The Picture Canyon Natural and Cultural Preserve near Flagstaff, listed on the US National Register of Historic Places in January 2008, protects a large density of petroglyphs.
The area was home to the natives known as the Northern Sinagua (“people without water”) between 700 and 1300 AD, when they left the region and resettled elsewhere, possibly becoming the early ancestors of the Hopi, Zuni, or Pima peoples. Hundreds of panels were created which depict archers, geometric shapes, and local animals including birds and turtles.
The human-like figures, common in this area, are believed to represent the emergence of the Zuni people into this world from a watery underworld.
Zig zag petroglyphs are believed to represent lightning by Hopi and Zuni, while other tribes believe them to possibly be water-related (and others interpret them as mountains). Spirals may represent a migration route, the location of a waterhole, a coiled snake, or a whirlwind – or it may be symbolic of the path of the sun: “The only relative certainty is that they represent some kind of motion”.
Four-legged animal petrogyphs are very common, with most of them resembling bighorn sheep – possibly representing migrations through the area. Waterbirds (which may be cranes or a great blue herons) were most commonly engraved while the Northern Sinagua occupied the area, and are a clan symbol for the Hopi and Zuni people.
Getting to Picture Canyon
The signposted Picture Canyon petroglyph site is reached from the end of El Paso Road via the Tom Moody Trail, which does a loop through the Picture Canyon Natural and Cultural Preserve.
0 Comments