Sinagua Sunwatchers: An Archaeoastronomy Survey of the V Bar V Heritage Site and the Sacred Mountain Basin

The V Bar V Heritage Site is located about 12 miles southeast of Sedona, Arizona, within the Red Rock District of the Coconino National Forest. The site was originally discovered soon after Euro-Americans settled the Beaver Creek area in the 1860’s. Although known to archaeologists since the early 1900’s, its significance was not realized until the Forest Service acquired the V Bar V Ranch and several parcels of land along Beaver Creek as part of a land exchange with the University of Arizona in 1994. A sandstone bluff, heavily coated in desert varnish, contains over 1,030 petroglyphs. One of the primary west-facing panels, with more than 125 petroglyphs, includes eleven elements that are ascribed to have astronomical associations. Beginning in March 2005, a year-long survey was begun to document light and shadow effects on this petroglyph panel, referred to as the Solar Panel. This study suggested that great care was taken to mark the passage of time and the arrival of specific points in time, and supports the primary hypothesis that a cycle of annual, calendrical-based rituals and practices were associated with the Southern Sinagua culture that occupied this site from as early as A.D. 950 to A.D. 1450. This study documented the recording of time over a 12-month period through the play of light and shadow on petroglyph images and by the use of natural or man-made features on the bluff. It has been shown that the light and shadow patterns display their unique configurations at specific times. With years of observations, the Sinagua and other prehistoric sun watchers, would have noted the repetition of certain events at regularly spaced intervals, most easily seen during the solstice and equinox events.