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PaintThe paint is constituted from three main ingredients:
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The pigment generally consisted of ground clay or other minerals. For example:
The binding agents used by the Anasazi have not been truly determined but could possibly been one of three things.
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The rock surface was usually smoothed away in preparation for the painting. Fine brushes made from leaves were the most probable tool used for the finer details. The artists finger, wrapped in corn husk, may have been used for the larger areas. This is evident through the existence of finger streaks in the paintings themselves. Also, the use of the hand is obvious by the number of hand prints throughout the sites of the Mesa Verde. |
Lines were also produced by simply using a stick of the pigment and drawing directly onto the rock surface.
Petroglyph Techniques
There are four main techniques that the Anasazi used, in order to engrave the ROCK surface with their designs. These are: pecking, drilling, scratching and grooving. The final result of these is a permanent indentation in the rock surface, indentations which have lasted for at least 1000 years.
Pecking
![]() | This technique involved striking the surface of the rock with a sharp instrument to produce dots, lines or solid areas. |
This technique is similar to pecking, though because the holes produced are so regular, it has been concluded that these must have been produced by some form of instrument or drill. | ![]() |
![]() | This is the technique whereby a design is arranged via a set of lines that are scratched into the rock surface. The instrument to achieve this is pointed. |
The technique of grooving is similar to scratching, however, is much more precise and time consuming. The indentations are much deeper, and carefully executed, and therefore the designs are much more clean cut. Notice the difference between this example and the one above? |
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Historical Periods of Anasazi Rock Art |