Buffalo Man
San Rafael Swell, Utah
2023
Initially I was pretty surprised and impressed by the modern looking design on this pictograph, but quickly realized those are bullet holes in the figure. I take a very dim view of anyone who would think it o.k. to target shoot at antiquities like this. And those who add their initials or other graffiti of their own design to such figures don’t fare much better in my mind, other than they weren’t using guns to express themselves. But if they insist on leaving their marks, they should do it somewhere else in the vicinity (preferably far away) rather than on top of them. Who know in a few centuries or millennia, their graffiti might actually earn historic respect rather than disdain. It’s a long shot but it’s about the only chance at a positive legacy many folks have I suppose.
I agree with your assessment of modern day vandals that do not value these historic antiquities. The saying make only tracks and take only photos probably doesn’t include tracks on rock walls. I have seen photos of pictographs that have layers of Native American graffiti from “just” 150 years ago (horse culture) going back to the Fremont culture.
Perspectives and can change, for me 150 years doesn’t seem that long ago although I doubt I fit in with 1870’s culture.
These days, I don’t think any contemporary defacing of a natural resource be it rock or whatever is looked upon positively by “polite” society. Perhaps it only takes time, centuries+ for such things to become something other than eyesores, e.g. pictographs or petroglyphs by Anasazis and others are only viewed positively (as far as I know). Or, given how many people there are out and about anymore and how needless such means of communication are given the current state of technoloy, perhaps today’s scratching on rocks in natural settings will never be deemed of any significant value.