The Parowan Gap in Utah was discovered by whites in 1849 by Mormon pioneers. Prehistoric Fremont and southern Paiute carved petroglyphs here over a long period of time. The meaning of the figures is not known.
There are also dinosaur tracks close by (not sure where yet, I’ll figure that out next trip)
While you can’t see the petroglyphs clearly in the video, you get a panorama of the area. It’s a real gap through an otherwise rugged series of large hills / small mountains.
Could the marks be that of earliest of those bloody young nuisances covering the place in graffitti?? Didn’t they have ASBOs in those day?
You’re right. Here we thought the markings were deeply meaningful and spiritual but instead they might have been made by juveniles badly in need of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order to screw up their lives. Heck, the markings probably say things like “Running Deer is a hottie,” and “Dude, this peyote is awesome.”
Actually they know what a lot of the markings mean. The long lines with cross-hatches are calendars, and the rectangles with dots in them record corn production. The short vertical lines with horizontal lines across them represent corn. The jellyfish-looking symbols represent rain. There are also fertility symbols. Mostly they are records and prayers.
There are symbols the experts still don’t understand. And in a couple of places it appears to me that the originators have carved pictures of Coyote.