Nampaweap

One of the largest known petroglyph sites on the Arizona Strip is Nampaweap. Walk the half-mile canyon trail to see hundreds of images pecked into the surface of large basalt boulders. Petroglyphs were made by pecking flakes from the surface of rock to expose the lighter colors underneath. An early method used a hand stone to strike the rock, resulting in a rudimentary figure. Later, two stones were used like a hammer and chisel, giving the artist the ability to peck images with greater detail.


Archaeologists classify rock elements into categories. Some of the elements at Nampaweap include: anthropomorphs, human-like figures; zoomorphs, animal-like figures; and, abstract designs. Anthropomorphs typically have arms and legs, even fingers and toes. Bighorn sheep, snakes and lizards are common zoomorph figures. Abstract elements include circles, spirals and various combinations of lines.



more