TAS February 13th - Rock Art in the Petrified National Park of Northeastern Arizona

Location:  Kit Carson Electric - 118 Cruz Alta Rd, Taos

Date: Feb 13, 2017 (Tuesday) @ 7:00 PM

Speaker:  Lay Powell

Subject:  Rock Art in the Petrified National Park of Northeastern Arizona.

_{Lay Powell is an an archaeological field illustrator and artist with deep roots in New Mexico's prehistoric landscape. In 1992 he had the pleasure of not only joining the Taos Archaeological Society (TAS), with Paul Williams at the helm, but also was given the job of recording the archaeological inventory within the then Orrilla Verde Recreation Area (OVRA), of the Rio Grande Gorge. The Archaeological Society of New Mexico (ASNM) soon discovered his drawing skills and he was caught up in the final year of survey at 3 Rivers Petroglyph Site and their Rock Art Recording Field School. The list is extensive of his accomplishments and sites, including my involvement with the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project (MP3), which lead him to become a RAT (Rock Art Trekker) who leads ahead of survey teams in exploration of difficult terrains for hidden pockets of rock art. To date he is now with a special survey team that is recording new acquisitioned lands surrounding the Petrified Forest National Park, in Arizona. He is also an instructor at the Eastern New Mexico University, in Ruidoso, where he teaches a class on rock art and we visit at least 12 sites surrounding the Ruidoso area. His subjects of special study are solar alignments, cupules and utilitarian zones, and the research of a Meso-American deity found in the southern reaches of the United States called Tlaloc.}

Topic:  Rock Art in the Petrified National Park of Northeastern Arizona

 _{Over the past three years I have been honored to work as the exclusive survey team, locating, recording and submitting hundreds of rock art images found in the newly acquired 6000 plus acres to the Petrified Forest National Park, located in the Painted Desert of northeastern Arizona. Much of the lands have been newly purchased ranches surrounding the Park and contain sites never before seen by the public eye. The archaeological cross section has been phenomenal in seeing rock art that ranges from archaic to Classic Puebloan, ancestral Hopi to Route 66 construction periods and everything in between. What few people understand is that the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert are not just places to see beautiful landscapes with unique fossil records of our early Earth, but this space contains the highest concentration of rock art images in entire state of Arizona.}