Ancient American Petroglyphs: Common Themes


When scrolling through a library of petroglyphs on my computer, I saw some things that reminded me of tribes in other locations. I started to wonder about shared symbols across vast distances, even oceans, and some of the costumed figures. Let's have a look at some of these oddities that get ignored or passed off.

We see a lot of horned figures in petroglyphs and most assume it's anthropomorphic representation or the costuming of a tribe for ceremonies. It's interesting to note this ancient one in Colorado (below) versus a tribe that went missing in Tierra del Fuego hundreds of years ago.



Even in Algiers we find these images - "Running Horned Woman"



Greek mythology, ancient pagan beliefs, local legends in various places around the world in stories and in costumes portray the horned human. Is that a natural theme from hunters or is it perhaps something deeper, a memory of sorts that plays out in the acting since tens of thousands of years ago and encounters with some beings who were mighty and horned?



This petroglyph (above) from Petroglyph Point in California shows a "rocket-headed" person. But, that same missing tribe in Tierra del Fuego had such a costume, as well. 



Bellows Falls in Vermont has some interesting faces on their petroglyphs - 

They rather remind me of Australia's oldest glyphs - 




Chile has this glyph - 



East Timor in Southeast Asia has this glyph -


Here's the Dancing Man petroglyph in British Columbia




The Cherokee's moon-eyed people - 




And then there are the symbols we see all over the place, like 6-toed feet, a wheel with bisecting lines within, the spiral, and the cross.


Extra digits












The spiral






The circle inside of circle






If we look at ancient people leaving us legends and artwork to keep the knowledge going about the past, then we must give it the same regard we might religious documentation of past events. There were things that people, even ones without written language, were trying to convey across the globe. They are historical. And their very universal nature is not be accident - 

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