Seasonal calendars were a foundation of early cultures to identify the time for hunting and gathering, planting and harvesting, worshiping and celebrating.  Solar seasonal calendars have been identified at Ancestral Puebloan sites in Arizona and New Mexico, at Hohokam sites in the Phoenix region, and at Northern Sinagua locations near Flagstaff, Arizona.  While there have been anecdotal reporting of rock art with solar significance within Southern Sinagua areas, none had been documented until recently.  This site describes the solar markings near Sedona, Arizona.  The Southern Sinagua created these rock art sites sometime between A.D. 900 and 1400.

Archaeoastronomy
Archaeoastronomy is one of the disciplines that has appeared in recent years as a way of interpreting rock art. Numerous interactions have been claimed for sites around the world, and especially here in the Southwestern United States. This site provides a general introduction to this field of study.

Ongoing Surveys
The first archaeoastronomy survey in the Sedona area was conducted at the V-Bar-V Heritage Site in 2005-2006. Several other sites are currently under study and are in various stages of completion. Our survey focus is to record a site for a full year before passing judgment on its solar significance. You are invited to follow the progress of these studies.

Conference on Archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest
To provide a forum to promote research and a better understanding of the cultural significance of astronomical knowledge among American Southwest cultures, the second biennial Conference on Archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest was held on June 16-18, 2011, in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Hibben Center of the University of New Mexico. The theme of this conference was "Astronomy and Ceremony in the Prehistoric Southwest Revisited: A fresh look at archaeoastronomy and anthropology." Visit the conference website for more information and on publication of the papers. The next biennial conference will be in 2013.