Deer Valley Rock Art site is located in the north
suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona. It was my good fortune to visit the site on the morning of
May 28, 2005 and talk with Desert Little
Bear (a Pascua Yaqui/Chiricahua Apache). He is a modern rock artist and works at the
Deer Valley Rock Art center as a site interpreter/guide.
Deer Valley Rock Art is managed and protected by
the Anthropology Department of Arizona State University. The photographs posted at this website
have been cropped and enhanced (increased contrast/increased darkness) using Photoshop. The
official Deer Valley Rock Art Center webpage is:
http://www.asu.edu/clas/anthropology/dvrac/.
I recommend the webpage of Desert Little Bear:
http://www.rockartcreations.com/index.html
One of the main panels contains over a dozen of deer.
Two deers are shown nose to nose in the rock art panel.
Several Native American culture groups in the Southwest
have an annual deer dance. The deer imagery at sites such as Deer Valley Rock Art site
could be related to annual ceremonies concerning the deer.
Drawing done by the archaeologists at the Rock Art Center.
Desert Little Bear points out the
petroglyph of a hand.
Hand petroglyph.
Anthropomorph (human like figure) with a design
that resembles smoke or spirit rising from its right hand.
Large boulder with the design of a sun burst.
Halfway up the side of the small hill are two anthropomorph petroglyphs.
Closeup of the two anthropomorphs. Desert Little Bear reports that
Native Americans of different tribes perceive
this image in different ways. My immediate impression of the image as that this was
a portrayal of Corn Spirit based upon the "root-like" attributes of its legs and feet.
Drawing of the two anthropomorphs by the archaeologists at Arizona State University.
General view of the hill covered with basalt boulders.
The summit of the hill could have functioned as a shrine.
More animal petroglyphs.
Boulder with 2 pairs of wavy line petroglyphs.
Boulder with a circle and single zig-zag petroglyph.
Circles and lines petroglyphs.
Closeup of Cicles.
Spiral or snake petroglyph.
Segmented petroglyph on a boulder near the visitor's center.
Chart from the Deer Valley Rock Art visitor's center discussing time periods of
rock art in the State of Arizona.
Map from the Deer Valley Rock Art visitor's center showing rock art styles
within the modern State of Arizona.
Visitor's Center sign.