[TOUR FULL; waiting list started] Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Spring Equinox Tour of Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Archaeological Sites” with archaeologist Allen Dart, departing from near Silverbell Road and Linda Vista Blvd. in Marana, Arizona. Time: 8 a.m. to noon. Fee: $20 ($16 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary members). The 2016 vernal equinox occurs on Sunday March 20 at 4:30 Universal Time (London), which translates to Saturday March 19 at 9:30 p.m. MST in Tucson. To celebrate the equinox and the annual Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month, archaeologist Allen Dart (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s executive director) leads this tour to Los Morteros, and ancient village site that includes a Hohokam ballcourt and bedrock mortars, and to Picture Rocks, where ancient petroglyphs include a solstice and equinox marker, dancing human-like figures, whimsical animals, and other rock symbols made by Hohokam Indians between AD 650 and 1450. Reservations required by Friday March 18. 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.

Photo by Tom Herrick of an equinox “sun dagger” phenomenon on a Hohokam petroglyph in Pima County, Arizona.