Petroglyph Point Archeological Site

Petroglyph Point Archeological Site in Lava Beds National Monument, southeast of Tulelake in northeastern California, preserves one of the largest panels of Indigenous rock art in the United States on the face of a former island in Tule Lake, a landscape long associated with the Modoc people. Some carvings may be more than 6,000 years old, though changing lake levels make dating difficult. Its imagery stands out for emphasizing shapes and patterns rather than human or animal figures. The meanings remain uncertain, in part because the Modoc War of 1872 to 1873 and the forced relocation that followed left no firsthand Modoc explanations of the symbols or their use.

California · United States