What do the petroglyphs of the American Southwest represent? There are more than 10,000 ancient petroglyphs scattered across the region which have baffled experts since their discovery. Some of these petroglyphs depict strange faces with almond-shaped eyes, abstract symbols, spiral’s, zig-zag’s, beings with antennas, horns and feathers, birds, and beings with massive round eyes, among countless other shapes.

If we take a trip from southeastern Arizona, northeastern Sonora through southern New Mexico and northern Chihuahua into western Texas we will find hundreds of ancient petroglyphs the ancient’s left us in stunning galleries of mysterious and ‘controversial’ images mostly chiseled on stone surfaces.

There are so many petroglyphs across the region that its hard to even start of describing them.

Intricate images were discovered etched on the rocks of canyons and mountains ranging from deep in Mexico to the northern Rockies. Most of these intricate symbols and markings are concentrated in the American Southwest—Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Texas, and California—but the truth is that they have been found from coast to coast in the United States.

In fact, archeologists believe there are thousands of rock art sites across the Southwest—and more than 7,000 symbols have been cataloged in Utah alone.

Deciphering the exact meaning of the thousands of petroglyphs carved across the American continent has been a difficulty for experts who are stuck between two worlds, when it comes to understanding what the ancients were trying to tell us, written in stone. While some petroglyphs point out the obioucs—ancients hunting, and animals from the region—other petroglyphs have caused confusion among experts. There are certain petroglyphs carved across the American Southwest that give rise to countless theories—and depictions of aliens and distant galaxies is one of the most controversial explanations.

Most of the petroglyphs we will look at in this article are connected to the ancient Puebloan cultures and the ancient people known as the Anasazi, an ancient civilization which has been credited with constructing supermassive cliff-dwellings in the southwestern landscape.

Throughout the years, experts have determined that the intricate symbols scattered across the area are clan or tribal symbols, believed to have been associated with territory.

Others stone etchings indicate the presence of shelter and water, but the more eccentric symbols, like the countless zigzags, spirals, dots, circles, and others have created confusion among experts. Curiously, archaeoastronomers believed how a number of the rock carvings across the region are celestial in nature, and some of them indicate solstices and planetary movements, and there are even archaeological sites that have been found to be astronomical observatories similar in function to one of Europe’s most noteworthy, Stonehenge.

One of the most peculiar rock etchings—and a personal favorite—is without a doubt the “Canyon Watchmen” chiseled on a rock at the Organ Mountains in New Mexico.

The curious image depicts what seems to be a humanoid figure with large eyes and two antennas protruding from the top of its head.

Some experts want to believe that this was the depiction of an ancient Shaman, but there are many who remained convinced that what we are seeing here, is in fact a depiction of the “Sky God” beings who came to Earth thousands of years ago and interacted with ancient cultures across the planet.

Another interesting set of ancient petroglyphs we have to take a look at, originates from an ancient culture of indigenous people from Southern New Mexico and Arizona, Northern Sonora and Chihuahua, and Western Texas, a region popularly referred to as OasisAmerica: the Mogollon Culture—an ancient people whose origins remains a mystery for scholars. Scholars are having a hard time understanding where this ancient culture originated from. One theory suggests how the ancient Mogollon emerged from a preceding Desert Archaic tradition that links Mogollon ancestry with the first prehistoric human occupations of the area—sometime around 9000 BCE.  But, like many other things in our history, these are just speculations.

It is noteworthy to mention that archaeologists believe that the Western Pueblo villages of the Hopi and Zuni people are related to the Mogollon.

Across the 100,000 square-mile area that encompasses the Mimbres branch of the Mogollon to the west all the way to the Jornada branch to the east, archaeologists have found COUNTLESS symbols etched in stone—standing the test of time—depicting strange faces with almond-shaped eyes, abstract symbols, spiral’s, zig-zag’s, beings with antennas, horns, and feathers, birds and beings with massive round eyes, among countless other shapes. We can find 3000 Jornada Mogollon rock paintings alone depicting strange creatures which experts have failed to understand.

More intricate symbols can be found at Grapevine Canyon which feature more than 700 strange petroglyphs which are believed to date back between 1100 and 1900 A.D. Just as other petroglyphs, those at Grapevine Canyon remain a mystery since both the meaning of the glyphs and their creators remain an enigma, although the area was inhabited by the ancient Mojave.

Although such evidence of Alien visitation is far from conclusive, and merely circumstantial at this point—kind’a like religion?—the presumption is sufficient to clarify an obligation to take it into consideration, right?

Perhaps the most controversial question that still needs answering is, “Who were these strange beings that arrived from the sky riding “huge thundering birds,” as described by ancient cultures not only in the American continent but around the planet.

Reference:

Desert USA

Images: Wayne Snuggs—Check out the store.