{"id":173,"date":"2016-01-05T19:03:53","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T19:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pinecurtainblog.wordpress.com\/?page_id=173"},"modified":"2025-11-03T19:37:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:37:54","slug":"rock-house-cave-at-petit-jean-state-park","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/learn-more\/visit-a-shelter\/rock-house-cave-at-petit-jean-state-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock House Cave at Petit Jean State Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rock House Cave in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arkansasstateparks.com\/parks\/petit-jean-state-park\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Petit Jean State Park<\/a> is located near Morrilton, Arkansas. The park is located atop beautiful Petit Jean Mountain which rises from the Arkansas River Valley and affords visitors spectacular views.<\/p>\n<p>The bluff shelter is located at the end of a short, .25 mile hike over somewhat uneven ground.\u00a0 Note the geological features commonly referred to as &#8220;turtle rocks&#8221; on your way to the shelter. The shelter itself is large and was probably used by native Americans starting about 8,000 years ago.\u00a0 The evidence of this use can be seen in the many<a href=\"http:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/archeological-sites\/rock-art\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> rock art<\/a> images that appear on the walls and ceiling of the shelter. The shelter contains at least 105 rock art images.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_385\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-385\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-385\" src=\"http:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/12\/DSC_0255-e1462474720692-300x139.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;&quot;\" width=\"710\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/12\/DSC_0255-e1462474720692-300x139.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/12\/DSC_0255-e1462474720692-768x355.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/12\/DSC_0255-e1462474720692-1024x473.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/12\/DSC_0255-e1462474720692-648x299.jpg 648w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/12\/DSC_0255-e1462474720692-415x192.jpg 415w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 710px) 100vw, 710px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-385\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rock House Cave on Petit Jean Mountain, Conway County, 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One of the more interesting examples of rock art in Rock House Cave shows a very distinctive looking fish found in the nearby Arkansas River. The <a href=\"http:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/basics\/definiton\/\">pictograph<\/a> painted in red pigment on the ceiling of the shelter shows of a paddlefish.\u00a0 It can be hard to see, but the distinctive elongated head is present and the fins are in the right position. It has been suggested that the image shows the fish as it would look to someone seeing it from above as you would from the river bank or from a boat. The image near the fish appears to represent a basketry fish trap. Fish traps of this sort were used by used by Native Americans.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_459\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-459\" style=\"width: 448px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-459\" src=\"http:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddlefish-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;&quot;\" width=\"448\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddlefish-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddlefish.jpg 320w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddlefish-256x192.jpg 256w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-459\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Red pictograph of paddlefish and fish trap from Rock House Cave on Petit Jean Mountain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_469\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-469\" style=\"width: 453px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-469\" src=\"http:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/fish_paddlefish-300x165.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;&quot;\" width=\"453\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/fish_paddlefish-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/fish_paddlefish-349x192.jpg 349w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/fish_paddlefish.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 453px) 100vw, 453px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-469\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paddlefish. Photo from Arkansas Game and Fish website.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_473\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-473\" style=\"width: 457px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-473\" src=\"http:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddle-fish-scan-300x145.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;&quot;\" width=\"457\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddle-fish-scan-300x145.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddle-fish-scan-768x371.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddle-fish-scan-1024x495.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddle-fish-scan-648x313.jpg 648w, https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/paddle-fish-scan-398x192.jpg 398w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-473\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tracing of the pictograph of paddlefish and fish trap, dotted lines indicate areas of visible, but more faded pigment, From Sabo and Sabo 2005, Figure 40.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rock House Cave in Petit Jean State Park is located near Morrilton, Arkansas. The park is located atop beautiful Petit Jean Mountain which rises from the Arkansas River Valley and affords visitors spectacular views. The bluff shelter is located at the end of a short, .25 mile hike over somewhat uneven ground.\u00a0 Note the geological &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/learn-more\/visit-a-shelter\/rock-house-cave-at-petit-jean-state-park\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Rock House Cave at Petit Jean State Park<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":377,"parent":151,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width-page.php","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-173","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1871,"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/173\/revisions\/1871"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archeology.uark.edu\/ozarkbluffshelters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}