Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Petroglyph Trail

We hiked the Peninsula Petroglyph Trail in Lyman Lake State Park.  These petroglyphs are along some ancient Hopi Native American migration routes.  We all had fun trying to find the petroglyphs.  Camden liked to be the leader and direct us to the different paths.



The below petroglyph panel was the first one we came across.  The park pamphlet interpreted some of the petroglyphs and said this one "explains how Hopi ancestors were able to survive in the area.  The central petroglyph is the water serpent.  When Hopi ancestors were given a sign to stop and settle in an area, sometimes there would be no water.  So these people, through ceremony, would pray to the water serpent underground.  The water serpent, whose domain is under the ground, would answer by churning around, which would force water to seep out of the ground.  The figure on the right is a man holding corn.  The figure on the left is a woman giving birth.  The other figures are thought to represent a successful hunt.  As a whole, the panel tells us that the people were able to grow corn, hunt, and have children in this area because the water serpent answered their prayers for water."


Based on the style, this next panel is dated to the Basketmaker period (AD 300 to 700).  It is probably one of the earlier panels in the park.  The park pamphlet explained that "the third element from the right represents a migrating group that split into three or went off in three different directions.  The element at the far right depicts a clan that was on its migration when it saw the blue star, a sign to start the final trip home to the Hopi mesas."

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