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Rock Art Photos taken at Sloan Canyon NCA

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This page last updated on 05/23/2020

The 50 plus pictures below are a representational selection of what I feel were some of the more interesting examples of the rock art I've seen at Sloan Canyon. Though relatively little is known about this area, the Sloan Canyon Petroglyph Site is one of the most significant cultural resources in Southern Nevada. Archeologists believe its 318 recorded rock art panels with approximately 1,200 individual petroglyphs were created by native cultures from the Archaic to the historic era. Experts believe the earliest of these were made by ancestral Puebloans in the Archaic period, but other tribes may have continued to add petroglyphs in later years. Archeological evidence suggests resources within Sloan Canyon may have been used as long ago as 7,000 years. The rock art in Sloan Canyon is primarily of the Great Basin and Range tradition with abstract elements accounting for the majority of the rock art panels found in the canyon. Anthropomorphs (human-like) and Zoomorphs (animal-like) appear in about equal numbers throughout the canyon.  Most of the anthropomorphs and zoomorphs are traditional stick-like figures that are not culturally specific. Some of these have been dated to be more than 900 years old. However, there are two known exceptions to these common stick-like petroglyphs, both of which are historic figures. One appears to be a cowboy holding a rifle and the other appears to be a cowboy riding a horse.  It is believed that these may depict contact between Native Americans and early American pioneers during the westward movement. For more information on Sloan Canyon rock art, click the following link ... Study of Sloan Canyon's Rock ArtThe 50 plus pictures below are a representational selection of what I feel were some of the more interesting examples of the rock art I've seen at Sloan Canyon.











































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