Sacred Places and Rock Art Sites in the Sonoran Desert: Defining Common Patterns

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Sacred Southwestern Landscapes: Archaeologies of Religious Ecology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Based on landscape archaeology, achaeoastronomy, the analysis of rock art iconography, and ethnohistoric and ethnographic documents, this paper proposes to define the factors that determine the sacredness of rock art sites in the Sonoran Desert. Well characterized common patterns can be found in most of the rock art sites that will be described, facts that confirm with certainty that we can speak of shared cultural traits within the region. As basic factors to be analyzed that can determine the sacredness of a rock art site, we can name: geomorphology; the presence of valued natural resources, such as water and wild flora and fauna; astronomical orientations of constructed structures; evidence of ritual activity; mythological narratives associated to the place; ethnohistoric and ethnographic documents related to religious beliefs and practices, in reference to the rock art sites; and iconographic and symbolic analysis of rock art images.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Sacred Southwestern Landscapes: Archaeologies of Religious Ecology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22892