Lava Rock Corn Impression - Sunset Crater National Monument, AZ
N 35° 22.148 W 111° 32.594
12S E 450652 N 3914115
Corn cob impressions found in chunks of basalt indicate that corn may have been given by ancestral puebloans as an offering to the lava spewing from the Sunset Crater Volcano.
Waymark Code: WMTCE7
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 11/01/2016
Views: 3
A sample of these finds is on display in the National Monument Visitor Center.
Pre-historic communities living in the area at the time of the Sunset Crater volcanic eruption were certainly impacted. Archeological records indicate that the area was densely populated with independent groups of humans with permanent habitation sites and agricultural fields, which were abandoned as a result of the eruption. The population moved to a new environment at a lower elevation just a few tens of kilometers away, which required them to enact technological changes that allowed the population to thrive. There is evidence of humans interacting with the volcano as it erupted – there are pieces of Sunset Crater scoria with impressions of corn kernels and husks. These “corn rocks” are believed to have been made when people placed ears of corn near hornitos, spattering vents that form above lava flows or tubes. As spatter erupted from these vents it covered the corn then cooled to create a corn mold. Some of these rocks were found in the walls of habitation structures greater than 4 km away from the closest Sunset lava flows.
Type: Ruins
How did you find this "Ancient Evidence": Other
Terrain Rating: 
Trailhead: Not Listed
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