About 6 miles outside Albuquerque there is a 17 mile long ridge containing nearly 10,000 ancient petroglyphs.
The Rio Grande Valley is not formed by the river but is a rift valley reaching from Chihauhau to Colorado. The river follows the rift. About 150,000 years ago volcanic eruptions caused a lava flow creating a reverse topography and the West Mesa escarpment. The basalt from the lava flow varies in depth from 5-50 ft. It overlays caprock river deposits up to 125,000 ft thick. Erosion caused huge pieces of the caprock to be strewn along the face of the escarpment and over the years oxidation has created a dark patina on the boulders surface. The petroglyphs were made by chipping off the patina with hard stones to create a high contrast image.
It is very difficult to date petroglyphs and though some may date to 1000BCE it is thought the majority date to about 1300 CE. At this time desertification had caused the people of Chaco Canyon to move south and settle the Rio Grande valley. These Pueblo Indians farmed corn, beans and squash by the "three sisters" method of planting in the same bed as now advocated by Carol Klein. They had domesticated dogs and turkeys, snared birds and rabbits and hunted deer,elk and antelope. They had extensive trade networks to the Pacific coast making jewellery from shells and and exchanged turquoise from Cerrilllos near Santa Fe for copper bells from the interior of Mexico. They also used the brightly coloured feathers of Macaws from the Mexican rainforests in their ceremonial dances as do the Pueblo Indians of today.
It is not possible to know the meaning of the petroglyphs but present day Indians recognise many of the signs as having meaning for them (which may vary by Clan).
Among the petroglyphs are gringin stones used to grind pigment and medicines and to sharpen tools.
We were intrigued that a common glyph was a spiral such as are common in Britain from about 2500BCE and are carved on New Grange in Ireland. To us there must be a connection but have no idea what.
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