Easter among Ancient Etchings!
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2012
1
8
62
Trip End
Dec 31, 2012
Where I stayed
Enchanted Trails RV Park
What I did
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Sunday, April 8, 2012
The rock is part of a 17-mile long table of land west of the Rio Grande, which emerged about 150,000 years ago when lava flowed from a large crack in the Earth's crust. Early peoples discovered that chipping away the thin desert varnish of the rocks' surface revealed a lighter gray beneath, and left a lasting mark. (Although, I doubt they had any idea HOW lasting those marks would be!) Archaeologists estimate that most of the images were made 400 to 700 years ago by ancestors of today's Native people. Some images, however, may be as much as 2-3,000 years old. Many appear to be images of birds native to Central America - indicating that the Native peoples were involved in an extensive cultural network. Only the carvers know the petroglyphs' true meanings. (Excerpts from National Park Service's "Petroglyph National Monument Guide and Map")
As the Ancients did - I'll leave my pictures to do the talking! Makes me wonder...will the pictures we take and post to the Internet today will have the lasting power of these carvings in the rock?
