PREHISTORIC CALENDAR
The fall equinox has been marked in the Valley for centuries. The long-gone Hohokam tribe fashioned a celestial calendar out of sunlight streaming through Papago Park’s famous Hole in the Rock. That knowledge was necessary, said Roger Lidman, director of the Pueblo Grande Museum, because the Hohokam were a farming people and the success of their crops depended upon timely planting. In this way, Papago Park joins Mexico’s Chichen Itza and England’s Stonehenge as prehistoric sites used for keeping track of time.
ANCIENT CALENDAR: Markers bored into the bedrock next to a natural seam on Hole in the Rock in the Papago Buttes let the Hohokam track the seasons.
Metate markers were bored into the bedrock next to a natural seam on Hole in the Rock in the Papago Buttes to help the Hohokam track the summer and winter solstice as well as the equinoxes.