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<< Our Photo Pages >> White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs - Rock Art in United States in The Southwest

Submitted by Andy B on Tuesday, 06 June 2006  Page Views: 19488

Rock ArtSite Name: White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs Alternative Name: White Tank
Country: United States Region: The Southwest Type: Rock Art
Nearest Town: Phoenix  Nearest Village: Waddell
Latitude: 33.586530N  Longitude: 112.51265W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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bat400 visited on 12th Mar 2018 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 3 A large regional park in the desert mountains to the west of the Phoenix area. Petroglyphs attributed to the Hohokam (most are abstract and not clearly representational.) The concentrations of these glyphs are on the Waterfall Canyon trail and the Black Rock trail, but can also be seen in other places in the park.

gormer have visited here

White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs
White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs submitted by bat400 : One of the largest concentrations of rock art in the park, nicknamed "Petroglyph Plaza". It is the only place where rock are is completely accessible, with a paved path from a car park. Photo by bat400, March 2018. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Rock Art in Maricopa County, Arizona.
This area near the White Tanks mountains area was occupied by the Hohokam before 1100 AD. The White Tanks Mountain Park has at least 11 village or farmstead sites identified, but few are accessible or visible. But the area has two major petroglyph areas, both along the Waterfall Canyon Trail.

The barrier free trail starts at a parking area on Waterfall Canyon. A half mile walk brings you to "Petroglyph Plaza" with hundreds of petroglyphs on boulders. The trail ends .4 miles further at the trail's namesake box canyon. Another large group of petroglyphs can be seen near the entrance to the canyon.

Park website with links to trail maps: https://www.maricopacountyparks.net/park-locator/white-tank-mountain-regional-park/

IMPORTANT NOTE: Location given is for "petroglyph Plaza" on the Waterfall Canyon trail.

Other petroglyphs attributed to the Hohokam culture may be seen in the park, notably on "Black Rock" trail.
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White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs
White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs submitted by bat400 : Near the "Petroglyph Plaza" area there is an unpaved trail through an area where there was a small village. The village site is not observable to a casual observer, but there are small concentrations of rock art to be seen. Photo by bat400, March 2018. (Vote or comment on this photo)

White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs
White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs submitted by bat400 (Vote or comment on this photo)

White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs
White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs submitted by bat400 (Vote or comment on this photo)

White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs
White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs submitted by Flickr : Petroglyph along Waterfall Canyon Trail Image copyright: rightthewrong (Ryan Knapp), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (3 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 30.5km ENE 63° Palo Verde Ancient Village or Settlement
 34.8km ENE 73° Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve* Rock Art
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 51.4km ESE 107° Pueblo Grande - Ball Court* Ancient Village or Settlement
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 54.4km ESE 105° Desert Botanical Gardens* Museum
 55.7km ESE 107° Loma del Rio Ruins* Ancient Village or Settlement
 56.4km ESE 108° Hayden Butte* Rock Art
 64.1km ESE 105° Mesa Grande Ancient Village or Settlement
 65.7km ESE 107° Arizona Museum of Natural History* Museum
 66.5km ESE 104° Park of the Canals Ancient Village or Settlement
 67.2km NE 53° Skull Mesa* Ancient Village or Settlement
 80.0km SW 219° Chamber of the Sun* Rock Art
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 105.2km NE 46° Goat Camp Ruin Ancient Village or Settlement
 108.0km SW 227° Sears Point* Rock Art
 112.0km SE 126° Casa Grande - Ball Court* Ancient Village or Settlement
 112.0km SE 126° Casa Grande - The Great House* Ancient Palace
 112.0km SE 126° Casa Grande - Village* Ancient Village or Settlement
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 129.7km NNE 28° Montezuma Castle* Ancient Village or Settlement
 129.8km E 87° Tonto National Monument* Ancient Village or Settlement
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"White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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News from 2006: White Tanks Petroglyph claimed to show 1066 supernova. by bat400 on Monday, 03 July 2006
(User Info | Send a Message)
In 2006 a rock carving was identified by two astronomers which they interpretted as an ancient star explosion near the constellation Scorpius (Supernova 1066.) However, despite media reports, leading archaeoastronomers remain highly skeptical.

"Having looked at the White Tanks rock art panel, I am appalled," says Edwin C. Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and author of Archaeoastronomy and the Roots of Science. "Panels like this are not rare. There is no reason to link it to any supernova event. There is nothing persuasive about the imagery to support the extraordinarily detailed claim. The authors say nothing about all of the other imagery on the boulder and select two details for their discussion. These two details are in themselves dubiously interpreted."

- See more at: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/did-ancient-americans-record-a-supernova

For another view, see this article from "Sky and Telescope." The actual rock is shown, and it does appear that two images on a large rock full of art were selected.
Sky and Telescope article

In addition to the cresent moon and "star" art found in Chaco Canyon, NM, (supposedly showing the 1054AD supernova) there is a similar rock art of crescent moon and star (or sun) is rock art near Lake Powel, AZ.
[ Reply to This ]

question about a petroglyph “motif” by Anonymous on Wednesday, 14 June 2006
Hello, I have a question about a “motif” found in a collection on Petroglyphs.

The image in question is here:

http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~eamonn/shape/petroglyps.jpg

And shows two examples of 3 linked rings,

Do you know what significance this might have (if any)?

If you don’t know, can I ask you to send it to others that might? I am offering ten California lottery tickets for anyone that has a promising lead, and twenty-five lottery tickets for a definitive answer.

Many thanks, eamonn

eamonn(at)cs.ucr.edu

Dr. Eamonn Keogh
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of California Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521-0144
http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~eamonn/

"Remember that I too was Irish. Today I am cured" Flann O'Brien
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: question about a petroglyph “motif” by bat400 on Wednesday, 28 March 2018
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    No idea of the meaning, but similarly shaped and linked "rings" can be seen at other sites with glyphs attributed to the Hohokam culture. Many of these "rings" are more angular in appearance (as can be seen in one of your two examples) than "ring" shaped.
    This motif can be seen at both White Tanks and the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve north of Phoenix. The "strand" is often oriented vertically on the rockface and sometimes appears with multiple vertically oriented strands arranged in a horizontal row. It could be interpreted as a numbering methodology.
    [ Reply to This ]

Ancient rock art may depict exploding star by Anonymous on Tuesday, 06 June 2006
A rock carving discovered in Arizona might depict an ancient star explosion seen by Native Americans a thousand years ago, scientists announced today.

If confirmed, the rock carving, or "petroglyph" would be the only known record in the Americas of the well-known supernova of the year 1006.

The carving was discovered in White Tanks Regional Park just outside Phoenix, in an area believed to have been occupied by a group of Native Americans called the Hohokam from about 500 to 1100 A.D.

The finding is being announced today at the 208th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Calgary, Canada.
Night light

In the spring of 1006, stargazers in Asia, the Middle East and Europe recorded the birth of a "new star" above the southern horizon of the night sky, in the constellation Lupus, just south of Scorpio [simulation].

Unknown to them, what those ancient astronomers were actually witnessing was the swan song of a star as it blew itself apart in a violent explosion called a supernova.

Although nearly invisible today, the supernova of 1006, or SN 1006, was perhaps the brightest stellar event ever to occur in recorded human history. At its peak, the supernova was about the quarter the brightness of the moon, so radiant that people could have read by its light at midnight, scientists say.

The Hohokam petroglyph depicts symbols of a scorpion and stars that match a model showing the relative positions of the supernova with respect to the constellation Scorpius. The model was created by John Barentine, an astronomer at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico and Gilbert Esquerdo, a research assistant at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona.

"If confirmed, this discovery supports the idea that ancient Native Americans were aware of changes in the night sky and moved to commemorate them in their cultural record," said Barentine, who studies Southwest archeology as a hobby.
Astronomer by day

Barentine thinks the finding could also help archeologists date other petroglyphs in the Southwest and elsewhere in the world. Dating art made by prehistoric Native Americans has traditionally been difficult because many did not have a written language and shared little in common with the culture and folklore of tribes that came later.

"Quantitative methods such as carbon-14 dating are alternative means to assign ages to works of prehistoric art, but they lack precision of more than a few decades, so any depiction in art that can be fixed to a specific year is extremely valuable," Barentine said.

A similar petroglyph discovered near Penasco Blanco in Chaco Canyon National Monument, New Mexico is also believed to represent a supernova, but one that occurred later, on July 4, 1054.
Source: CNN
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