Early Inhabitants: Depicts Indians drawing hieroglyphics

The ancient people who lived in Texas left behind artwork that shows us what their lives were like. These pictures are called pictographs (drawings or paintings) and petroglyphs (carvings). The artwork, which you can see in many different places in the area, including Hueco Tanks, ranges in size from one inch to eighteen feet in height and is found anywhere from the ground level to many feet above ground.

Pigments for pictographs were made from powdered minerals, sometimes mixed with animal fats, and consisted largely of earth tones. Black and red were the most commonly used colors, but white, yellow, orange, and brown were also used. Subjects ranged from the whole human figure or just hands or feet, to animals of all kinds. The pictographs also depict other things that were important parts of the Indian people’s lives. Some of them include sun symbols, different types of weather, trees, weapons, and different shapes. In later times Spanish and other non-Indian figures were pictured.

You can see pictographs at the Hueco Tanks State Historical Park about 30 miles northeast of El Paso. Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico has some wonderfully preserved petroglyphs.

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