Ute Chief Walker described Parowan Gap as “God’s Own House” to the 1849 Pratt Expedition. Indeed, Utes, Hopis, Paiutes, and other Native American peoples living Southwestern Utah in the area in the 19th century consider the place sacred and a bond to their ancestors. Yet at the same time, the petroglyphs were chiselled by more ancient cultures, possibly several, and modern Native Americans can’t translate them. But to quote an anonymous Native American, “a person doesn't work for hours and days deeply inscribing figures in solid rock just to doodle."
One hypothesis interests the heck out of me. Archaeologist V. Garth Norman claims in "The Parowan Gap
" that the gap and the Zipper Glyph (I think that one that looks like a roach head with giant antennas) acted as an ancient solar observatory by the Fremont culture. The gap faces west and is narrow, so I could definitely see it being used to track the sun’s latitudinal path. One thing that concerns my about Norman is that he’s "President of the Ancient America Foundation (AAF) for professional and scriptural archaeology research, and is Director of Archaeological Research Consultants (ARCON Inc.)." He also taught seminary I question whether his devotion to the Bible and the Book of Mormon outweighs his devotion to evidence. I know there’s a bunch of guys like him who’ve been proven time and again to be publishing garbage about Egyptian and Israeli “archaeology.” Mind you, that doesn’t mean he isn’t doing solid work; I’m just biased against him. But I’d like to read "The Parowan Gap
" anyway and more fairly judge his work.By the way: Shout out to Freecampsites.net, where I found out about the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs. It wasn’t my favorite free campsite because of traffic, but the petroglyphs are definitely worth a look-see.
No comments:
Post a Comment