KRAKOW, POLAND—Rock art carved by Ancestral Puebloans has been recorded in the area of Castle Rock Pueblo on the border between Colorado and Utah, according to a Newsweek report. The Castle Rock village site, located on the Mesa Verde plateau, was inhabited in the thirteenth century A.D. “I used to think that we studied this area thoroughly, conducting full-scale excavations, geophysical surveying, and digitalization,” said Radosław Palonka of Jagiellonian University. “Yet, I had some hints from older members of the local community that something more can be found in the higher, less accessible parts of the canyons.” Some of these rock panels measure more than two-and-a-half miles long, he explained, adding that the newly identified images include spiral shapes measuring about three feet in diameter. Palonka and his colleagues think the spirals may have been used for astronomical observations and to keep track of special days in the calendar, such as the spring and autumn equinoxes. To read about a specific turkey breed raised by the Ancestral Puebloans in the American Southwest, go to “In Full Plume.”
