The Verde Valley Archaeology Center, with help from the U.S. Forest Service, demonstrated the visual effects of the summer solstice on the solar calendar at the V Bar V Heritage Site on Wednesday, June 21, the summer solstice.
Ken Zoll, Director Emeritus at VVAC and the author of a number of books on archaeoastronomy and the petroglyph site, presented his research on the solar calendar during the event.
The site is located about 12 miles southeast of Sedona in the Red Rock District of the Coconino National Forest. It is believed that the Southern Sinagua used the site between AD 1150 and 1400, but excavations performed in 2005 showed that it may have been occupied as early as AD 600. It was settled by American settlers in the 1870s and its historic and archaeological significance was not understood until the Forest Service acquired the ranch in 1994.
Zoll hypothesized that one of the panels was a solar calendar, as the Sinagua of the Verde Valley would have taken care to mark specific points in time, especially planting dates. Being able to predict planting times would have helped the Sinagua farm in the desert environment. Solar calendars have also been found at other American Indian archaeological sites across northern Arizona.
According to Zoll’s book “Sinagua Sunwatchers,” “Archaeoastronomy, or cultural astronomy, draws on the disciplines of astronomy, archaeology and ethnology to identify and interpret these ancient markings and alignments.”
Zoll first started researching the site in 2005 after noticing how some of the rocks shaped the light into a line that matched up with corn planting indications. He found that the site displays a sequence of lighting events during a 12-month period. Archaeological evidence shows that the land near the site was used for agricultural purposes, reinforcing the theory that the calendar was used for planting dates.
“Nothing is done accidentally,” Zoll said. “It all had a purpose.”
The sandstone bluff covered in desert varnish contains over 1,030 petroglyphs, some of which are below ground level. The solar panel contains about 125 petroglyph elements, 11 of which are thought to have astronomical associations.
The rock contains images of anthropomorphs, zoomorphs, geometric abstracts, handprints and footprints, animal prints and clan symbols. Many images contain cupules, or cup-shaped depressions with religious connotations.
The petroglyphs were created by removing rock varnish to reveal the color below. Rock varnish is a biochemical phenomenon that occurs in arid deserts with black or reddish-brown weathering. The petroglyphs at the V Bar V site were created using direct percussion, by striking the rock with another rock.
There is also a connection between images adjacent to the equinox shadow line that could potentially be a birthing scene or a representation of the first day of spring.
In 2011, Zoll and a crew put up scaffolding to determine which elements of the rocks were natural and which were man made. A trio of boulders wedged into a crevice of the rock face create the shadow and light effects, and geologists determined that all three rocks were naturally occurring, but that there was also evidence of their being reshaped so as not to interfere with the shadow line.
Zoll joked that he calls archaeologists “argueologists.” While some aspects of the site’s use remain uncertain, “what is more certain is that the V Bar V solar panel was an integral part of the Southern Sinagua complex that linked time with the mythical, ritual and agricultural cycles of the valley’s population,” Zoll wrote in “Sinagua Sunwatchers.”
Zoll also made an argument that the site was a sacred space set apart from daily living spaces due to the ground surface and the lack of significant dwellings nearby.
“What’s wonderful about the solstice event is that it shows the sophistication of the indigenous people who occupied the Verde Valley and where they followed the solar events and how they charted and implemented their method of keeping time into their lives,” said Monica Buckle, executive director of VVAC. “It’s really important to highlight the sophistication and the technology of the people who lived here and the people who still continue this tradition.”
The light effect marking the summer solstice occurred at 12:50 p.m. and lasted for about 6 minutes.
