While investigating a site within the US Southwest, archaeologists discovered a series of ancient rock carvings that early Native Americans can have used as a calendar.
The location, often known as the Castle Rock Pueblo, is on the Mesa Verde plateau straddling the Colorado-Utah border and is best known for the Ancestral Pueblo settlements which might be carved into the encompassing canyon partitions, in accordance with a statement.
The Ancestral Pueblo were a bunch of Indigenous peoples who inhabited the Castle Rock Pueblo from in regards to the 1250s to 1274, in accordance with a 2020 study within the journal Antiquity.
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“The agricultural Pueblo communities developed one of the vital advanced Pre-Columbian cultures in North America,” Radosław Palonka, an archaeology professor at Jagiellonian University in Poland who led the investigation, said within the statement. “They perfected the craft of constructing multi-story stone houses, resembling medieval town houses and even later blocks of flats. The Pueblo people were also famous for his or her rock art, intricately ornamented jewelry and ceramics bearing different motifs painted with a black pigment on white background.”
During their investigation, the archaeologists discovered a series of petroglyphs (rock carvings) chiseled into the canyon partitions high above the cliff settlements. The carvings, which include spirals stretching greater than 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter, proceed across greater than 2.5 miles (4 kilometers), in accordance with the statement.
“I used to think that we studied this area thoroughly, conducting full-scale excavations, geophysical surveying and digitalization,” Palonka said within the statement. “Yet, I had some hints from older members of the local people that something more may be present in the upper, less accessible parts of the canyons. We desired to confirm this information, and what we found surpassed our wildest expectations.”
Researchers think the Ancestral Pueblo used the panels as a calendar for “astronomical observations” and to commemorate “special days,” including the summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes, in accordance with the statement.