Picture Canyon, located in the

Comanche National Grassland Comanche National Grassland is a National Grassland located in southeastern Colorado, United States. It is the sister grassland of Cimarron National Grassland and contains both prairie grasslands and canyons. It is separated into two sections ...

in southeastern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, was named for its prehistoric

rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

. There is evidence of prehistoric inhabitation of sites in Picture Canyon by Paleo-Indian, Archaic and Post-Archaic cultures, from about 12,000 years ago to 400 years ago. In addition to rock art, there are also carvings in walls that are used to identify the entry into fall and spring

equinoxes A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and set ...

Recreation area

It is a small canyon with easy slopes, springs, picnic tables, and a loop hiking trail long.''Picture Canyon.''
Santa Fe Trails Scenic and Historic Byway. Retrieved November 28, 2011. Natural attractions include rock formations, such as Balanced Rock, and Crack Cave.

Archaeological site

Paleo-Indian

Projectile points In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have ...

found in the Comanche National Grasslands are estimated to be 12,000 years old, evidence of Paleo-Indian hunters.

Plains Archaic Period

Rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alway ...

s have been found in Picture Canyon and other nearby locations by

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

s from the Plains Archaic Period, from 250 B.C. to A.D. 500. Most of the shelters were near sources of water and faced south, which would have been warmed by the sun in the winter. Material goods found in the shelters include

metate A metate (or mealing stone) is a type or variety of quern, a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds. In traditional Mesoamerican cultures, metates are typically used by women who would grind nixtamalized maize and other organic ma ...

s and manos,

stitching awl A stitching awl is a tool with which holes can be punctured in a variety of materials, or existing holes can be enlarged. It is also used for sewing heavy materials, such as leather or canvas. It is a thin, tapered metal shaft, coming to a shar ...

s, abraders, hammerstones, knives, and scrapers. Some of the rock shelters contained

Plains Woodland Period

While there is some evidence of rock shelter inhabitation by the Plains Woodland culture, the primary evidence is found in open-air sites. Dwellings were simple structures made of stone slaps or brush. Some sites show evidence of farming. Material goods found include corner-notched

projectile point In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have be ...

s used for

bow and arrow The bow and arrow is a ranged weapon system consisting of an elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles ( arrows). Humans used bows and arrows for hunting and aggression long before recorded history, and the practice was comm ...

hunting and cord-marked Woodland grit-tempered pottery.

Apishapa culture

The Apishapa lived on the canyon rim and farmed on the canyon floor. Their homes, built on the lowest portion of a

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...

or above the creek flood plains, provided great visibility in three directions and easy access to the farmland. The dwellings were round or oval structures, in diameter, were built in groupings of 3 to 4 buildings. They were covered by wooden poles, brush and possibly animal hides and contained hearths up to wide for cooking and warmth. Material goods included

s and manos for processing

acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...

and

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

, and tools made of imported

chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

and

petrified wood Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of ''fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. ''P ...

. The Apishapa lived in the dwellings during spring planting and fall harvesting.

Tipi ring period

The possible ancestors of the

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

built

tipi A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan languages, Siouan, and in use in Dakot ...

s in the area about A.D. 1350, during what is called the "Tipi ring period" with sites of up to 44

tipi ring Tipi rings are circular patterns of stones left from an encampment of Post-Archaic, protohistoric and historic Native Americans.Cassells, Steve. (1997). ''The Archaeology of Colorado.'' Boulder: Johnson Books. pp. 224-227. . They are found primar ...

s and circular arrangement of stones. The sites were located along canyon rims and at canyon heads for short periods of time, likely only for several days to several weeks. The limited material goods found include beads made of imported

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of yea ...

cord-marked pottery Cord-marked pottery or Cordmarked pottery is an early form of a simple earthenware pottery made in precontact villages. It allowed food to be stored and cooked over fire. Cord-marked pottery varied slightly around the world, depending upon the cla ...

, imported San Lazaro Glaze Polychrome pottery made during the

Ancient Pueblo People The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, an ...

Pueblo IV Era The Pueblo IV Period (AD 1350 to AD 1600) was the fourth period of ancient pueblo life in the American Southwest. At the end of prior Pueblo III Period, Ancestral Puebloans living in the Colorado and Utah regions abandoned their settlements a ...

and, in one site,

Taos Pueblo Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos-speaking (Tiwa) Native American tribe of Puebloan people. It lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico. The pueblos are considered to be one of the oldest c ...

Picuris Pueblo Picuris Pueblo (; Tiwa: P'įwweltha ’ī̃wːēltʰà is a historic pueblo in Taos County, New Mexico, United States. It is also a census-designated place (CDP) and a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people. The 2010 censu ...

mica tempered pottery made after A.D. 1500.

Rock art and solar markings

The south canyon walls of Picture Canyon contain

, red and black

pictograph A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and gr ...

s and human and animal

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s, that were likely made by Plains Indians in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Horizontal lines of writing were found there, similar to 50 sites in

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

and southeastern Colorado, which have been translated to include solar, planting and travel related information.Green, Stewart M. (2008)

994 Year 994 ( CMXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 15 – Battle of the Orontes: Fatimid forces, under Turkish gener ...

''Scenic Driving Colorado.'' Morris Book Publishing. p. 28. ISSN 1544-8355. Markings in the walls of Crack Cave were made more than 1,000 years ago which are illuminated by rays of the sun during the spring and autumn

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...

. Free tours are conducted by the

National Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

on equinox dates in March and September.

References

External links

''Picture Canyon''
National Forest Service {{DEFAULTSORT:Picture Canyon (Colorado) Ancient Pueblo peoples rock art Archaeology of the United States Archaeological sites in Colorado Canyons and gorges of Colorado Grasslands of Colorado Grasslands of the North American Great Plains Landforms of Baca County, Colorado Landforms of Las Animas County, Colorado Landforms of Otero County, Colorado National Grasslands of the United States Plains Woodland period Protected areas of Baca County, Colorado Protected areas of Las Animas County, Colorado Protected areas of Otero County, Colorado Protected areas of Colorado Protected areas established in 1960