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Lace Rock Ruin

Lace Rock Ruin

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Handprints & Torsos

Handprints & Torsos

The Green Mask Alcove in Sheiks Canyon contains many fine basketmaker pictographs including the well-known Green Mask. It also contains a large panel known as the Breech Birth Panel. This is a section of that panel containing many handprints and a few large-sized anthropomorphs.

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Green Mask Polychrome

Green Mask Polychrome

Since I posted a photo of the Green Mask this morning, I’ll post another photo from the same site in Sheiks Canyon. These polychromatic abstract-geometric paintings are found on the upper alcove wall and are very intriguing.

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The Green Mask

The Green Mask

The well-known Green Mask pictograph located in Sheiks Canyon, just off of Grand Gulch, is a haunting face painted high up on the alcove wall. I have read that this may possibly represent a ritual object made from a whole face and hair scalp of a human head because such an object, painted in a similar manner, was excavated from a Basketmaker burial in northern Arizona. I wish I had brought my long lens along with me when I hiked there since it was located very high on the back alcove wall.

>> Sheiks Canyon & The Green Mask

Breech Birth Panel

Breech Birth Panel

Here’s a view of the Breech Birth Panel located just a little up-canyon from Grand Gulch in Sheiks Canyon. There are many exceptional pictographs and a few ruins located in the same alcove as this panel, and it was a great place to spend some time exploring and photographing. The name of the panel derives from the large figure second from the right which some people believe represents a breech birth scene. This is an amazing site that I am looking forward to revisiting again in the future.

>> Sheiks Canyon & The Green Mask