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Three Rivers

Three Rivers is thought to be one of the largest petroglyph sites in the Southwest. There are estimated to be over 20,000 images pecked into the dark basalt boulders here. The artists were the Jornada Mogollon people who lived in this area between about 900 and 1400 AD. The art includes masks and faces, bighorn sheep and other animals, birds, fish, insects, handprints and many geometric designs.

The Jornada art likely shares many ideas with the art of the Mimbres Mogollon who lived west of Three Rivers. The Mimbres are best known for their black-on-white bowls. Archaeologist Polly Schaafsma and others have pointed out that the Jornada Style rock art shares much of its imagery with Mimbres pottery. Both have the same stylized fish, birds, bighorn sheep, insects and geometric fill patterns.

Large pecked animal with a long neck and a cross-hatched body on a dark basalt boulder above a wide desert basin

Four-legged animal with a striped body and a raised head on a rounded basalt boulder

Large hand with a concentric circle in its palm beside a zigzag figure on a basalt boulder

Large fish-like or bird-like figure with a spiral eye and long lines on a flat basalt boulder

Round face with patterned features beneath a feathered headdress-like shape on a basalt boulder

Mask with circle eyes, a triangle nose and a wide mouth full of teeth, beside a second faint mask

Faint figures pecked on a tall pointed basalt boulder at the top of the ridge

Bird-like or masked figure with a spiral eye and long horizontal lines on a dark boulder

Tall figure with a terraced headdress or staff beside a smaller rectangular figure

Bird with a round eye and a checkerboard body on a basalt boulder

Lizard-like or human-like figure on a cracked rock lying in dry grass

Figure with a spiral head and a spiral body beside a hand-like shape

Cracked basalt boulder with a figure with two ringed eyes and other pecked designs

Faint pecked figure with a patterned head and wavy lines below

Round mask-like face with two round eyes, a long nose and a scalloped edge

Tall rectangular masked figure with large round eyes, a headdress and geometric patterns in its body

Boulders covered with a large spiral, animals and geometric designs above a green desert basin and mountains

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