The Serpent and the Sacred: Fertility Images in Southwestern Rock Art

The Southwest holds a treasure trove of prehistoric rock art, the fascinating images of petroglyphs and pictographs spanning thousands of years of Indian culture. Fertility has been identified as one of the most obvious and persistent themes in rock art, the record resplendent with symbols of birth, death, and procreation. Three-time rock art author Dennis Slifer takes a wide and deep look at symbols of fertility and fecundity, meticulously documenting drawings made by prehistoric cultures and the historical tribes of today’s greater Southwest, and comparing the symbols with those fertility symbols found in rock art sites around the world.