Black Top Mesa: Are they Spanish or Indian Petroglyphs??

[azbackpackr]

OK, this has been bugging me. If you take a hike to Black Top Mesa you can find these markings on the rocks. Everyone says they are Spanish hieroglyphics. I went, I saw, I disagree. What I saw looked like what I've seen all over the Southwest, which I have written college papers on, and have guided many a trip to show people up here in the White Mtns. What I saw looked like the ancient Indian petroglyphs that are fairly common in many areas. They have the pecked-in look that took days to accomplish. Why would the Spanish sit there for days pecking with an antler point or other object in order to carve these 'glyphs? It just simply doesn't make any sense. Ever read anything about those Spanish people? Why would they do that?

Maybe I didn't see the Spanish ones? Maybe there are both kinds there? If not, there are an awful lot of people out there perpetuating a myth, it would seem! Trail guide writers, various journalists, map makers, writers of HAZ forum topics, etc!

Someone care to take me up on this? Maybe there is an actual expert in our midst! Someone from a university with a degree in archaeology?

[goldluster]

I am going to give you my opinion. I have helped as a ghost writer of a book about the Supers and spent more hours on Google than anybody I know, plus 34 trips into the Superstition Wilderness 2 of which I had to be rescued by heliocopter, once with three other people once on July 8th, 2011 by myself. Whatever that says about me. I feel very strongly that the pectoglyphs are maps before papers. Due to the fact that we removed the Indians from their culture they have lost the knowledge that would allow them to read the signs. The petroglyphs in the canyon by the same name is a map of how to take pack animals and go to the richest area in the mountains. I have tracked these trails out of Sonora, Mexico and when they say can you read the signs? They do not mean stick figures or broken twigs or footprints, they mean the maps to the gold. I feel all gold and precious metals have been marked since the year 300 by the Hohokams or the Pimas or the aliens, who knows. You are both right there are signs from every era.

[nonot]

Interesting you would say this. The markings on the top of Black top mesa include amongst other things:

1) Modern graffiti, including the "Lust for Dust" scrawling
2) Some markings which are a bit older which include a partial sun glyph and the word ORO scrawled in what appears to be the same type of marking upon a broken rock.

For your theory to be correct the Spaniards would have had to have travelled not only to central America, but educated people of their language in order to create this scrawling at least 1200 years before what is documented in widely accepted history.

As far as I have been able to discern, there are authentic records that the sun glyph and oro scrawlings date to at least before approximately 1930. Though they could be older than that, I have not yet found anything that would confirm this.

Having to be rescued twice - not a record to be proud of. Venturing out in July - not very bright. I would suggest you adopt a better plan if you care to extend your existence...

[azbackpackr]

I am not sure Indians drew maps, per se. The drawing of maps presupposes a linear view of time and space that may not have been a part of their cultures. Not sure that (other than the Aztecs) they valued gold. (I sure don't value gold.) Plus, a lot of that stuff was put up there to film movies, as we have already discussed.

[Tough_Boots]

I'm no expert... but I'm pretty sure aliens aren't into gold. They look better in silver and platinum.

[SuperstitionGuy]

Barry Storm inscribed his name on a rock on the northwest part of Blacktop and no one has taken a picture of it yet and it was not mentioned in the above posts. Does this mean someone has horse packed out the rock that it was inscribed on or maybe someone just rolled it over with the inscription side down? It was easy to find and the inscription was quite clear. It should be on the above map where the letter M is for Mesa.

There used to be two shafts on the southwest part of blacktop as well and the USFS has filled them in. While hiking just east of where they were I accidently kicked up a dynamite tamper from the deep grass. I gave the tamper to the Superstition Mountain Museum but I do not believe they have it on display. A dynamite tamper is a long metal shaft with the end shaped to hold a stick of dynamite as well as having the very end bent 90 degrees to allow it to be used to clean the hole and tamp the stick of dynamite down the hole.

[Tough_Boots]

There used to be two shafts on the southwest part of blacktop as well and the USFS has filled them in.

These? http://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=11894

[big_load]

These? http://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=11894

Those prospects look remarkably unpromising. I especially liked the "Oro" with an arrow. All it needs is a shovel standing next to an "X" with the words "Dig Here".

[azbackpackr]

I'm no geologist, but seems to me I have heard that the Supes are the last place one should go looking for gold. That is, unless it was mined elsewhere, or stolen elsewhere, and hidden in the Supes.

[hippiepunkpirate]

I'm no geologist, but seems to me I have heard that the Supes are the last place one should go looking for gold. That is, unless it was mined elsewhere, or stolen elsewhere, and hidden in the Supes.

The Superstition Mountains are an extinct resurgent caldera type volcanic complex, similar to the Yellowstone area of today. While gold typically is found in igneous structures, it's low melting temperature makes it much more likely to form in intrusive structures (such as the batholiths of the Sierra Nevada). Potential to find gold in volcanic structures is far less likely because of the higher temperature of magma (and subsequent lava when it reaches the surface. However, to say it's the last place to go looking for gold is inaccurate. The felsic magmas that resulted in the Superstitions have a lower melting temperature than a mafic lava such as a basalt, so therefore it would make more sense to look for gold in the Supes rather than in a cinder cone volcano (or on the San Francisco Peaks). It's still an unlikely place to find gold, but not altogether impossible. That is going by the general terms of where gold forms, but since there is not one known occurrence of gold in the Superstitions that we know of it, and it has been searched extensively, the likelihood of hitting a major find now is decidedly not very good.

[SuperstitionGuy]

There used to be two shafts on the southwest part of blacktop as well and the USFS has filled them in.

These? http://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=11894

No, the shafts were on top of Blacktop on the southwest corner not to far from the sunburst.