3D IMAGES ON ROCK PROJECTIONS:

Large and small faces on projecting corners of rock, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, New Mexico. Photograph by Peter Faris.

We are used to thinking about rock art as being created on the flat face of a cliff, boulder or cave wall. There are many examples, however, where the image is carved or painted on an uneven surface, not just rough, but over or around a projection of the rock face. In many instances this seems to be an attempt to create a three-dimensional image.

Closeup of the small face on a projecting corner of rock, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, New Mexico. Photograph by Peter Faris.

At the Three Rivers petroglyphs site in New Mexico there are a number of human face petroglyphs. They are not as ornate as many from the Rio Grande area so it is not clear whether they are intended to represent masks or not. Some of them, however, have been carved around the corner of a boulder in a seemingly intentional effort at three-dimensional imagery. These images were carved by the Jornada Mogollon people between about 900 and 1300 CE.

By its very nature rock art is produced on generally uneven surfaces so there is some depth variation in most examples. This seems different, however, this looks very much like the corners of boulders were sought out to carve the faces on to produce the three-dimensional effect.

'Corner Mask', 3D face on a rock projection. Photograph provided by Margaret Berrier.

DStretch enhancement of the 'Corner Mask', 3D face on a rock projection. Photograph provided by Margaret Berrier.

Margaret Berrier (personal communication 2026) described these faces as “corner masks” and provided me with pictures of one that she has in her possession, adding she knows of another one. I am not completely comfortable with designating many of the faces at Three Rivers as masks. They lack much of the decorative detail found in acknowledge mask images from elsewhere in the southwest. I rather think that some of them are simply meant to be faces, perhaps portraits. Of course, if they have the added details they can and will, of course, be defined as masks. 

Face on a projecting corner of rock, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, New Mexico. Photograph from pinterest.

At the Three Rivers Site government signage identifies the makers of the imagery as Mogollon people, various other references use the phrase Jornada. In fact the people of the region of the Tularosa Basin, which the Three Rives Petroglyph Site is on the edge of, are referred to as Jornada Mogollon so the terms seem to be used almost interchangeably.

Face on a projecting corner of rock, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, New Mexico. Photograph by Peter Faris.

In his 1998 book ‘Signs of Life: rock art of the Upper Rio Grande’, Dennis Slifer calls the petroglyphs of faces found in the Upper Rio Grand ‘masks.’ “Apparently the masks represented ancestral spirits, similar to the kachinas of the modern Pueblo people. Consequently, the meanings must have been similar to those of Hopi, Zuni, and other pueblos in the Upper Rio Grande region.” (Slifer 1998:188) As I said above, however, Slifer’s masks usually have more detail and decorative elements than the faces at Three Rivers.

Face on a projecting corner of rock, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, New Mexico. Photograph by Peter Faris.

Polly Schaafsma (1992) somewhat splits the difference as she refers to “Masks and faces are featured in both Jornada Style paintings and petroglyphs. These elements are only occasional in western Jornada Style sites, including the Mimbres Valley, but figure more prominently in the rock art of the Rio Grande Valley and the Tularosa Basin” (p.67). Schaafsma has also recognized the phenomenon of faces on rock corner and projections, stating “Variations on the mask themes are faces lacking outlines and masks carved on rock angles. The latter, in which the corner becomes the nose region or the most prominent part of the face, are not unusual.” (p.67) Polly’s description here is right on, when the faces are produced around the corner of the rock the nose is generally right on the angle.

Face on a projecting corner of rock, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, New Mexico. Photograph by Peter Faris.

Joan Price (2018:185) presented a couple of interesting theories about the possible reason for these corner depictions at Three Rivers. “Innumerable glyphs of faces and maps span smooth or sharp corners of single stones with facial directional orientation or continual lines, chains of simple visual elements, feet, animal tracks and more. These wrap around stones were termed ‘animated canvas’. Concave or convex surfaces selected for glyphs take into consideration the play of light and/or dark over the course of a day suggesting a core   concept in Puebloan and other indigenous languages of balance between opposing forces within a person and a stone that emphasizes that idea.” (Price 2018:185) First she suggests that they were produced to emphasize the effects of light on the differing angles of the rock, and second that this is related to the concept of opposition between dark and light, winter and summer, etc. that is so prevalent in the beliefs of people in the American southwest.

I wish I could present numerous examples of these faces from many other sites, but alas, I cannot. Although I have found records of some outside of this area there do not seem to be any locations with anywhere near this large a concentration.  In this case it seems to have been primarily a local idea that came and went with the Jornada people in the area of the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site (either that, or there are just a whole lot of them that I have not been able to find records for). And anyone who does have this information please let me know. In either case, the prevalence of them at this location lead me to conclude that the carvers of these faces were purposely giving them three dimensions in their portrayals in an attempt to make them more lifelike.

REFERENCES:

Berrier, Margaret, personal communication, February 2026.

Price, Joan E., 2018, Clay and Stone: Petroglyphs at Three Rivers Petroglyph Site Compared with Mimbres Ceramic Painted Bowls, pp. 177-192, in Collected Papers from the 20^th Biennial Mogollon Archaeology Conference, October 11-13, 2018, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, edited by Lonnie C. Ludeman. Accessed online 17 December 2025.

Schaafsma, Polly, 1992, Rock Art in New Mexico, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Slifer, Dennis, 1998, Signs of Life: rock art of the Upper Rio Grande, Ancient City Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS AND ROCK ART:

Sunrise over Lake Dillon, Colorado. Photograph Robbie Seibel,

14 March 2022.

This column revisits the subject of parhelia or sun dogs in rock art, prompted by a photograph by Robbie Seibel, taken 22 March 2022 over Lake Dillon, Colorado. This beautiful photograph shows a sun just on the horizon with a 22° halo and parhelia or ‘sun dogs.’ “Sun dogs (parhelia) are a particular type of ice halo which produces a colored patch to the left and right of the sun, 22 degrees or more distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun itself. Best seen and most conspicuous when the sun is low, they are not rainbows. The Blackfeet knew them as ‘when the sun paints his cheeks’”. (Faris 2009)

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, Otero County NM. Photograph Peter Faris, January 1998.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, Otero County, NM. Photograph John and Esther Faris, December 1988.

“On October 21, 2009, I posted a column which I entitled The Sun Paints His Cheeks – Sun Dogs. In that posting I wrote that ‘Parhelia would be expected to be portrayed in rock art as a sun sign with two or more spots added outside the perimeter of the sun sign. This example, which can be found at the Three Rivers petroglyph site in New Mexico, consists of the normal southwestern concentric circle sun symbol surrounded by a ring of 16 dots which may represent multiple parhelia (with a little exaggeration thrown in). In his book Rare Halos, Mirages, and Anomalous Rainbows and Related Electromagnetic Phenomena, William Corliss presents examples of multiple sun dogs with examples of up to eight cited. I would expect that a rock artist who had observed such an example of multiple parhelia could be motivated to reproduce it as a sun symbol surrounded by many dots, as in this example.’(Faris 2009) These optical effects are caused by light from the sun refracting through ice crystals in the atmosphere, and depending upon the conditions, the display can be quite complicated.” (Faris 2014)

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, Otero County, NM. Photograph John and Esther Faris, December 1988.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, Otero County, NM. Photograph John and Daphne Rudolph.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, Otero County, NM. Photograph John and Esther Faris, December 1988.

“Sun dogs (parhelia) are a particular type of ice halo which produces a colored patch to the left and right of the sun, 22 degrees or more distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun itself. Best seen and most conspicuous when the sun is low, they are not rainbows. The Blackfeet knew them as ‘when the sun paints his cheeks’”. (Faris 2009)

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, Otero County NM. Photograph Peter Faris, January 1998.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, Otero County, NM. Photograph John and Esther Faris, December 1988.

In rock art of the American Southwest there are numerous examples of the concentric circle sun sign with dots or spots encircling it. These are especially prevalent at the great Three Rivers Petroglyph Site in Otero County, New Mexico, with a number of variants present. As I stated above, if I were a First Peoples resident of the American Southwest and saw the atmospheric optical phenomenon in the photograph I expect that I would be tempted to recreate it on the rock for posterity, and this is what I assume happened at Three Rivers.

NOTE: The image of the atmospheric phenomena in this posting was copied from an entry placed on my Facebook page. I assume, therefore, that it was placed there with an intention to share it publicly. If this image was not intended to be public domain, I apologize. For further information on these reports you should read the originals at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Corliss, William R., 1984, Rare Halos, Mirages, Anomalous Rainbows and Related Electromagnetic Phenomena: A Catalog of Geophysical Anomalies, Sourcebook, Glen Arm, Maryland.

Faris, Peter, 2014, Parhelia Revisited – More On Sun Dogs In Rock Art, 31 May 2014, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com

Faris, Peter, 2013, A Weather Symbol In Rock Art, 28 September 2013, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com

Faris, Peter, 2009, The Sun Paints His Cheeks – Sun Dogs, 21 October 2009, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com

IMAGES OF FOOTWEAR IN ROCK ART - ANASAZI SANDALS:

Shod footprint, Three Rivers, Otero

County, NM. Photo Jack and Esther

Faris, November 1988.

Closeup of shod footprint, Three Rivers,

Otero  County, NM. Photo Jack and
Esther Faris, November 1988.

As mentioned last week, a subject of interest in rock art is the portrayal of footwear. What do these images mean, what is their implication, what do they represent? Among the Ancestral Puebloan peoples, and most other people of the southwest, the common footwear was the sandal. For the sake of this discussion I will assume that any image of the outline of a human foot that does not display toes represents shod foot, showing a piece of footwear, sandal or moccasin.

Plaited sandal, Kayenta Anasazi,

Arizona, 900-1300 AD, yucca

leaves and cordage. Natural

History Museum of Utah.

Sandals were woven out of plant fibers or bark (often juniper), but perhaps the most common sandal was hand woven of yucca leaves (although especially fine examples might be twined out of cotton fibers). More than one technique was used in their production. The simplest ones were plaited with a warp in one direction, crossed by a weft in the other direction in an over-under alternating pattern. More complicated, and finer, results were obtained by twining, and the finest examples were often decorated by using different colors of dyed material, or by painting them subsequent to their weaving.

Twined yucca fiber sandal,

Glowacki, Fig. 10, p. 141.

Glowacki observed in 2015 that "Changes in sandal technology and the iconography depicted on murals and in rock art imply widespread reorganization in Western Mesa Verde influenced in part by changing relationships with an perceptions of Chaco and Aztec that altered local interactions and practices. For example, twined sandals, made of finely woven yucca with raised geometric designs on the tread or designs that were painted or dyed after production were used until the early 1200s, subsequently being replaced by plaited sandals." (Glowacki 2015:140)

Alex Patterson, 1992, A Field

Guide To Rock Art Symbols, p. 173.

These are assumed to have been used as ceremonial dance footwear, given the amount of work, and the specialized knowledge, required to produce them. "the intricacies of the unique geometric designs on the tread, and the impracticality of wearing finely twined sandals for daily use." (Glowacki 2015:140)

Footprint petroglyph, Spruce Tree

House, Mesa Verde, CO., Photo

Peter Faris, July 2002.

"The high frequency of sandal imagery in Western Mesa Verde and the depictions of sandals on rock art panels near habitations and on the inside and outside walls of rooms and kivas suggest that twined sandals had a different role in Western Mesa Verde culture than in other parts of the region." (Glowacki 2015:140-42)

Alex Patterson, 1992, A Field

Guide To Rock Art Symbols,

p. 173.

"Twined yucca sandals fell into disuse across the northern Southwest coincident with both the decline of Chaco and the extreme drought conditions of the mid-1100s." (Glowacki 2015:142)

Franktown Cave sandal, Franktown,

Colorado. 3345 - 3033 B.C. 

https://collectioncare.auraria.edu

The ubiquity and time-depth of the plaited yucca sandal is easily illustrated by the Franktown Cave sandal, recovered from a dry cave near Franktown, Colorado, and dated from between 3345 and 3033 B.C.(www.collectioncare.auraria.edu)  Indeed, anywhere and anytime that people had access to yucca they seem to have produced sandals for footwear.

Would an image of a sandal or moccasin serve as a symbol of travel, or does Glowacki have it correct that it is a symbol of ceremonial significance? In this latter case a depiction of a sandal print, especially a geometrically decorated sandal print, might represent a ceremonial dance. Or does it represent something else entirely? What do you think?

NOTE: Some of the images in this posting were obtained through an internet search for "Public Domain." If I have used any images that were not intended to be public domain please inform me and I will be happy to give full credit.

REFERENCES:

Glowacki, Donna M.,

2015 Living and Leaving, A Social History of Regional Depopulation in Thirteenth-Century Mesa Verde, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

https://collectioncare.auraria.edu/content/yucca-woven-sandal-franktown-cave

Patterson, Alex

1992 A Field Guide To Rock Art Symbols, Johnson Books, Boulder, CO.

ROCK ART THEMES ON OTHER MEDIA - MOGOLLON BIGHORN SHEEP DESIGNS:

Bighorn maze, Three-Rivers Petroglyph Site, New Mexico.

Photograph: December 1988, Jack and Esther Faris.

This intriguing petroglyph is from the great Three Rivers Petroglyph Site in New Mexico. More than 21,000 glyphs of birds, humans, animals, fish, insects and plants, as well as numerous geometric and abstract designs are scattered over 50 acres of New Mexico's northern Chihuahuan Desert. The petroglyphs at Three Rivers, dating back to between about 900 and 1400 AD, were created by Jornada Mogollon people.

It shows a complicated design of desert bighorn sheep heads at the ends of lines. These are often referred to in the literature as Bighorn staffs (like a walking stick). One problem with the identification as staffs is that the lines are not straight; after extending a short distance below the bighorn head they bend off at an extreme angle, even shooting straight up. Also, as far as I can tell, Mogollon artifacts recovered to date do not include bighorn-sheep-headed staffs (although I do not pretend to have a comprehensive knowledge of Mogollon collections on museum shelves). So they are probably not staffs. This design has also been referred to as a bighorn maze which might make a little more sense, but, of course, we have no real idea as to its intention. No-one can seemingly come up with a suggestion as to why they felt the need to create a maze with bighorn sheep heads on it – other than the catchall “for ritualistic purposes” which we all too often fall back on when we don’t really have an idea at all.

Mimbres bowl, cover photo from Brody, J. J., Catherine J. Scott,

and Steven A. LeBlanc,1983, Mimbres Pottery: Ancient Art of the

American Southwest, Hudson Hills Press, New York. 

My fascination with this design is partly founded in its resemblance to the design on a classic Mimbres pottery bowl from the Mattocks site, now in the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. The bowl measures H. 4 ⅛ in. (10.5 cm), diam. 9 ¼ in. (23.5 cm). (Brody et al. 1983:15) Mimbres pottery dates from a period of about six hundred years (AD 550 – 1150). “ Gila River  Rio Grande Valley and it western tributaries in southwest New Mexico. Differentiation between the Mimbres branch and other areas of the Mogollon culture area is most apparent during the Three Circle (AD 825-1000 roughly) and Classic Mimbres (AD 1000-1150) phases, when architectural construction and black and white painted pottery assume locally distinctive forms and styles” (Wikipedia). The design on this bowl has two mountain sheep heads on the ends of lines, which take off at angles much like the design of the petroglyph. I find the resemblance striking.

General Mogollon culture area. Three Rivers Petroglyph

Site is the star at the upper right, and the bowl came

from roughly the location of the star on the left.

So, is there any real connection, or just a coincidence? Mimbres pottery was produced within a portion of the Mogollon cultural area so geographically we can say they may be connected. Thematically they are obviously similar. The dates of Classic Mimbres pottery (AD 1000 – 1150) fall easily within the span of the production of petroglyphs at Three Rivers. Although I still have to admit that I do not know the significance of the design of the bighorn sheep head on the end of lines like this I do think that both the Mimbres bowl in question, and the petroglyph at Three Rivers, may well have some motivation in common, perhaps they refer to a commonly held belief, or a material item generally recognized throughout the Mogollon territory, so yes, I say they are certainly connected - at least in my mind. What do you think?

REFERENCES:

Brody, J. J., Catherine J. Scott, and Steven A. LeBlanc

1983    Mimbres Pottery: Ancient Art of the American Southwest, Hudson Hills Press, New York.

Wikipedia

HOPI CLAN REGISTERS AS A ROCK ART LEXICON FOR THE SOUTHWEST - RABBIT:

 Jackrabbit, Legend Rock, WY. Photograph Peter Faris.

Black-tailed or desert jackrabbit, Wikipedia.

Mimbres bowl with rabbit in the moon. From Kachinas in

the Pueblo World, 1996, Polly Schaafsma, University of

New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, p. 96.

The rabbit is found in rock art throughout the American West and Southwest. It is a well known fact that most Native American cultures saw the figure of a rabbit on the face of the moon, as on the Mimbres bowl that shows a rabbit on a crescent moon. Given this, a rabbit in rock art is often assigned lunar connotations Assuming, however, that a rabbit image always implies the lunar connotation would be a mistake.

1894 Hopi Petition. Big Falling Snow: A Tewa-Hopi Indian’s

Life and Times and the History andTraditions of His People,

Albert Yava, 1978, University of New Mexico Press,

Albuquerque, page 11.

A wonderful reference into many of southwestern rock art symbols, previously mentioned, is found in the 1894 Hopi Petition, a document from Hopi clan chiefs to U.S. government officials in Washington D.C. urging them to cease the reallocation of Hopi lands into individual holdings, and also to designate official Hopi reservation boundaries. This document “was signed in clan symbols by 123 principals of kiva societies, clan chiefs, and village chiefs of Walpi, Tewa Village, Sichomovi, Mishongnovi,Shongopovi,Shipaulovi and Oraibi.” (Yava 1978:167) In his book Big Falling Snow (1978), Albert Yava illustrated two pages (pages 11 and 14 found between pages 82 and 83) of these signatures with their interpretations. These identified symbols surely provide a useful lexicon for rock art imagery in the Southwest.  

Rabbit Clan symbol, #87, from 1894 Hopi Petition, page 11.

Rabbit track as symbol for the Rabbit Clan,

#92, from 1894 Hopi Petition, page 11.

Rabbit tracks. Photograph Peter Faris.

One of the images from page 11 of the 1894 Hopi Petition is the symbol for Rabbit Clan, #87. Another Rabbit Clan symbol is #92 showing rabbit tracks but conveying the same meaning as a rabbit designation.

Its presence in the Hopi Petition as a clan identification symbol suggests other possible affiliations as well. Many North American tribes include the rabbit in their collection of clan symbols. Among the Hopi Masau’u owned this world and welcomed the Hopis when they climbed into it from below. Masau’u was also their ‘giver of fire.” The ceremonial portrayal of Masau’u includes smearing the head with rabbit blood as part of the costume thus associating the rabbit with Masau’u, creation and even fertility. (Tyler 1964:20)

Rabbit with Barrier Canyon Style figure,

Harvest Scene, The Maze, Canyonlands,

Utah. Photograph, Don Campbell, 1979.

The rabbit serves roles in Native American mythology as well and a rabbit image might have been intended as a reference to one of these stories.

Three Rivers, New Mexico. Photograph

John and Esther Faris, 1988.

Finally, the rabbit was an important food source for Southwestern peoples who held periodic rabbit drives. A youth’s first kill as a hunter was often a rabbit and that was then often the occasion for ceremonial adoption into a male fraternal group, certainly an important occasion and one worthy of recording. Thus, I submit that the image or theme of rabbit has many more possible meanings than just the rabbit in the moon.

 REFERENCES:

Grant, Campbell

1981    Rock Art of the American Indian, Outbooks, Golden, Colorado.

http://research.archives.gov/description/300340

Schaafsma, Polly

1994    Kachinas in the Pueblo World, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Thompson, Marc

1994    The Evolution and Dissemination of Mimbres Iconography, from Kachinas in the Pueblo World, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, p. 93 - 105.

Tyler, Hamilton A.

1964    Pueblo Gods and Myths, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

Yava, Albert

1978    Big Falling Snow: A Tewa-Hopi Indian’s Life and Times and the History and Traditions of His People, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

PARHELIA REVISITED – MORE ON SUN DOGS IN ROCK ART:

Sun sign with possible multiple parhelia. Three Rivers,

New Mexico. Photograph: 1988, Jack and Esther Faris.

On October 21, 2009, I posted a column which I entitled The Sun Paints His Cheeks – Sun Dogs. In that posting I wrote that “Parhelia would be expected to be portrayed in rock art as a sun sign with two or more spots added outside the perimeter of the sun sign. This example, which can be found at the Three Rivers petroglyph site in New Mexico, consists of the normal southwestern concentric circle sun symbol surrounded by a ring of 16 dots which may represent multiple parhelia (with a little exaggeration thrown in). In his book Rare Halos, Mirages, and Anomalous Rainbows and Related Electromagnetic Phenomena, William Corliss presents examples of multiple sun dogs with examples of up to eight cited. I would expect that a rock artist who had observed such an example of multiple parhelia could be motivated to reproduce it as a sun symbol surrounded by many dots, as in this example.” (Faris 2009) These optical effects are caused by light from the sun refracting through ice crystals in the atmosphere, and depending upon the conditions, the display can be quite complicated.

A combination of atmospheric optical phenomena in
the antarctic. Robert Greenler, 1980, Rainbows, Halos,
and Glories, Cambridge University Press, London.

Robert Greenler has published photographs of many splendid displays of atmospheric optics in his wonderful book Rainbows, Halos, and Glories, (1980), and also included diagrams of drawings of these phenomena done in pre-photographic days, and also created in computer simulations. One example Greenler has published is Hevelius’s Seven Suns drawing of 1662, recording a drawing of a spectacular display he saw over Gdansk, Poland on February 20, 1661 (also known as Danzig under periods of German rule). In Hevelius’s drawing of this display: “the sun appears to be about 26 degrees above the horizon, and many of the elements of the drawing are familiar to us: the 22- and 46 degree halos, 22-degree parhelia, upper tangent arc to the 22-degree halo, circumzenithal arc, and parhelic circle. Hevelius shows as one of his suns the anthelion, which is surprising, but most unusual are the arcs crossing the parhelic circle about 90 degrees from the sun. These arcs are generally assumed to be part of a 90-degree halo that, from this report, is sometimes called Hevel’s halo.” (Greenler 1980:107)

Hevelius’s Seven Suns drawing,Gdansk, Poland, February 20,

1661. Robert Greenler, 1980, Rainbows, Halos, and Glories,

Cambridge University Press, London

In the copy of Hevelius’s drawing included in this posting I have added red circles to mark each of Hevelius’s so-called “Seven Suns” (including the real sun in the lower center) illustrating that a sun sign can indeed be surrounded by multiple dots in reality. Indeed, in such a complicated display, and with the multiple arcs, halos, and other effects intersecting each other, each area of intersection would show up as a larger bright spot leading to the possibility of many more “suns” visible at one time. 

W. E. Parry drawing, 1821. Robert Greenler, 1980, Rainbows,

Halos, and Glories, Cambridge University Press, London.

In a drawing by W. E. Parry from his 1821 Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage, Murray, London, we see another amazingly complicated optical display. If we again assume that where each arc and halo intersect it can appear with the brightness enlarged and reinforced this display might have looked like the sun with as many as nine other suns around it. This can be seen in the Greenler photograph above which shows a complicated display in the antarctic.

Given this proof of interest in recording this phenomenon by 17^th and 18^th century western scientists I also have to assume that a Native American who viewed such a display might be just as eager to record his interpretation of what he had seen. The only question is how he would have interpreted it. This is one possibility of such, giving us, I submit, an excellent natural model for the sun signs surrounded by a ring of dots seen in rock art.

NOTE: If you are interested in generating atmospheric optical simulations to attempt to match rock art examples of your own check this web site to see HaloSim 3 downloadable software: http://atoptics.co.uk/halo/halfeat.htm.

REFERENCES:

Corliss, William R.

1984    Rare Halos, Mirages, Anomalous Rainbows and Related Electromagnetic Phenomena: A Catalog of Geophysical Anomalies, Sourcebook.

Faris, Peter

2009    The Sun Paints His Cheeks – Sun Dogs, http://rockartblog.blogspot.com, Oct. 21, 2009.

Greenler, Robert

1980    Rainbows, Halos, and Glories, Cambridge University Press, London.

Parry, W. E.

1821    Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage, Murray, London.

TLALOC AS A ROCK ART THEME IN THE SOUTHWEST:

There is a loose category of rock art images in the American southwest that are generically referred to as Tlalocs. They are certainly not kachinas, but they perhaps played a similar role in the society for a period as kachinas later did. These are figures with large eyes which are often outlined with squares, and also sometimes show fangs or pointed teeth.

Tlaloc, Three-Rivers, New Mexico.  Photo:

December 1988, Jack & Esther Faris.

According to Wikipedia “Tlaloc was an important deity in Aztec religion, a god of rain, fertility, and water. He was a beneficent god who gave life and sustenance, but he was also feared for his ability to send hail, thunder and lightning, and for being the lord of the powerful element of water. In Aztec iconography he is normally depicted with goggle eyes and fangs. He was associated with caves, springs and mountains. Archaeological evidence indicates Tlaloc was worshipped in Mesoamerica even before the Aztecs settled there in 13th century AD. He was a prominent god in Teotihuacan at least 800 years before the Aztecs. This has led to Mesoamerican goggle-eyed raingods being referred to generically as "Tlaloc" although in some cases it is unknown what they were called in these cultures, and in other cases we know that he was called by a different name (e.g. the Mayan version was known as Chaac”).

Tlaloc, Three-Rivers, New Mexico. Photo:

December 1988, Jack & Esther Faris.

My illustrations, coming from the amazing Three Rivers petroglyph site, show both of these described traits. One shows the eyes as dots in large rectangular sockets, and the others show the large goggle-eyes with sharp fang teeth. The Three Rivers petroglyphs are the product of the Jornada Mogollon people between about 900 and 1400 AD. Their society possessed a number of imports from the cultures of Mexico pointing to trade with the south. 

Tlaloc, Three-Rivers, New Mexico. Photo:

December 1988, Jack & Esther Faris.

Tlaloc, as a god of rain, fertility, and water, may have come to the American southwest along with traders from the south who supplied exotic trade goods such as macaws, copper bells, and other influences such as ball courts. For a culture that depended upon agriculture for survival a cult figure that might influence rain and fertility would have considerable appeal. The presence of these Tlaloc figures illustrates the result of that appeal and helps give us insight into beliefs of the early peoples of the southwest.