Petroglyph

[Douglas Sherman]

This is one of my favorite petroglyphs. Alan may like this one. It is high on a sandstone wall in Nine Mile Canyon near Price, UT. This canyon is actually forty miles long and contains about a thousand rock art sites with over ten thousand individual petroglyphs.

Some believe that this scene depicts Coyote in the act of placing the stars. According to one Hopi creation myth, Old Spider Woman provides Coyote with a sack filled with stars. After climbing to the top of a mountain he begins to distribute them neatly in the heavens creating the well-known constellations. Soon, he grows tired of this work and picks up the bag and throws its remaining contents into the sky. This is the reason why many of the stars are not arranged in an orderly fashion.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Nice.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nine Mile Canyon is a gold mine for rock art and this is an outstanding example of why. Efforts to catalog everything in Nine Mile Canyon (both professional and volunteer) have been going on for years and it will take many more to cover it all. Nice you added in the tale of Coyote and the stars.

This could easily be in the Historic Forum too

 

[Joe Colozzo]

very cool image and story!!! Love history!!

 

[JimFox]

Very cool Doug! Nicely shot by you, and the story is an interesting tale to include.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Very nice Doug. Very crisp and detailed.

 

[Bart Carrig]

Doug: Absolutely love it. And what a great story. Thank you.

Bart

 

[Douglas Sherman]

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments. These remnants of past graffiti are just fascinating to me.

 

[Mike Mancil]

Old Coyote sounds downright human . Excellent documentary shot and summary.