Sugar Grove Petroglyph Site (36GR5)

About this property

The Sugar Grove Petroglyphs are a group of petroglyphs in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Located on an outcrop of sandstone in Monongahela Township near the eastern edge of Greene County, the petroglyphs have been known since at least the 1930s. Due to their value as an archaeological site, the petroglyphs have been named a historic site. It is certain that the Sugar Grove Petroglyphs are the work of a Native American people, although the cultural affiliation of their creators is unknown. Among the cultures that archaeologists have seen as possible creators are the Monongahela or Fort Ancient, both of which are known to have inhabited the upper portions of the Ohio River valley. In his 1974 monograph Rock Art of the Upper Ohio Valley, petroglyph specialist James L. Swauger argued for a Monongahela-related and proto-Shawnee identity of the creators; this conclusion he drew from the presence of carvings that he interpreted as representations of Ojibwe religious subjects. Although the Ojibwe never inhabited southwestern Pennsylvania, Swauger believed that the ancestors of the Shawnee shared these subjects as part of a common cultural heritage. The petroglyphs were carved into the flat portion of a large outcrop of Dunkard-series sandstone; it rises somewhat more than 4 feet (1.2 m) above the ground on its western side, but its other edges are level with the floor of the surrounding woodland. The petroglyphs are confined to a roughly square area of the stone that measures approximately 23 feet (7.0 m) on each side, although most appear on the eastern side and center of this area. Identification of the various designs has been complicated by erosion; some designs, especially those that are clustered closely together, have deteriorated and are thus difficult to classify conclusively. Among the most difficult are the carvings that were identified as bird tracks; they may have originally been abstract designs or arrowheads. Likewise, many abstract designs may have been created as identifiable designs, with their present conditions being the result of vandalism, later Native American carvings, or erosion. The most distinctive image on the rock is a large, almost circular animal that appears to be swallowing its tail; due to its unique shape and great size [its diameter is approximately 5 feet (1.5 m)], it has been seen as the most important single petroglyph at the site. It has been claimed that the site was damaged by quarrying circa 1950, but the only damage visible in a 1960 survey was small bits of stone that had been chipped away, possibly by vandals attempting to remove individual carvings. A 1982 survey discovered that the site had not changed since the 1960 survey.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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