Rock Art Styles, Oldest to Youngest
These are the main rock art styles on this site, in roughly the order they were made. The dates are approximate, many styles overlap, and the age of the oldest styles is still debated.
Abstract-geometric
Archaic, possibly 6000 BCE or earlier. Painted or pecked designs rather than pictures: rakes, grids, zigzags, dots and wavy lines. Some of the oldest rock art in the West is abstract. See the gallery.
Glen Canyon Style 5
Archaic, thought to be several thousand years old. Tall, thin pecked figures and patterns. See the gallery.
Barrier Canyon Style
Archaic. Traditionally dated anywhere from about 7000 to 1000 BCE, though a 2014 study put the Great Gallery at roughly 1 to 1100 CE. Large, ghostly, tapering painted figures, often with small animals around them. See the galleries.
Interior Line Style (Dinwoody)
Central Wyoming, made over thousands of years, possibly beginning in the Archaic. Pecked figures with bodies filled with lines and patterns. See the gallery.
Basketmaker
About 500 BCE to 750 CE, the early Ancestral Puebloan period. Broad-shouldered figures with elaborate headdresses, necklaces and sashes, and many handprints. Western San Juan Basketmaker and handprints.
Fremont
About 300 to 1300 CE. Trapezoid-shaped figures with horned or elaborate headdresses, necklaces and shields, and bighorn sheep. See the gallery.
Ancestral Puebloan
About 750 to 1300 CE. Flute players, bighorn sheep, spirals, hunting scenes, faces and celestial images such as the Chaco supernova. See the galleries.
Ute
The Historic period, from about the 1600s into the early 1900s. Horses and riders, hunting scenes and shield figures. See Thompson Springs.
Several styles at one site
At Thompson Springs (Sego Canyon), Barrier Canyon Style, Fremont and Ute rock art, and possibly a Polychromatic Abstract-geometric figure, share the same canyon walls.
Other styles in the region, such as Uncompahgre Style in western Colorado, Rio Grande Style in New Mexico and Navajo rock art, are not yet shown on this site.