Spiro Mounds Oklahoma Mark Stars Between Gemini Auriga and Lynx and Mark the Galactic Meridian

There may be some who think that marking the Galactic Meridian and Galactic Equator at the Toltec Mounds in Arkansas, as we deciphered them in our next to previous posting, is unlikely.

How wrong they are proven by the neighboring Spiro Mounds of Oklahoma, which we decipher to mark the Galactic Meridian at the confluence of minor stars we modernly assign to Gemini, Auriga and Lynx. Indeed, there is no other reason to mark these rather insignificant stars by mounds.

Our own map drawing of mound positions relies on "Map 3" at SpiroMound.com at http://www.spiromound.com/, which states at that website that "[t]he information is taken from our book, The Spiro Mound: A Photo Essay". Map 3 is "after" Brown (1996) and Newkumet (1940). Those sources and the Spiro Mounds Oklahoma Historical Society should be consulted for official maps. 

We show various star magnitude limits in the above decipherment image because it is not always easy to tell exactly which bright stars the ancients picked out for their megalithic, mound, petroglyph or rock art stellar (star) markings, though of course the brightest star predominate, but for special measurements, lesser stars need to be used.

In the above decipherment image, we first show the stars by a star magnitude limit of 5.25 (only one extraneous star appears then in the right "group of 4", and is not shown any more by a setting of 5.03), while two missing "mounded" stars in the line of the stars at the left appear by a maximum limit of 6.03. Consider that the default star magnitude limit setting at Starry Night Pro is 6.0. Even if the star magnitude limit is increased, no new stars appear in that line.

The so-called "Copple Mound" at the Spiro Mounds marks no particular star because there are none at that location, but marks the Galactic Meridian. That is the chief function of the Spiro Mounds, since there is no other reason to have "mounded" these particular normally insignificant stars. The "star declination" of the Copple Mound position would appear to be near 30° and surely so intended.

THIS POSTING IS Posting Number 35 of
The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America

Spiro Mounds Oklahoma Mark Stars Between Gemini Auriga and Lynx and Mark the Galactic Meridian

Toltec Mounds in the Archaeological State Park Arkansas Mark Stars of Auriga as a Boat, the Milky Way, and Galactic Equator and Meridian

The Toltec Mounds of Arkansas, USA, also known as the Knapp Mounds, are located at the Toltec Mounds Archaeological State Park just south of Little Rock, Arkansas, and pursuant to our decipherment, mark stars of Auriga and more.

The Toltec Mounds Archaeological State Park website at http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/toltecmounds/
has official maps online of the mound locations, and our illustrated map in the decipherment above is based on those maps, but in no way affiliated with Arkansas State Parks, relying on the mound locations given (please go to the park site for official maps!) and locating corresponding stars via Starry Night Pro software, http://astronomy.starrynight.com.

We always draw our own maps and illustrations to avoid copyright issues and because in the course of drawing them, we often make new observations.

Please note that greyed out areas in the image above mark former earthworks while the blacked areas show mounds and embankments still existing either fully or in part. Stars corresponding to mounds are marked by us in red in the star positions via Starry Night Pro, which also "colors" the Milky Way so its outlines can be seen. Here one sees that the ancients used "Indian Trails" to mark the bright sections of the Milky Way. Indeed, the Milky Way markings turned out to be the only way to be assured that the upper stars we have designated (some now counted to Perseus) are properly assigned to the upper mounds, rather than stars directly further above Menkalinen. The Perseus stars are in the Milky Way, and the others not, and an Indian Trail marks that edge.

As one can see from our decipherment image, the Toltec Mounds of Arkansas mark mostly the stars of Auriga, plus a few stars up at the top which we today assign to Perseus.

Bright stars are generally marked individually by larger mounds than stars of a less bright star magnitude (magnitudes are given a lower number the brighter the star) and in some cases groups of still weaker shining stars are grouped together in one symbol, as we know from previous postings, these often marked then by a particular shape, i.e. a square for a group of four or a rectangle for a line-up of 2 or more stars or even an unusual shape, as e.g. mound C, which marks a front row of stars and than curves toward the back for the one star.

The Indian trails mark the Milky Way, while the entire group of stars marked by the mounds and embankments is in the shape of an ancient boat, not that different from a canoe, with a front, deeper keel viz. rudder or oar arguably found at Mounds I, N and H and the arguably back rudder at Mound E marking the intersection of the Galactic Equator and Galactic Meridian. This must have been seen as the "ultimate" heavenly boat at that "galactic steering location".

Toltec Mounds in the Archaeological State Park Arkansas Mark Stars of Auriga as a Boat, the Milky Way, and Galactic Equator and Meridian

THIS POSTING IS Posting Number 34 of
The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America

Rock Art Sites in Southwestern Arizona Mark Stars of Leo and the Summer Solstice ca. 3000 BC at Quitobaquito

Based on our previous postings by which we have deciphered rock art and petroglyphs of sites that mark Taurus, Orion and Gemini, the rock art sites of southwestern Arizona to the north and west of those deciphered locations must logically mark stars int that portion of the heavens to which we modernly assign the stars of Cancer and/or Leo, and that is the case.

We are not in any way affiliated with the Sears Point Rock Art Recording Project, Arizona, USA, but are very thankful for a large map they have produced of the location of extensive rock art sites in southwestern Arizona.

See Evelyn Billo, Robert Mark, Ph.D. and Donald E. Weaver, Jr. Ph.D., Sears Point Rock Art Recording Project, Arizona, USA, IFRAO 2013 Proceedings, American Indian Rock Art, Volume 40, American Rock Art Research Association, 2013, pp 1283-1302, Mavis Greer Session Editor, Peggy Whitehead Volume Editor, found online at www.rupestrian.com/Sears_Point_IFRAO2013.pdf.

Those authors write as follows concerning the fact that the massive amount of rock art found on the Gila River in SW Arizona is not placed randomly:

"As the mapping of petroglyph panels progressed, it became obvious that the cliffs and talus slopes facing the Gila River floodplain were selected preferentially over interior locations. It was also evident that petroglyphs were not evenly or randomly distributed along the cliffs and talus slopes, as there were regions devoid of glyphs."

Indeed, that is quite correct. There is a system at the root of rock art locational placement and that system is the astronomical one of land survey that we have been posting about now for several months.

Based on that map of site locations, here shown in our own simplified illustration -- together with corresponding star positions via Starry Night Pro -- there is little doubt that the rock art site locations of the Sears Point Rock Art Recording Project, taken as a whole, mark stars in a star group we today call Leo, indeed, in an original design that must date to ca. 3000 B.C.

This does not have to mean that the rock art itself dates that far back, as newer rock art could be found painted on much older sites. Indeed, researchers often make the mistake of seeing only the painted rock art and not the carved rock figures, usually larger and more basic, from earlier eras beneath them. This also applies to individual megaliths, carved long before they were painted.

In showing site location and star correspondence, we set the star magnitude limit at 7.0, surely seen easily in the desert in prehistoric days.
 
The ca. 3000 B.C. date is fixed by the position of the rock sites found below the main string of recognizable stars of Leo. These lower stars are otherwise insignificant, but in ca. 3000 B.C. they marked the Summer Solstice point.

The Summer Solstice Point marked by the locations of the Sears Point Rock Art Recording Project is IDENTICAL to the Summer Solstice point marked in Leo on Monolith #1 at the Herschel Petroglyphs, which we have already deciphered in a previous posting, and that most readers have not recognized yet to be one of the most important of all of our postings.

That correspondence in Arizona shows clearly the relationship of the 5000-year old Herschel Petroglyphs site in today's Saskatchewan to the oldest of the sites in the Sears Point Rock Art Recording Project. All stem from the same general "Archaic" era and from the same land survey by astronomy.

The Summer Solstice Point  as marked by the southwestern Arizona site locations is found marked specifically at a place called Quitobaquito at the meeting of the ecliptic meridian and celestial equator in 3000 B.C.

Many readers will know from the city of Quito in Ecuador, which marks the Earth's Equator, that the word "quito" is thought to take its origin from root words meaning "center viz. navel of the world". This would also fit the combination quito-ba-quito as the Sun at its center at the Summer Solstice at the "celestial equator" above the normal equator.

Quitobaquito Springs are an amazing oasis in a dry part of the Sonoran Desert which is located in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument of Arizona http://www.nps.gov/orpi/index.htm.

There are in fact petroglyphs in the Organ Pipe Cactus Monument that clearly mark the sun at a specific place within the stars as cupules. The stones are broken so we do not go into an interpretation here. But take a look. See http://www.nps.gov/orpi/images/20080717193449.JPG at http://organpipehistory.com/history-and-people/prehistory/.

Here are the decipherment images.

THIS POSTING IS Posting Number 33 of
The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America

Rock Art Sites in Southwestern Arizona Mark Stars of Leo and the Summer Solstice ca. 3000 BC at Quitobaquito in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument: We Rely on a Map of the Sears Point Rock Art Recording Project