A Broken Tail?

During a recent excavation , we encountered this rock art panel on a rock outcrop near our dig.  The sites are located on the Agua Fria River north of Phoenix, Arizona.  In case you were wondering, that's me in the pith helmet, and excuse me, but yes it is really cool and it's critical to my archaeological heritage.  Dave and Travis are in the foreground.
As you can see in this close-up, the "Lizard Man" motif is prominent in this panel.  As City of Phoenix Archaeologist Todd Bostwick explains on page 55 of his excellent and very readable book, it can be difficult to tell the difference between a human and lizard figure in Hohokam rock art.  Typically, figures with no "middle appendage" are classified as human, figures with a "middle appendage" longer then their legs are classified as lizards, and figures with a "middle appendage" shorter than their legs are called "Lizard Men".  The panel pictured above has all three kinds of figures, as well as a fourth type with a broken tail.  

The backside of this boulder (the side facing the river) is covered in dots and some abstract curvilinear figures.  The pecking on this side of the boulder is very dark, and this heavy repatination indicates that these designs were the first to be made on the rock.  

One unique element featured on this panel was the sunburst pictured above.  Whoever created this element incorporated the rock face into the design, making it appear as though the sun, radiating out from a natural hole in the rock, was rising above a mountain range.  The pecking on this element is much brighter than the other rock art elements on this boulder, indicating that the darker, or more heavily repatinated elements were pecked into the rock first.  The sunburst may in fact be modern, although, there is no way to conclusively say one way or another with current technology.

If you encounter rock art (or other archaeological sites), do not destroy or otherwise negatively impact them.  Archaeological sites are protected by various laws, but they are also important to Native American groups today.  Be respectful when visiting archaeological sites.