San Diego Rock Art Association Virtual Meeting
Sunday, April 14, 2024, 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time
Thunderstorms, Spear Points, and Divine Iconography in Barrier Canyon Rock Art
A Presentation by James Farmer
The Barrier Canyon Anthropomorphic Style (or BCS) of south-central Utah has long
been regarded as one of the premier ancient painted rock art styles in the Americas,
if not the world. The most dominant and commonly recognized features of the style
are deep red anthropomorphic figures ranging in size from a few inches to over eight
feet tall, often interpreted as “gods,” “spirits,” “ancestors,” or even “mummies.”
The BCS has most recently been directly linked to powerful natural phenomena such
as thunderstorms, flash floods, and waterfalls, all of which incorporate dramatic
visual and sonic properties. This presentation expands on previous research by suggesting
that, instead of abstracted human figures, many of the most prominent BCS figures
in fact represent varieties of ancient spear points, frequently adorned and “anthropomorphized,”
thus investing such points with a complex divine symbolism and iconography beyond
their typical utilitarian value.
James Farmer holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin,
and he has led study-abroad classes and taught art history courses throughout Latin
America, the American Southwest, and Qatar, and served as museum consultant and guest
curator for museums in Virginia and Texas. His publications span subjects including
the San Juan Anthropomorphic and Barrier Canyon styles of southwestern tock art,
Maya textiles, astronomy and ritual in Chaco Canyon, and ancient Ecuadorian ceramics
and archaeology. His most recent publication is as co-editor of and contributor to
“Making Meaning”: Precolumbian Archaeology, Art History, and the Legacy of Terence
Grieder, in 2022. Since 2007 he has served as Director of the non-profit BCS project
based in Salt Lake City. His theoretical and philosophical focus in his work is on
cultural exchange and interaction between ancient American cultures, and the deep
antiquity and sophistication of ancient American intellectual thinking, technology,
and art.
This meeting will be held via Zoom
April 14, 2024, Starting at 4:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)
Meeting room will open approximately 15 minutes early
Free Registration Required
Click Here to Register
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