Esplanade Polychrome
The most recently rediscovered of the Great Mural sites in Western North America
Esplanade Style Polychrome Paintings
Esplanade Style Polychrome (multi-colored) Paintings are found in a handful of sites in Northern Arizona, United States. They are thought to be Western Archaic in age (4,000-2,000 BP).
The images' complexity points to the sophistication of the cultures that created the artwork.
Orthomosaic photo of Eplanade Style Polychrome site (-2000/1) by Stephen AlvarezAncient Art Archive
The "type" site of Esplanade Polychrome
This style of North American rock art was first identified in the late 1980s from this remote site in Northern Arizona.
Like much Western North American art, this style features elongated and highly stylized anthropomorphic figures (they possess human attributes).
The style typically has finely painted images in red, black, and white paint.
Notice the eyelashes and other finely painted details.
There is still green paint on this panel.
Quadrupeds like this big horn sheep are often represented in this rock art style.
Bighorn sheep are commonly depicted in Western North American rock art.
The site is more than 15 meters end to end.
Esplanade Style Polychrome (-2000/1) by Stephen AlvarezAncient Art Archive
A painted rock shelter ceiling
In one of the best-known shelters, the images are remarkably well preserved. No concrete dating work has been done on this style, but it is assumed to be similar in age to other large-scale anthropomorphic North American rock art traditions like Barrier Canyon Style.
In this shelter there are five figures painted together. These four face one direction...
... while the fifth figure is oriented toward the other figures' feet.
The deep overhang of the rock shelter accounts for the fantastic preservation of the paintings' stylistic details. This figure is a well-preserved example of x-ray style ...
... while these figures are examples of polychrome crosshatching.
The delicately painted zoomorphic figures are also well preserved.
Grand Canyon Style / Esplanade Style pictographs in a Northern Arizona rock shelter. The images are thought to be between 2,000 and 4,000 years old.
