3D Printed Tactiles of Chaco Petroglyphs

To give sighted and blind & low-vision learners the opportunity to experience a part of the Ancestral Puebloan culture, we created these depth-enhanced, 3D-printable models of two petroglyphs (rock carvings) found in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

These models were created with respect and appreciation for the ancestors who made them on Chaco’s sandstone walls. Please see the bottom of the page for downloadable files and 3-D printing instructions.

To learn more , we offer two other valuable resources for you to explore:

1. THE PETROGLYPH INQUIRY: Does an Ancient Rock Carving in Chaco Canyon Depict the 1097 Total Solar Eclipse? The Outreach team for the NASA PUNCH mission invites all learners to join us in using historic and contemporary images of the Sun (in thermoform tactile and/or visual form) to help evaluate a solar interpretation for an ancient petroglyph. We can never know for certain how to interpret the petroglyph, but we can learn a lot about scientific inquiry and about Ancient & Modern Sun-watching by exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the “eclipse hypothesis.”
2. Rock of the Sun in Chaco Canyon (5-min video). This short video introduces an unusual, curlicue petroglyph (rock carving) located in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico at a Sun-watching site we call Rock of the Sun. The petroglyph might be humanity's first known representation of a solar storm in the Sun’s corona, but we can never know for sure.

Find the 3D printing instructions and 3D model files below. STL files are for use with 3-D printers.

• Spiral petroglyph 3D model (right-click to download: STL, 8 MB)
• Curlicue petroglyph 3D (right-click to download: STL, 25 MB)
• General 3D printing instructions (PDF, 1 MB)
• Project credits (PDF)