Utah’s Newspaper Rock Displays the Longest Timeline of Native American Petroglyphs

Newspaper Rock (Bears Ears)

In Utah’s red rock country, one cliff face holds thousands of petroglyphs carved by different groups over many centuries. Here’s what researchers have learned about these ancient messages, and how you can see them yourself.

Layers of Ancient Communication

The petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock represent multiple cultural periods spanning over 2,000 years of human history. Archaeologists have identified the oldest carvings as belonging to the Archaic period, dating between 6000 BCE and 100 CE.

The Canvas of Desert Varnish

The artists who created these petroglyphs used a natural dark coating called desert varnish as their canvas. This coating forms naturally on exposed rock surfaces in dry environments over long periods.

Desert varnish contains unusually high amounts of manganese, measuring 50-60 times higher than average levels in the Earth’s crust. Scientists once debated its origins, but research from 2021 identified a specific bacteria called Chroococcidiopsis that helps create it.

Who Were the Ancient Artists

The Ancestral Puebloan people, once called Anasazi, created many of Newspaper Rock’s petroglyphs between 1 CE and 1300 CE. These people both hunted and farmed in the region, building amazing cliff dwellings and pueblo structures throughout the Four Corners area.

The Fremont culture lived in the region at roughly the same time as the Ancestral Puebloans but kept their own cultural and artistic styles. Their petroglyphs often show human figures shaped like trapezoids with detailed decorations.

Before both these cultures, the Basketmaker people, who were ancestors of the Ancestral Puebloans, left their marks on the rock. After 1300 CE, Ute and Navajo tribes added their own petroglyphs to the panel.

Stories Carved in Stone

The petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock show a wide range of images that reflect the lives and beliefs of their creators. Animal images include bighorn sheep, deer, elk, coyotes, and birds of prey, all of which mattered to indigenous cultures.

Many human-like figures have distinctive broad shoulders and detailed headwear, possibly showing special status or ceremonial importance.

Some petroglyphs give clear time markers. Images of horses could only have been created after Spanish explorers brought these animals to the Southwest in the 1500s.

Decoding Ancient Messages

While Newspaper Rock presents a wealth of imagery, we don’t have a complete “translation” of its meaning.

However, some recurring designs have known meanings across many Native American cultures. Heartline symbols, which show lines extending from an animal’s mouth to its heart, represent spirit paths that connect breath, life, and soul.

Circles within circles often mark water sources, villages, or star patterns, depending on their context. Modern Native Americans understand many symbols as clan or family markers that showed territory boundaries or resource rights.

One theory suggests that Newspaper Rock served as a message board for travelers, perhaps marking routes, resources, or warnings for those passing through the area. Its location near water in an otherwise dry region supports this idea.

Cultural Significance to Native Peoples

For today’s Native Americans, Newspaper Rock means far more than old carvings. Five tribes—Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian, and Zuni—worked together to protect the Bears Ears area, recognizing its deep cultural importance.

Modern tribes still gather plants and minerals for ceremonies and medicines throughout the Bears Ears region. They perform traditional ceremonies that connect them to ancestors who lived on these lands for thousands of years.

Discovery by Early European Settlers

When European and American settlers first found Newspaper Rock, they too left their marks by adding names and dates alongside the much older indigenous petroglyphs.

The name “Newspaper Rock” itself comes from these settlers, who saw the densely packed carvings as an ancient news record.

In 1961, Utah State Parks officially named the site “Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument” to save it for future generations.

Protection Within Bears Ears National Monument

In December 2016, President Barack Obama established Bears Ears National Monument, protecting 1.35 million acres including Newspaper Rock within its boundaries.

This designation came after years of advocacy from Native American tribes and conservation groups.

The protection proved short-lived as a 2017 proclamation removed over 1 million acres from the monument.

In October 2021, President Joe Biden restored the original boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument. .

Visiting Newspaper Rock

Newspaper Rock is located 28 miles northwest of Monticello and 53 miles south of Moab, Utah.

Visitors can easily access it via Utah State Route 211 along the Indian Creek Scenic Byway as they travel toward the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

Read More from This Brand:

• Red Sandstone Cliffs Guard Pools, Petroglyphs & Wildlife in This Utah Sanctuary
• Ancient Kivas, Petroglyphs, and 100,000 Native American Sites Rest In This Utah Canyon
• Red Canyons, Petroglyphs & Neon Blue Pools Line This Spectacular Utah Byway