Zion National Park
Rock Art:
Sacrifice Rock
This page contains a discussion of the rock art found at the Sacrifice Rock rock art site, in Zion National Park. All photographs are from our our personal collection. If you'd like to see more rock art from this location, or if you'd like to see higher resolution or larger images, send us an e-mail message and we'll see what we can do.
- Archaeological Resources Protection Act Hotline: 800-227-7286.
- See Archaeological Site Etiquette.
- See American Antiquities Act of 1906.
- See Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979.
- See More Rock Art Sites.
This is a very small site, located within a small space on a single large rock that has fallen from the cliffs high above. It is obvious that the rock has been in place for quite some time, and that it was in this location when the petroglyphs were placed upon it.
The site is called Sacrifice Rock because of the vandalism that has occurred here.
This is probably a Virgin River Puebloan site, and it is thought that the spiral here may have been used as a solar calendar, representing the summer solstice. Apparently on June 21st the rock high above casts its shadow upon the spiral, resembling an open jawed coyote.
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What you see on these three photos is pretty much the entire site. You can see the various scratches and names created by vandals, but the main Puebloan images still show through. |
The main features are the various turkey feet, the smallish concentric circle, and what appears to be a canine of some variety. One question might be that, if this is truly a seasonal calendar, are the turkey feet placed randomly, or do they align with the seasonal shadows. Also ... the Virgin Puebloans were not known for their agriculture, being more hunter-gatherers. If this is true, why then would they need a solar calendar? |
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In this shot you can clearly see two turkey feet and what appears to be a circle with a dot carved inside. All very simple and straight forward. |
More Rock Art
All of these photos have been resized and manipulated in Photoshop to give the best representation of the image. Some color distortion is inevitable. If you would like to see higher quality versions of these shots, or if you would like to use these images for any purpose, please contact us and we would be glad to help if we can.
