Photos

Sun Spirals
Spirals, like these, and other geometric shapes are found at rock art sites throughout the southwestern United States.

Spirals are believe to be of particular importance to the Sinagua. Of over 1,000 petroglyphs at this site inscribed here over a period of 500 years this spiral is unique. There is nothing else like it except the smaller spiral just below it. This is only a few feet away from the famous V-Bar-V calendar panel. Why?

The most famous "sun spiral" of them all was discovered by Anna Sofaer in 1977 near the entrance of Chaco Canyon at Fajada Butte some 250 miles east of where this picture was taken at the V-Bar-V Sinagua rock art site near Sedona, Arizona.

Chaco Canyon was inhabited by the Anasazi, relatives to the Sinagua and they were contemporaries. At Chaco Canyon the "sun spiral" was surrounded by rock slabs that creates a "Sun dagger" which bisects the center of the spiral on the first day of summer. Tracing the "Sun dagger" throughout the year indicates the winter solstice and other important planting and harvesting dates performing the same functions that the calendar panel does here at the V-Bar-V site.

Both the V-Bar-V spiral and the Chaco Canyon spiral are somewhat isolated from the other petroglyphs, as if they have special significance.

It is also to be noted than both spirals are very similar to each other and each has a smaller spiral nearby. The smaller spiral at Chaco Canyon figures into its use as a calendar.

I've never read anything suggesting a connection between the V-Bar_V and Chaco Canyon glyphs but there are just to many similarities to be coincidence.

More information:

The Calendar panel at the V-Bar-V is located just around the corner to the right of this rock face...
V-Bar-V Sun Spiral showing it in context

Shows the Chaco "Sun Dagger"... You have to look closely to see both spiral glyphs. The little one is hard to see:
Chaco Canyon Sun Spirals

Below explains more about the Chaco Canyon Sun Spirals and shows graphically how they work:
More about the Chaco Canyon Sun Spiral