indians

STORIES IN STONE THEY DIDN'T HAVE A WRITTEN LANGUAGE, BUT SOME SIX CENTURIES AGO, WHEN THE SINAGUA INDIANS MOVED ON, THEY LEFT BEHIND AN EXTENSIVE

RECORD OF their culture, an array of images pecked into a cliff of reddish Supai sandstone along the banks of Wet Beaver Creek. The V-Bar-V Ranch Petroglyph Site, located on a historic ranch near Sedona, encompasses the largest single concentration of petroglyphs in the Verde Valley. What I call the "Wow Factor" applies here. At their first sight of the petroglyphs, visitors often stop short, pause, then say, "Oh, wow!" as they stare. More than 1,000 elements crowd the 40-foot-wide panel, some connected as though they tell one long, complex story. But what does it say? The petroglyphs images pecked, abraded, or incised into stone at V-BarV were made by indirect percussion a hammer-and-chisel method using two stones. They date as far back as A.D. 1150, but most were made between 1300 and 1400. Those dates are based on style and method of making the elements, although exact petroglyph-dating techniques are still evolving. (One such technique examines the petroglyph's silica skin or patina, making site conservation paramount. Even oils from a person's fingertips can contaminate the stone and prevent accurate dating.) The petroglyphs at V-Bar-V often appear in pairs: twin turtles near the top of the panel, a pair of footprints below, two female figures around the corner. This is characteristic of the "Beaver Creek Pecked Style," according to rock art expert Don Weaver, as are very large anthropomorphs. Anthropomorphs humanlike figures include "lizard men," females with butterfly hairstyles, flute players, and segmented stick figures with limbs akimbo. Symbolic footprints, human and bear, track across the panel. Zoomorphs animal shapes include snakes, doglike or coyotelike figures, deer, elk, and several long-legged birds, possibly herons. At other sites, bird glyphs are rare. Proximity to the creek may explain their appearance here, or perhaps this bird was the symbol of a clan living nearby. The most unusual aspect of the V-Bar-V petroglyphs is their connectivity. Different elements touch at their edges or link by curving lines, suggesting a relationship or sequence. The effect is obviously deliberate, yet the meaning is lost in time. The Southern Sinagua settled the Verde Valley from around A.D. 650 to 1425, first in small pit house villages and later, as they relied increasingly on agriculture, in multiroom masonry pueblos. Around A.D. 1300, the Sinagua moved closer to perennial streams like Wet Beaver Creek and the Verde River, building large pueblos that overlooked fields and trade routes. The next 100 years are called the Sinagua's "golden age" by Peter Pilles, archaeologist for the Coconino National Forest. They traded locally produced items such as salt and textiles for decorated pottery and exotics such as shell ornaments. They practiced floodplain agriculture, growing corn, beans, squash, and cotton in rocklined fields along Wet Beaver Creek. Today tall cottonwoods and sycamores shade the creek, but the Sinagua would have felled most trees for firewood or building, clearing the area for extensive farm plots and leaving the petroglyph panel open to view. The panel may have functioned as a territorial marker or a bulletin board of messages along a well-traveled trail between houses and fields. This story in stone has been remarkably well-preserved. First documented by Edgar Mearns, a surgeon at Fort Verde in the late 1800s, the petroglyphs were for years on a private ranch. After the Forest Service acquired the site in the 1990s, archaeologists and volunteers photographed, sketched, classified, and scanned individual elements, creating an electronic database for ongoing study and monitoring. The V-Bar-V opened to the public in 1998, under the Congressional Recreation Fee Demonstration Program, which allows the Forest Service to reinvest 95 percent of collected fees in the site's preservation and protection.

Deciphering the site's messages is a challenge most visitors can't resist. Children especially have no hesitation about pointing out shapes they recognize. Part of the fun of exploring rock art is exercising one's imagination and speculating about meanings, but it is easy to slip into the error of over-explaining. No matter how much we think we “get it,” these petroglyphs were made in a different cultural context than ours today. As outsiders, we look, we admire, we wonder, but we cannot know for certain why an image was made or what it meant to the maker. Yet not every story needs to be analyzed to be appreciated. We can simply enjoy the marks made in the red sandstone, other colors added here and there by moss and lichens, and the soothing sounds of the creek, knowing that we share these pleasures with those who were here before us.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) The Southern Sinagua chiseled this shaman figure near Wet Beaver Creek between A.D. 1150 and 1400.

(ABOVE) More than 1,000 petroglyphs cover the V-Bar-V's massive panel.

(RIGHT) Walk softly along the path to the petroglyphs and watch for the birds and other wildlife that frequent this ancient site.

WHEN YOU GO

The V-Bar-V Ranch Petroglyph Site is southeast of the Interstate 17 Sedona Interchange (Exit 298). Turn right onto Forest Service Road 618 and drive past the Wet Beaver Creek campground to a forked intersection, about three miles, mostly paved. Take the right fork to a parking area. A one-third-mile dirt trail leads to the panel. The site is open on a month-by-month basis, depending on visitation; admission is $3 for adults. For up-to-date information regarding fees and hours, contact the Coconino National Forest's Sedona Ranger District, (520) 282-4119. And remember: Look but don't touch. Oil from human skin can damage the rock art.