Sunnie Empie

Desert Foothills Chapter, Arizona Archaeology Society

Post Office Box 2293

Carefree, Arizona 85377-2293

email: empiebillsunnie@uswest.net

The Empie Petroglyph Site AZ U: 1: 165 (ASM) was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The abundant and significant concentration of rock imagery is located amidst an enormous outcrop of boulders in the Sonoran Desert Foothills in central Arizona. Twenty rare bas-relief vulva-forms carved in granitic stone are the first reported in Arizona. The early people in the Southwest were skilled solar observers, and at the site, Summer Solstice and Equinoxes are marked by solar interaction with circle and spiral petroglyphs. At Winter Solstice, an altar-like cavity carved in the stone receives a dagger of sunlight. There is also a stone cave-like shelter with a 16" passageway deep into the Earth. All the features relate to the sacred nature of the site and to understanding past ideology