The Strange Figures of V Bar V: Arizona’s Ancient Astronauts?

Deep in Arizona’s red-rock country, a short drive from Sedona and Camp Verde, sits one of the most puzzling archaeological sites in the Southwest...the V Bar V Heritage Site.

Carved into a tall sandstone cliff are more than 1,000 petroglyphs made nearly 900 years ago by the Southern Sinagua, a people who farmed this harsh desert long before modern towns existed.

Archaeologists call the carvings “Beaver Creek Style” rock art. But to anyone standing in front of them, it’s hard to ignore a different possibility that some of these images look eerily like space suits.

Carvings That Look Almost Too Modern

Among the spirals, animals and geometric shapes, several humanoid figures stand out. They have large round heads, long, thin limbs and sometimes lines protruding upward like antennae. A few appear to wear helmet-like domes or rectangular torsos that resemble life-support packs.

Visitors have described them as looking “helmeted,” “sealed in suits,” or even “floating.” In several panels, these beings appear beside patterns that resemble starbursts or celestial maps.

To believers in the ancient-astronaut theory, the resemblance is too close to ignore. Evidence, perhaps, that the Sinagua saw visitors from the sky and recorded the encounter in stone.

The Ancient-Astronaut Hypothesis

The idea isn’t unique to Arizona. Across the world, mysterious petroglyphs from the Australian outback to the deserts of Chile show strangely dressed human-like beings with bulbous heads and large eyes. Proponents argue these could be records of extraterrestrial contact in prehistoric times.

At V Bar V, the argument centers on three main details:

1. The “helmet” figures...large circular heads with no facial features.

2. Possible “antennae” lines...rays or cords extending upward, unlike typical headdresses in other regional art.

3. Spatial context...the figures are grouped with symbols that could depict stars or flight paths.

Critics dismiss this as coincidence or imagination, pointing out that traditional Native headdresses, masks, and trance-vision depictions can also produce similar shapes. But the coincidence is hard to unsee once noticed.

The Solar Calendar Mystery

One of the site’s most remarkable features adds another layer of intrigue. On the summer solstice and spring and fall equinoxes, a narrow shaft of sunlight passes through cracks in the cliff and lands directly on certain carvings, forming what researchers call a “sun dagger.”

How could a culture with stone tools design such accurate astronomical alignments?Mainstream archaeologists say centuries of observation allowed them to track the sun’s movements precisely for agricultural and ceremonial reasons.Those who see the site differently suggest something bolder that the Sinagua might have received outside instruction in astronomy from the very beings they carved on the wall.

Visitors from the Sky?

Throughout the greater Southwest, Hopi and Zuni oral histories describe star beings or Ant People who came from above or from underground to help humanity survive great disasters.The figures at V Bar V resemble these stories so closely that some believe the myths and the carvings describe the same event...an encounter with non-human teachers thousands of years ago.

No definitive proof exists, of course. The petroglyphs cannot be dated more precisely than the surrounding occupation sites, and no artifacts resembling “technology” have been found. Yet the imagery remains unlike anything else in North America.

Science or Something Else?

Archaeologists are clear: the carvings are the symbolic expressions of human artists possibly shamanic visions, clan totems, or ceremonial records. But the carvings don’t explain themselves and every visitor brings their own interpretation. Some see mythology, others mathematics. A few see the shapes of helmets, oxygen packs and stars.

Stand in front of the cliff at noon, feel the heat of the Arizona sun and look up at the ancient figures. Their eyes, if those circles are eyes, seem to look back through time. Maybe they’re gods. Maybe they’re people in ceremonial masks. Or maybe, just maybe, they’re something else entirely.

📍 V Bar V Heritage Site (Crane Petroglyph Heritage Site) 6750 Forest Service Road 618, Rimrock, Arizona

Open Friday – Monday | Managed by the U.S. Forest Service

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