• Pictographs: Techniques and Materials
      • Petroglyphs: Techniques and Materials

        • Pictograph Techniques

        Pictographs (rock paintings) are usually found on light coloured rock surfaces and in protected areas. The most common colours used were red, white, black and orange - while yellow and pink occasionally occur. The use of green and blue paint is very rare. The colours are determined by the pigment material available in the area, or if a particular colour must be used for ceremonial purposes.

        Paint

        The paint is constituted from three main ingredients:
        • pigment (provides the colour)
        • binder (causes the paint to adhere to the surface)
        • agent to cause fluidity (generally water was used to generate the right consistency)

        Pigment

        The pigment generally consisted of ground clay or other minerals. For example:

        • Red iron oxide = red paint
        • Limonite = yellow paint
        • Combination of red iron oxide and limonite = orange
        • Malachite = green
        • Azurite = blue
        • Turquoise stone = turquoise
        • White clay = white
        • Charcoal = black
          • (Schaafsma 1990, p26)

        Binding Agent

        The binding agents used by the Anasazi have not been truly determined but could possibly been one of three things.

        • Saliva combined with seed oil (generated by chewing the seed)
        • yukka juice
        • or the egg whites of eagles eggs.

        Application of the Paint on to the Rock Surface

        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

        Rohn 1977, p123

        This technique involved striking the surface of the rock with a sharp instrument to produce dots, lines or solid areas.

        The exact instruments used for this purpose in the Mesa Verde have not been identified, though it is assumed naturally shaped stones were used for both the sharp instrument and the hard striking instrument. The surface on which these types of petroglyphs have been found, is soft, fine sandstone, which marks easily with most tools. This produced roughly executed images, such as this hunting scene. In the Mesa Verde National Park, there are a large number of petroglyphs of this type.

        Drilling

        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.

        The patterns produced are regularly organised, and all of the holes have the same diameter and a symmetrical outline, indicating the use of an instrument. This instrument is thought to be a hollow wing bone of a bird, or similarly, sharply pointed instrument.

        Scratching

        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.

                      Grooving

        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?

        Historical Periods of Anasazi Rock Art
        Meanings of the Rock Art