The Great Gallery, Horseshoe CanyonAs we sat and stared at the Great Gallery, it was hard not to won
The Great Gallery, Horseshoe CanyonAs we sat and stared at the Great Gallery, it was hard not to wonder about the intent behind these figures. The detail, the variation in styles and subjects, is striking. The life size silhouettes felt present and ominous as they loom over the canyon. To our distinctly Euro-American and modern eye it is hard to imagine these weren’t highly significant paintings. But between these ghostly images are much smaller depictions of hunters, sheep and coyotes, an atlatl thrower, people with what seem to be every day animals, and minuscule copies of the larger images.Today the ages of these pieces have been more precisely constrained, the methods better understood, but the significance to the people who made them can only be hypothesized. Unlike younger rock art, there isn’t a clear connection between the makers of the Barrier Canyon style art and any living culture.Some have hypothesized these are meant to be dark or dangerous spirits, but to me (an untrained nobody) they feel more like a memorial. A remembrance or celebration. -- source link
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