The Unai Dangkulo Petroglyph Site is one of a small number of documented rock art sites in the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

. Located on the northeastern shore of the island of Tinian in the

Northern Marianas The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonwe ...

, it is the only such site composed exclusively of pictographs (that is, carved or pecked figures rather than painted ones). It is also uncommon in that it is not found in a cave-like setting, which is where most of the other rock art sites in the region are found. The site is on a limestone outcrop that is sometimes covered by sand or cleared of sand by

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

s, and was discovered in 1998 after it was exposed by Typhoon Keith. It consists of about 50 figures, many of them anthropomorphic. The site was listed on the United States

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1999.

References

National Register of Historic Places in the Northern Mariana Islands Rock art of Oceania Tinian {{NorthernMarianaIslands-NRHP-stub

See also

References