“We’re all ghosts.
We all carry, inside us,
People who came before us.”
― Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas
A perfect day of exploring to share with you. Bar V Bar Ranch on the Wet Beaver Creek, a calm, peaceful, and historically rich riparian area that runs as a tributary to the Verde River in Arizona, United States of America. It is one of my favorite areas to spend an afternoon, for the sounds of the creek, birds, the remnants of ranching, the lizard, rabbits, deer, and snake; the easy green to the eye glimpse of the pastures and irrigated terraced gardens of seven hundred years ago. Worthy of Reverence Cottonwood and Sycamore trees; And over one thousand pectroglyphs, the oldest thought to date back to around 650 AD.
Petroglyphs are humans expressing themselves by pecking, grounding, and scratching into rock surfaces, with a harder material creating symbols, figures, and intricate designs–charming and challenging the imagination of those who come to spend time with them.
This riparian area, abundant in fertile soil, animals, plants, and water,as well as a moderate climate provided an excellent choice for the Southern Sinagua, the creators of the Pectroglyphs. They settled into this area around 650 AD, with villages of three to ten families scattered throughout the Verde Valley seemingly thriving between 1150 and 1300. Then, fluctuations in climate had the Sinaqua consolidating their communities along the perennial creeks and Verde River, to about fifty pueblos housing 20 to 100 families. By 1400 the entire area was abandoned. It is said that the Sinagua joined the historical Hopi people.
The pectroglyphs of V Bar V number over 1,032, in four main panels, and unique in their style from other Native American Rock Art. Referred to as the Beaver Creek Style. Water birds, young girls identified by hair whorls, figures walking with back packs, as well as the pairing of many of the figures, indicate the Beaver Creek Style. 66 cupules also appear, deeper circular impressions ground within foot/paw, animals and human like figures. These are thought to be related to calling of rain and fertility rituals.
Ancient calendars, honor of the elements, crop and human migration cycles, rituals, rites, honors, maps, and events. In truth, it is our own imaginations let loose at the V Bar V, that unveils itself to us in spending time at V Bar V. No one knows what the figures actually meant to the individuals whose ghosts linger in their art and in the very trees, rock, and creek of V Bar V. A most engaging ghost story to decipher. Enjoy!
Todays Music: West World Strings Cover:
May each and everyone have an excellent month of May. Peace and Blessings.
