

 bears elaborate designs. Certain round-bodied figures look much as 

 if they were men standing behind great shields (fig. 6). 



Some of these manlike petroglyphs carry in one hand what appears 

 to be a head (pi. 5, A and B). The supposition that they are head- 

 hunters may be correct, though it is completely without proof. An- 

 other explanation is that the "heads" are in reality masks. 



