The recent autumnal equinox ushered in a new season, illuminating countless rock art panels near Moab, Utah. Local archaeologist Rory Tyler has spent over 30 years documenting the annual event.
Ancient sites have been discovered where visitors can observe the transition from summer to fall as the sun perfectly aligns with images carved into rocks thousands of years ago.
Rory Tyler has been studying ancient rock art around Moab for 30 years, photographing and cataloging hundreds of sites. Several times while examining the panels, he has witnessed remarkable alignments of the sun and stars.
Years ago, a friend told Rory Tyler about a site near Moab that featured a huge petroglyph—a 12-foot-long snake. Although there were no obvious astronomical markers on the panel, Tyler witnessed a remarkable event on the summer solstice in 1997.
“When I got there, there was this perfect arrowhead of light on the snake's face, and my buddy Kyle came up two minutes later. I said, ‘Kyle, Kyle!’ and he said: ‘I don't see it,’” said Tyler.
It was gone in just 40 seconds. For that brief moment, sunlight in the shape of a perfectly defined arrowhead hovered over the snake before fading into a larger patch of light. Since that day, Tyler has recorded solstice and equinox displays at other sites where dozens of images are painted and etched onto the rock.
At one point, attention focuses on a small red figure that appears to be holding one side of a rectangular net. Tyler has found that the sun illuminates this image twice a year on both equinoxes. For a few minutes, a patch of sunlight completes the picture, and based on the style, he estimates this pictograph is between 2,000 and 4,000 years old.
“We're looking at an archaic painting. On the left-hand side, there's some sort of combination of a human and an animal form,” Tyler explained. “The animal form appears to be an owl. He has little ear-feathered tufts like an owl. He's got owl-like feet but he's got human hands and he's on one end of a net shape."
When the light arrives, it creates an awesomely beautiful shape: an elegant tooth-like form resembling a fang.
“Fang of light, the fang of day. If you're a hunter you want to have that ‘fang power;’ that's my story,” said Tyler.
Many people say that we cannot interpret or create stories because we will never know for certain. But Tyler says we can make an educated guess.
“I've seen so many of these … (like) the goose panel: (the) goose lays a golden egg at dawn on the first day of spring. Now, that's not an accident.”
He's talking about another equinox panel he has documented near Arches National Park. A goose appears to lay a golden egg of sunlight, which then travels down the panel and breaks, giving birth to a group of little goslings.
“You got to have your imagination with you. That's one of the big things about, you know, making rock art documentation so hard. There's a lot of imagination involved,” Tyler said.
These impressive and innovative visuals have been around for millions of years.
“The artist (used) the natural inclusions in the rock as part of their motif because those lines are natural but they seem to fit perfectly into that painted fence line, extending the fence metaphor,” explained Tyler.
Tyler is referring to gray erosion lines that run along the sides of the panel. The net ends at the corner of the panel, where the rock face slopes down and changes angles. However, those gray lines continue, giving the net a long, wispy tail.
Tyler does not believe this is an accident; he thinks it is meant to indicate that this is a good place to hunt.
One might ask: Is this art, or is it record-keeping?
“Oh, both of that," he said.
"Some people say, ‘Don't call it art, it's not really art.’ Art tells stories,” Tyler said, “and tells something about your culture, and it does right here as much as somebody like Jackson Pollock talks about the chaotic and messy nature of art”
Tyler said he has observed another equinox display at the same site, where light climbs up a wall and illuminates a man figure. The light divides the figure in half, holding symbolic meaning.
“The equinox, the day is the same length as the night so everything is kind of equally divided. And then what happens at a panel like this is half of it is lit up and half of it is in the dark, just like the cosmic scale,” explained Tyler.
After visiting these sites repeatedly, Tyler would feel a sense of anxiety while waiting for "it" to happen.
“And then when it happens, I feel really relieved,” Tyler explained. “It's like, it happened. It's working. Everything's in order. You know, I can count on this world. Everything in it to consistently support me the way it has been. I think that's probably the feeling they had in their hearts and minds, too.”
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