Rock House Cave: Rock Art

Rock House Cave: Rock Art. A glimpse of Arkansas's Prehistoric Heritage. , The prehistoric rock art in Rock House Cave is part of our heritage that can never be replaced. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. It is up to us to preserve these images for as long as possible until the endless forces of wind and water turn the images to dust., What is rock art? , The images painted in the shelter are called pictographs. Another type of rock art, called petroglyphs, are images pecked into the stone. Almost all the images in Rock House Cave are pictographs. Look for these faint red images, concentrated mostly in the center to the left side of this shelter, Images resemble animals, people, sun shapes, geometric and irregular shapes. Look closely at the pictographs; some, like the deer head on the center back wall, contain pecked areas and lines incorporated into the art., The pictographs were made from mineral pigments mixed with animal fat or eggs. The minerals bind with the rock and produce an image that may last thousands of years. Red is the most common color. A few images are made with yellow or black pigments., Who made the rock art in Rock House Cave? , Native Americans painted and pecked images on the walls of this shelter. Archeological digs revealed artifacts that suggest native people visited the site from approximately 8000 BC to 1600 AD. It is generally believed that the rock art is less than 2000 years old., What do these images mean? , Native American rock art may represent ideas, stories or visions. Each image probably had a set of meanings to the creator. No one today can say with certainty what these images mean.