“Spring Equinox Tour to Los Morteros Village and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Archaeological Sites”

TOUR FILLED – WAITING LIST   On Monday, March 20, 2023, join Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Spring Equinox Tour to Los Morteros Village and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Archaeological Sites” with archaeologist Allen Dart. This will begin at 8:00 a.m. to noon, departing from near Silverbell Road and Linda Vista Blvd. in Marana, Arizona. There is a requested $35 donation ($28 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and Friends of Pueblo Grande Museum members) helps cover Old Pueblo’s tour expenses and supports its education programs about archaeology and traditional cultures.

The 2023 vernal equinox occurs on Monday March 20 at 2:24 pm Arizona/Mountain Standard Time (9:24 pm Greenwich Mean Time). To celebrate the equinox, archaeologist Allen Dart (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s executive director) leads this tour to Los Morteros, an ancient village site that includes a Hohokam ballcourt, bedrock mortars, and other archaeological features; and to Picture Rocks, where ancient petroglyphs include a solstice and equinox calendar marker, dancing human-like figures, whimsical animals, and other rock symbols made mostly Hohokam Indians between 800 and 1100 CE. An equinox calendar petroglyph at the site exhibits a specific interaction with a ray of sunlight on the morning of each equinox regardless of the hour and minute of the actual celestial equinox, so participants in this tour will see that sunlight interaction with the calendar glyph unless clouds block the sunlight.

Donations are due 10 days after reservation request or by 5 pm Thursday March 16, whichever is earlier: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.

Flyer: 20230320(v1)LosMorteros&PictureRocksSpringEquinoxTour

Caption: Equinox “sun dagger” on spiral petroglyph at Picture Rocks site, Pima County, Arizona, photo by Tom Herrick