Equinox Sunset at Parowan Gap
Parowan Gap is a canyon and passage through the Red Hills west of
Parowan Valley. When the first Mormon Pioneers came there in
1849, Chief Wakara, a widely revered and greatly respected Paiute
tribal leader, told them that Parowan Gap was "God's Own House."
Recent research and observation is making both the scientist and
casual visitor take this statement very seriously. There are
solar and lunar events that happen there which were created by no
human intervention. Phenomena occur which create a natural
calendric structuring of the year's times and seasons with a kind
of "Primal Logic of Nature". The pre-Columbian Fremont Peoples
of the Parowan Valley noticed these yearly events and recorded
them by date number and in many symbolic petroglyphic
inscriptions.
Walk with me now on a short path of discovery to see how the ancient peoples of the Intermountain Region calendared their year and attuned there lives to the flow of time and the changing seasons. First we must understand that for pre-Columbian people of the region there was no lexicon or dictionary. This means that while they have had common or similar calendaring schema, they did not have identical ways of representing it. However they did have the neccessity to represent it. Consider this: if a person was using a solar motion calendar and determined the time of the year by the sun's position along the horizon, he would have to not just know the position of the sun but also know where it had come from and were it is going. Each solar position is only meaningful relative to the sun's total motion. The sun's total swing of the horizons must be understood by the observer and carried with him as a mental construct. This visualization could only be handed from one generation to the next through representation. These representations, as they appear on the rocks, are what we are researching.
However even though there was no lexicon, a dictionary on stone is a little tough to pack around, the solar motion itself is the standard which is the same for all observers. Therefore that angle through which the sun moves between the solstice became a symbol of representation for the year, the semester between solstices and for time itself.
In 1983 a calendar was discovered at the confluence of Rochester
Creek and The Muddy River in Emery County, Utah. This calendared
functioned with a post (i.e.gnomon) placed in front of the
petroglyphic panel. When the post was in place, it cast a
shadow at sunrise on date markers on the panel. The shadow's
position indicated the dates which divided the half year between
the solstices into four 45 day periods. However
a kind of time laps photography of the mind can create the
complete semiannual form of the calendar, as drawn above. Over
the inter-soltitial period, the shadow of the post moved up and
down the panel face. The intervals of the these angles have been
reproduced in various forms at wide spread petroglyphic sites
often taking on the shape of a hand. Once the calendar was
discovered and observed to function, it was then possible to
understand glyphic numbers inscribed at the panel. The counting
device made it possible to count the days and predict the time
between observable events.
The Cairn Marked Observation Stations at Parowan Gap
At Parowan Gap in Iron County, Utah a mountain was split open by
a volcanic intrusion. The split mountain is composed of the
overlying sandstone formation and contains many, many
petroglyphic inscriptions. The pre-Columbian peoples attributed
great power to the site which is apparent in view of the severed
mountain. This place is called Parowan Gap. At dusk, the
setting sun casts an illuminating ray of light through the Gap
narrows visible as a "V" shaped projection on the hills east of
the narrows. If one uses the dates of
seasonal transition taken from Rochester Creek and applies their
angular form to the projected sunset angles at Parowan Gap, one
finds a complete system of cairns, or gatherings of stones,
marking observation stations on those same dates.
The Parowan Gap Zipper Glyph Calendar
The Lunar Metonic Panal
Once the solar calendar had been deciphered, it was logical to
expect that a lunar calendar should also be present containing
the same level of skillful understanding. It only took a little
searching to find the Metonic panel with its lunar counts and
monthly periods. In the figure above the symbols and counts
all fit into lunar motion. In the big-smile glyph there are
nineteen teeth the most fascinating count on the lunar panel. In
front of the panel is a standing rock creating a narrow slot
between the rock and the panel. Sighting through the slot points
to the place of the moon's southernmost rise. The nineteen year
Metonic cycle and the regression of the lunar nodes slip into
synchronization creating long series of full moon rises at
nineteen year intervals on or very near summer solstice
observable through the slot. Above is the Metonic Panel and an
artist's, Jan Wright's, conception of the full moon rising in the
slot.
The two photos above are of the summer and winter solstice
sunsets and were taken from observation points marked by cairns
as was the equinox sunset at the top of this web page. There are
two additional observation points not yet discussed here. These
are the cross quarters which are the midpoint dates between the
solstices and equinoxes. The cross quarters are the key points
of seasonal transition on the Zipper Glyph as well as key points
of seasonal transition on the horizon. The Zipper Glyph's form
and counts were made to nicely correspond to these key horizon
events.
In grand sum, we have a petroglyphic archaeo-
astronomical calendar at Parowan Gap with correlated numbers,
dates and observation point alignments that still functions to
this day. There are multiple cairns on the key date alignments,
and multiple events to observe for a full year calendar. There
are observable events, correlated counts, marked alignments for
the sun and the moon. And the same calendar is observable at
multiple sites.
If you want to express your opinion about the site and the research done thus far, click on the Peer Review Evaluation Form above. Also, detailed information about the site is now available from the principle archaeo-astronomical researcher on the Project, Nal Morris.
Parowan Gap Archaeoastronomy Report, Volume I,
Space, Time, Light and Number
©Solarnetics Inc.
CONTACT:
Nal Morris
Phone: 801-484-8356 or 801-557-1207 or
e-mail: nowell.morris@solarnetics.com