The Sun?

I suppose this petroglyph is of the Sun. It was as prominent a part of daily life when this area was primitive as it is today. There's also what appears to be 3 "H"'s defacing the rock in the foreground. This could be very recent or closer to the epoch of the 19th century graffiti in yesterdays image.

Petroglyph or just old grafitti?

One eras grafitti is the later eras petroglyph, I suppose. This grafitti from the 19th century is mixed in with some older petroglyphs.

Petroglyphs

Tucson has been inhabited for a very long time - before the water table dropped, it had two almost continuously running rivers which converge in the northwest part of town, so it was a natural place to establish a village. There are many archeological sites around the area, and many of them have rock art around them such as this. This image was taken about 6 years ago with my old Fuji Finepix 2650 P&S camera.

Newspaper Rock

The Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs are aptly named - the face of this rock laying at the base of a small cliff is literally covered in Petroglyphs. Newspaper Rock is not far from Puerco Pueblo, another site with lots of Petroglyphs in the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest (see my blog entries on December 21 titled Puerco Pueblo Petroglyphs and Petroglyph Closeup). This image was taken at 168mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Petroglyph closeup

Here's a closer view of the angled petroglyph, just left of center. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Puerco Pueblo Petroglyphs

The Puerco Pueblo in the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park is a site of ancient ruins as well as a large collection of Petroglyphs including these. If you examine the petroglyphs on this rock, most of them are vertical, however, just below the light layer in the rock is a four legged creature which is angled perpendicular to the natural layering in the rock, suggesting that it predates the other petroglyphs to a time when the rock sat with the layering parallel to the ground. This image was taken at 133mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Signal Hill Petroglyphs

Here are some more petroglyphs on the south facing hillside at Signal Hill, just below the top of the hill. Along with the petroglyphs is, unfortunately, some more modern graffiti - the only thing separating the old from the new is some time, I suppose. This image was taken at 300mm focal length, with an exposure of 1/2000 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Snow on Signal Hill

Signal Hill in Saguaro National Park West in the Tucson Mountains west of town has numerous petroglyphs near the top of the. This is perhaps the most prominant of them. This image was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 1/2000 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.