© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Texas Matters: Ancient Rock Art Secret Comes To Light

Older than the county courthouses – older than even the Alamo – older than anything built in Texas is the ancient rock art. These mysterious glyphs, paintings, and hand prints are the most visible signs left by the peoples who roamed Texas and Northern Mexico before the arrival of the Europeans.

The rock art interacts with the sun with greater accuracy than other famous astronomical sites like Stonehenge.

Until recently the intricate symbols were thought to be static and not interacting with the environment. But this is no longer the case, for some pictographs near Paint Rock Texas, east of San Angelo have revealed their ancient secret. We now know some of these symbols mark the solar solstice and equinox with astonishing accuracy.

Gordon Houston is a PhD candidate in archaeoastronomy, and has completed a study of the solar interacting pictographs.

David Martin Davies can be reached at dmdavies@tpr.org and on Twitter at @DavidMartinDavi