Petroglyph National Monument And 14th Century Total Solar Eclipses

Oops! This was published a bit prematurely when I accidentally hit the publish button. . . It is, or will be. . . a somewhat updated and improved version of some comments that I made on an archaeologist's Facebook page recently.

I won't temporarily delete it by saving it as a draft again, but please consider this blog post to be a work in progress that will be worked on over the weekend before being finalized -

According to the information provided on the official Petroglyph National Monument website's FAQ page "Many of the American Indian petroglyph images were etched 300 to 700 years ago." Guess what. . . The paths of totality of several total solar eclipses criss-crossed New Mexico in the 14th century. The first was a hybrid eclipse that occurred on September 27, 1372 which would have been a total solar eclipse over New Mexico somewhat to the north east of the area. It was followed less than five years later by a total solar eclipse which would have been seen at the site and in much of northern New Mexico on May 16, 1379. On May 26, 1397, another total solar eclipse would have been witnessed in the area. That is three total solar eclipses within a space of 25 years. It is exactly this kind of series of total solar eclipses which inspires such responses.

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1361.GIF

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1381.GIF

The 15th century was not terribly interesting, but two total solar eclipses were seen over New Mexico in the 16th century. One hybrid eclipse would have been potentially observable to the south of the area on March 18, 1531 and a total solar eclipse over the area and all of central New Mexico occurred on April 28 1557. I see several petroglyphs that seem to be inspired by total solar eclipse phenomena just in the few photos you have provided here Jim.

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1521.GIF

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1541.GIF

Early eclipses -

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1061.GIF

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1081.GIF

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1101.GIF

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1181.GIF

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1221.GIF

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1241.GIF

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1301.GIF