THE MILKY WAY IN ROCK ART:

 

The Milky Way. Vera Rubin Observatory photograph.

It is almost universally accepted that ancient cultures were very interested in the heavens, and we can assume that the prehistoric creators of petroglyphs and pictographs were also fascinated by questions of the universe. It could not have been possible to not be fascinated by the Milky Way.

Nut, Egyptian sky goddess. Internet image, public domain.

Among the most prominent features of the night sky is the side view of our galaxy that we call the Milky Way. Ancient cultures had to have an explanation for it that satisfied their world view and mythology. “The Egyptians, for examples, may not have been the only culture to link the Milky Way to a sky goddess who gives birth to other gods and, especially, other celestial objects.” (Graur 2024:37)

Citlalicue, sky-goddess. Internet image, public domain.

Peoples of the Americas had their own beliefs concerning the Milky Way. “Several of the pages in the Codex Borgia, a pre-Colombian pictorial manuscript composed by the Tlaxa-caltec people of the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley in Mexico, include images of elongated beings covered with stars. These beings have been identified as the Milky Way as well as the goddess Citlalicue (Star Skirt), the “… goddess of the stars …”, and the mother of several gods, including the Venus god Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl is shown cutting his way out of the belly of Citlalicue; this and other, similar scenes in Co-dex Borgia 29-46 are interpreted as Venus crossing the Milky Way.” (Graur 2024:37)

Similar views of the Milky Way are found across Mesoamerica (Milbrath, 1999: 41). The dead of the Yucatec Maya travel along the Milky Way at night (Sosa, 1985: 432). The Quiché Maya see the Galaxy as two of four cosmic roads. Of these, the Black Road (Q’eqa b’e) or Road of Xibalba (Ri b’e xib’alb’a), which is identified with the dark band of the Milky Way’s Great Rift, leads to the underworld (Tedlock, 1985: 36, 337, 354). Similarly, the Lacandón call the Milky Way the “… white way of our true lord …”, Hachäkyum, the ruler of heaven populated by the dead.” (Graur 2024:39)

Mayan two-headed sky monster, from Clopan, altar 4,  Late Classic Period. Image from Mary Miller and Karl Taube,The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya, Thames and Hudson, London, 1993.

The ancient Maya saw the Milky Way as a serpentine monster with a head at each end. “Specifically, the two-headed monster known as the Celestial Monster or Cosmic Monster. This particular supernatural creature usually has either a crocodilian or sky band body, but in at least one example, cloud scrolls form the body. - - Most commonly, the Bicephalic Monster frames scenes of accession or rulership for the Maya, but its intrinsic meaning may be to represent the arc of the heavens, the front head being identified with Venus, pulling behind it the fleshless head of the Sun in the Underworld .” (Miller and Taube 1993:45) This is considerably more picturesque than many other beliefs, but then the Maya did have amazing imaginations and left us many images of them.

First Nations people in North America had a range of beliefs concerning the Milky Way. “Many Native American peoples across North America view the Milky Way as a road along which the spirits of the dead travel to the afterlife. The souls (tasoom) of the Cheyenne are said to travel toward the home of Hemmawihio (The Wise One Above), an all-knowing high god re-presented by the Sun, via the Milky Way, which is known as ekutsihimmiyo (Adamson Hoebel, 1960: 86–87). The Lakota name for the Milky Way is Wanáǧi Thacháŋku, the Spirits’ Road, which the Lakota follow to heaven when they die (Hollabaugh, 2017: 70–72). The Pawnee come to this life as the children of stars and, when they die, become stars once more. The stars of the Milky Way are the ancestors of the Pawnee moving from this world to the next (Pawnee Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Office, pers. comm., 2022)..” (Graur 2024:39) The idea that the Milky Way is a road or a path is a very common belief all around the world.

Chaco Canyon petroglyph panel. Photograph by Suzan Bradford.

Suzan Bradford's photograph overlaid against the Milky Way. Image by Robert Juhl.

Back in 2014 Robert A. Juhl sent me a PowerPoint presentation that he had created based upon a rock art photograph from Chaco Canyon that had been taken by Susan Bradford. In this presentation he likened the petroglyphs panel in the photograph to details of the Milky Way in the region of Scorpius in the night sky. When he superimposed the petroglyphs panel over this section of the Milky Way a crack across the panel seems to conform with the ‘Great Rift’ in the Milky Way, and he could match up a number of other details in the panel and the Milky Way. Additionally, although Juhl does not make this claim in his PowerPoint, the other features on the panel could represent constellations in that section of sky.

In the area of the American southwest tribes, the Milky Way is known as Ashes placed across the sky, or the Great Snowdrift in the sky by the Zuni people. (Miller 1997:183) In the design for a Navajo sand painting in the Shooting Chant Father Sky on the left side shows the Milky Way across his chest as a row of connected diamonds. (Miller 1997:187) But, most tribes in North and Central America connect the Milky Way with a path arcing across the night sky.

 

Rochester Creek petroglyph panel. Photograph Peter Faris, August 1993. Reminiscent of Nut arched across the sky, with a push me-pull you in the upper left corner to represent the Mayan two-headed monster?

With that definition in mind I will present as a possible representation of the Milky Way the great panel at Rochester Creek, near the junction with Muddy Creek near Emery, Utah. The arc in the panel might be seen as representing the Milky Way, and the creatures scattered around it might represent the constellations as identified by the people. As I said above, this is only a possibility, the arc in the panel is often presented as a rainbow as well, but the Milky Way and surrounding constellations might be a better explanation of the other figures on the panel. In any case, it is an interesting question and kind of fun to speculate on.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Graur, Or, 2024, The Ancient Egyptian Personification of the Milky Way as the Sky-Goddess Nut: An Astronomical and Cross-Cultural Analysis, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 27(1), 28-45.

Juhl, Robert A., 2013, The Milky Way in Chaco Rock Art, Version 18. PowerPoint presentation.

Miller, Dorcas S., 1997, Stars of the First People, Pruett Publishing Co., Boulder, Colorado.

Miller, Mary, and Karl Taube, 1993, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya, Thames and Hudson, London.

SECONDARY REFERENCES:

Adamson Hoebel, E., 1960. The Cheyennes: Indians of the Great Plains. New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Milbrath, S., 1988. Birth images in Mixteca-Puebla art. In Miller, V.E. (ed.), The Role of Gender in Pre-Colombian Art and Architecture. Lanham, University Press of America. Pp. 153–178.

Milbrath, S., 1999. Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars. Austin, University of Texas Press.

 

Tedlock, D., 1985. Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life, Revised Edition. New York, Simon & Schuster.