No story of any travels within the Navajo nation will be complete without the mention of Anasazi people and their petroglyphs. As I mentioned before, Anasazi people are precursor to all Pueblo meso-Americans. But they do not have any direct lineage to any modern tribes of the South West like Navajo, Hopi or Apache. They lived in the American south west for nearly 1100 years (200AD -1300AD), which is a very long time for any civilization, but then disappeared without a trace.
Monument valley has some of the nicest Anasazi petroglyphs. Below is an example of a very well preserved one that I took a photo yesterday:
This is dated perhaps 1200AD. This is beautifully preserved, vibrant, dynamic petroglyph of a running and a standing “pronghorn” deer. Thinking is that the two petroglyphs are perhaps done in two different times, perhaps by two different individuals. As the artistic styles were slightly different.
One item of note that these deers are extinct in the Monument Valley area today. They thrive further north present day.
Disclaimer: All photographs are my own. Just ask me please if you like to use and share; citing the source is fine.
