Sep 22, 2025 8:00 AM –11:30 AM

Autumn Equinox Tour to Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Sites

Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Autumn Equinox Tour to Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Sites” with archaeologist Allen Dart departing from near Silverbell Road and Linda Vista Blvd in Marana, Arizona.

8-11:30 am. $45 donation per person ($36 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center members) supports Old Pueblo’s education programs about archaeology and traditional cultures.

The 2025 autumn equinox occurs on Monday September 22, 2025 at 11:19 am Arizona/Mountain Standard Time (same as Pacific Daylight Time; 6:20 pm Greenwich Mean Time). To celebrate the equinox day (but not the exact time!) and explore ancient people's recognition of equinoxes and other calendrical events, archaeologist Allen Dart (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's executive director) leads this tour to Los Morteros, an ancient village site that includes a Hohokam ballcourt, bedrock mortars, and other archaeological features; and to Picture Rocks, where ancient petroglyphs include a solstice and equinox calendar marker and depict dancing human-like figures, whimsical animals, and other rock images made by Hohokam Indians between 800 and 1100 CE. An equinox calendar petroglyph at Picture Rocks exhibits a specific interaction with a ray of sunlight on the morning of each equinox, regardless of the hour and minute of the actual celestial equinox, so participants in this tour will see that sunlight interaction with the calendar glyph unless clouds block the sunlight.

Registration and prepayment are due 10 days after the reservation request or by 5 pm Saturday, September 20, whichever is earlier: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE US TO EMAIL YOU A FLYER with color photos about the above-listed activity, send an email to info@oldpueblo.org with “Send Autumn Equinox tour flyer” in your email subject line.

Admission

$45.00 donation per person
Mapped location of Autumn Equinox Tour to Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Sites

Departing from near Silverbell Road and Linda Vista Blvd

(520) 798-1201
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Take a step back in time at this well-preserved Hohokam village site. Named after the mortar holes found in volcanic rocks throughout the site, Los Morteros is a well-preserved Hohokam village site. The mortar holes were used to grind mesquite pods, seeds, and corn. It is thought by archaeologists that people (primarily women) would gather at the clustered mortars to chat while they worked, so these beds of rock are sometimes known as “gossip stones”! In addition to its mortar holes, the site contains remnants of Trincheras (which is the Spanish word for “terraces”, and also refers to a...
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Old Pueblo Archaeology Center is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate children and adults to understand and appreciate archaeology and other cultures, to foster the preservation of archaeological and historical sites, and to develop a lifelong concern for the importance of nonrenewable resources and traditional cultures. Programs include ongoing monthly talks, regularly scheduled guided tours, free educational presentations on local archaeological subjects, special events, and children's education programs in Tucson, Marana, and elsewhere in the American Southwest. Too see...
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