The Green Mask Alcove in Sheiks Canyon contains many fine basketmaker pictographs including the well-known Green Mask. It also contains a large panel known as the Breech Birth Panel. This is a section of that panel containing many handprints and a few large-sized anthropomorphs.
The Big Man Panel is a large Basketmaker pictograph panel found within Grand Gulch. The largest two figures found on the panel are the Big Man and Big Woman. This photo is a closer view of the Big Man.
Since I posted a photo of the Green Mask this morning, I’ll post another photo from the same site in Sheiks Canyon. These polychromatic abstract-geometric paintings are found on the upper alcove wall and are very intriguing.
The well-known Green Mask pictograph located in Sheiks Canyon, just off of Grand Gulch, is a haunting face painted high up on the alcove wall. I have read that this may possibly represent a ritual object made from a whole face and hair scalp of a human head because such an object, painted in a similar manner, was excavated from a Basketmaker burial in northern Arizona. I wish I had brought my long lens along with me when I hiked there since it was located very high on the back alcove wall.
Here’s a view of the Breech Birth Panel located just a little up-canyon from Grand Gulch in Sheiks Canyon. There are many exceptional pictographs and a few ruins located in the same alcove as this panel, and it was a great place to spend some time exploring and photographing. The name of the panel derives from the large figure second from the right which some people believe represents a breech birth scene. This is an amazing site that I am looking forward to revisiting again in the future.
