Petroglyph preserve celebrates 30th anniversary with ancient, modern tales
Assistant Director John Bello (center) talks with attendees about the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve on Saturday, Dec. 14, during the opening event for the preserve's 30th anniversary exhibit, “Tales from the Land.” The northwest Valley area was once home to the Indigenous Hohokam people, who left more than 1,500 petroglyphic markers at the archaeological site. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
The Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve provides a beautiful walk through a pristine desert where chuckwalla lizards are as plentiful as the cacti that comes in many shapes and sizes.
It’s also a step back in time, in some cases nearly 5,000 years, when the Indigenous people of the area made their mark on stones and boulders in the form of petroglyphs scattered throughout the 47-acre site.
What to know if you go
"Tales From the Land," the 30th anniversary exhibit will be on display through 2025.
In addition to guided and free audio tours of the glyphs and the new anniversary exhibit, visitors can check out a permanent collection called “Leaving Marks: The Rock Art and Archaeology of Deer Valley,” as well as participate in ongoing educational and research opportunities.
Open: 8 a.m.–2 p.m., Wednesday–Saturday
Closed: Sunday–Tuesday
Location: 3711 W. Deer Valley Road, Phoenix, AZ 85308
This month, the preserve celebrates its 30th anniversary with an exhibit called “Tales From The Land.”
The exhibit tells the story the original inhabitants, the connection they have with Indigenous people living in Arizona today and of Arizona State University’s role in the preserve, which goes back to 1994.
“The Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve is such an important part of the history of Arizona,” said Patrick Ryan Williams, director of ASU’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change. “ASU has supported its stewardship, both as an educational site, but also as a site that preserves the cultural heritage of the original peoples of this region. The petroglyph preserve is a point of convergence of many different Native American groups through thousands of years of history.”
A step back in time
Williams says the exhibit, which was spearheaded by ASU's John Bello, assistant director of the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve, is a “great new interpretation” of the preserve and its petroglyphs.
Originally, the site had an archaeology-discovery focus, whereas now the focus is on the land and the people that the land has sustained over centuries and millennia, and continues to sustain today.
“The new exhibit is bringing a new perspective on the importance of the site within different historical frameworks, but also how it fits within a Native American cosmology and why it’s important to contemporary communities and to all of us,” Williams said.
Bello describes the exhibit as a short, historical narrative.
“It’s kind of a photo novella, sharing historic images, drawings and photographs from when the preserve opened in 1994 up until today," Bello said.
"The land is telling the story of all the communities that have come together — to conduct research, to share about the history of Arizona and about this space, and to showcase the impact the petroglyphs had on Indigenous artists today from descendant communities such as the Salt River Pima-Maricopa and the Gila River Indian communities,” he said.
Prior to the creation of the preserve, the space where the petroglyphs are located was called the Hedgpeth Hills petroglyph site.
In 1980, ASU graduate J. Simon Bruder was hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct an archaeological investigation of the site prior to the construction of the Adobe Dam.
According to the preserve's history, Bruder was the first person to find the 579 glyph-bearing black, basalt boulders that contain more than 1,500 petroglyphs. A decision was made to protect the petroglyphs, and ASU became the guardian and steward of the preserve, which was first named the Deer Valley Rock Art Center. The education center was also built in 1994 by architect Will Bruder, in his iconic steel and concrete style.
"We’ve been working for 30 years to help preserve the place, to make it known to the public and to care for it as a sacred site of the Native American descendant communities that are living here today,” Williams said.
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Guests explore the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve's 30th anniversary exhibit "Tales from the Land" at the opening reception on Saturday, Dec. 14.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Charla Griffy-Brown, director general of the Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU, and her daughter, Sienna Brown, a former Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve intern, snap a photo at the preserve on Dec. 14.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Close-up of a petroglyph that is believed to represent a snail at the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
Understanding the past
The meaning of the petroglyphs remains somewhat mysterious and sometimes misunderstood.
“We will never know,” Bello said. “The petroglyph could be something personal to the creator or part of a ritual. It could be a sign to communicate information to others. It could be any number of things. And we don't have a time machine to go back and find out.”
The engravings were created by chipping, grinding or pecking at the rock with a handheld tool using two different techniques. Direct percussion, which uses hard stones or hammer-stones and etches on the boulder face directly, or indirect percussion, which makes use of a hammer and stone chisel in the process. The glyphs have been categorized into 37 different designs. And, as with any art, the images are open to interpretation.
Most of the glyphs are curvilinear or squiggly lines. Some appear to be designs of animals and others resemble humans.
One of the drawings seems to be of two goats facing each other.
“Are they kissing? Fighting? Or merely looking at their reflection in the water?" Bello said.
And then there is the circle that resembles a disc with sunbeams that some say indicate that aliens were at one time in the area.
“We take the opportunity here to dispel the myths that aliens created these petroglyphs,” Bello said. “And share that these traditions — these people of the past — were amazing engineers, artists, agriculturalists, performers and demonstrators, and that they were very modern for their time. They were very skilled craftsmen.”
There are parts of the preserve story we do know.
The petroglyphs are attributed to three different archeological traditions — the Western Archaic tradition (5000 BC–300 AD), the Hohokam (300–1450 AD) and the Patayan (300–1450 AD) cultures.
The site was thought to be used by people traveling between southern and northern settlements, who stopped to manufacture tools and establish a small settlement. The rock art is also said to have had religious or cultural purposes.
Looking forward
While the anniversary focuses on the past three decades, Williams says it's just as important to look to the future of the preserve.
What will the next 30 years hold?
“That's a very important question, and even beyond our lifespans,” Williams said. “As an archaeologist, I take a thousand-year perspective on histories. I like to look 1,000 years into the future myself.”
One thing that Williams would like to see in the future is continued engagement with Native American community partners and ways in which the youth of those communities can become more involved in the governance and stewardship of these resources.
“Over the next decade or two, we would like to make sure that we are fully engaging ... and fully following the guidance of the Native American communities whose ancestors are represented here,” Williams said.
“And getting the next generation of their youth involved in that process ... and then sharing that with a broader public so that the full history of our experience as humans on this Earth can be understood, and we can learn from that and take that forward.”
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