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Paul Wilson | all galleries >> Southwest Trips >> Additional Rock Art of the Utah Area > Black Dragon Canyon
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Black Dragon Canyon

This is near the Black Dragon panel and associated with the Chihuahuan Polychrome Abstract Style (700 BC - 300 BC). Groupings of dots, lines, circles, and zigzags make up the panel. Anthropomorphism seems to be absent and this style tends to be pictographic in nature with the abstractions painted in various colors on rock shelters and overhangs. Some people believe that these abstractions are the result of altered states of consciousness of shamans in a trance state (entoptic phenomena). A huge amount of rock art is assumed to be related to shamanic trance and ritual and it turns out that this abstract panel may fit into that idea as well. Another possibility is that Chihuahuan Polychrome Abstract Style could be related to water and territorial rights. The Chihuahuan Polychrome Abstract Style is very rare in Utah and generally found in only the southeast of the state.


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