“Chukui Kawi/Cerro Prieto ֍ Inscription Hill ֎ Pan Quemado: Yoeme Sacred Mountain, Hohokam Trincheras, and Petroglyphs” Sites Tour

TOUR FULL – WAITING LIST    On Saturday, December 7, 2024, join Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Chukui Kawi/Cerro Prieto ֍ Inscription Hill ֎ Pan Quemado: Yoeme Sacred Mountain, Hohokam Trincheras, and Petroglyphs” car-caravan cultural sites tour with Yoeme traditional culture specialist Felipe S. Molina and archaeologist Allen Dart. Participants will meet at 8:00 a.m. at McDonald’s Restaurant, located at 13934 N. Sandario Rd., Marana, Arizona (near Interstate 10 Exit 236). This car-caravan tour will end around 5:00 p.m. There is a $55 requested donation per person ($45 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and S’edav Va’aki Museum Foundation members) supports Old Pueblo’s education programs about archaeology and traditional cultures.

Cerro Prieto (Spanish for “Dark Hill”) is a volcanic peak soaring about 900 feet above the surrounding plain in the Ironwood Forest National Monument northwest of Tucson. It is a sacred place known to the Yoeme (Yaqui Indians) as Chukui Kawi (“Black Mountain”) and one of the largest and most complex US archaeological sites featuring trincheras – massive rock-work terraces built on steep hillsides. The archaeological features were constructed and used by the Hohokam culture during the Tanque Verde phase (1150-1300 CE) and include house foundations, waffle gardens, check dams, trail systems, petroglyphs, rock walls, talus pits, and a stone source used to produce agave knives, suggesting its use for a variety of residential functions, ceremonies, and agriculture. Inscription Hill contains one of the densest petroglyph groupings in southern Arizona, encompassing at least 1,225 individual glyphs plus bedrock metates, trincheras, trail segments, and talus pits. During this trip Yoeme traditional culture specialist Felipe Molina will discuss the significance of Chukui Kawi to the Yoeme and archaeologist Al Dart will lead us to some of the Cerro Prieto trincheras and the nearby Inscription Hill petroglyphs.

Reservations and donation prepayments required by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, December 4. Call 520-798-1201 or email info@oldpueblo.org.

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Caption: One of the massive trincheras at Cerro Prieto (above), photo by Allen Dart; and some petroglyphs at Inscription Hill, photo by Tom Herrick.