The Parowan Gap-Nature’s Perfect Observatory by V. Garth Norman

Parowan Gap, Nature's Perfect Observatory

Parowan-Gap petroglyphs & astronomy – Click to view pdf

The spectacular sunsets on April 29 and August 12 highlight the main inscriptions of the Parowan Gap, Utah, petroglyph calendar ( ca.700 A.D.) which correlate with ancient calendars of Mesoamerica. Garth Norman has spent 40 years researching the ancient site of Izapa (300 B.C.) in southern Mexico and was intrigued to find that later migratory peoples from that southern region created a similar but natural “temple center” at what is known today as the Parowan Gap, So. Utah.

These ancient knowledgable “astronomers” recorded sun solstice and equinox dates, cross-quarter dates for the four seasons, and the famous 260-day ancient Mesoamerican ritual calendar. Norman has found a sophisticated lunar-solar calendar system where hundreds of petroglyphs on the Gap cliffs interact with an extensive observatory system composed of over twenty-five stations where sunsets and sunrises were viewed through the Gap Narrows to mark key dates.

Norman began explorations at the Parowan Gap in southwestern Utah in 1993, and in 1996-2003 undertook a major preservation enhancement study of the Gap for Iron County and Parowan City under a joint federal and public funded project. Evidences from this project show that the primitive culture of Fremont Indians (ca. 700-1200 A.D.) of Utah had sophisticated astronomical knowledge. Excavation of a cave shelter revealed a fire pit associated with petroglyphs with a C14 date almost 5,000 years old, documenting the earliest dated writing in Utah.

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