Rock Art of the San Luis Valley

What is Rock Art?

Anthropologists and archaeologists define rock art as images carved, drawn, or painted onto immovable rock surfaces. Images that are carved or engraved into rock are called petroglyphs. Drawn or painted images are called pictographs. Some rock art images, painted petroglyphs, were created using a combination of techniques.

Identification of rock art images such as humans, animals, or natural objects such as the sun, can be simple. Geometric and abstract images are also common. What these images were meant to depict and why they were made have puzzled researchers. By studying how the images were made, where they are located, which images occur together, and by trying to identify which groups produced them, anthropologists and archaeologists hope to gain valuable information about the past.

Although rock art is not abundant in the San Luis Valley, there are some very interesting images.

Take an interactive tour of some of the most interesting Rock Art sites in the San Luis Valley. The interactive map below will reveal some intriguing images, plus point-out a general location for these Rock Art sites.

This map may take several minutes to download and function properly, depending on your browser, connection speed, and operating system. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for visiting "Rock Art of the San Luis Valley" Web Page

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