Newspaper Rock
A convenient rock overhang offers Newspaper Rock some overhead protection.
Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument is located about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of Moab, Utah. It contains one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs, ranging from about 1000 BC to the 20th century AD.
The pictures at Newspaper Rock were inscribed into the dark coating on the rock, called desert varnish. Desert varnish is a blackish manganese-iron deposit that gradually forms on exposed sandstone cliff faces owing to the action of rainfall and bacteria. The ancient artists produced the many types of figures and patterns by carefully pecking the coated rock surfaces with sharpened tools to remove the desert varnish and expose the lighter rock beneath. The older figures are themselves becoming darker in color as new varnish slowly develops. Dating the rock carvings is difficult, but repatination of surface minerals reveals their relative ages.
Newspaper Rock
A convenient rock overhang offers Newspaper Rock some overhead protection.
Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument is located about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of Moab, Utah. It contains one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs, ranging from about 1000 BC to the 20th century AD.
The pictures at Newspaper Rock were inscribed into the dark coating on the rock, called desert varnish. Desert varnish is a blackish manganese-iron deposit that gradually forms on exposed sandstone cliff faces owing to the action of rainfall and bacteria. The ancient artists produced the many types of figures and patterns by carefully pecking the coated rock surfaces with sharpened tools to remove the desert varnish and expose the lighter rock beneath. The older figures are themselves becoming darker in color as new varnish slowly develops. Dating the rock carvings is difficult, but repatination of surface minerals reveals their relative ages.