Petroglyphs Provincial Park, Provincial park and national historic site in Peterborough County, Canada.
Petroglyphs Provincial Park protects over 900 carvings cut into a flat, gently sloping limestone outcrop, not marble. The figures include human shapes, animals, reptiles and a dominant sun-headed figure, with a curved spiked animal at the centre of the main panel. A protective building covers the rock, which has a small hole near one corner.
The carvings were made between 900 and 1100 AD, or possibly earlier during the Archaic period, by Algonquian- or Iroquoian-speaking people using gneiss hammers. The site was kept hidden from non-First Nations people until 1954, when prospector Everett Davis rediscovered it. Joan and Ron Vastokas first recorded the carvings thoroughly in 1965 and 1968, and the area was designated a National Historic Site in 1980.
The Anishinaabe call the carvings Kinomagewapkong, "the rocks that teach". The site is a place of pilgrimage for local Anishinaabe people, who consider the rock itself sacred rather than only the figures cut into it. The Learning Place visitor centre, opened in 2002, is managed by Curve Lake First Nation and displays the carvings' spiritual meaning; a film, The Teaching Rocks, screens on request.
The park is open daily from 10 am to 5 pm between the second Friday in May and Thanksgiving, though it closes on Mondays and Tuesdays in spring and autumn. The carvings sit under a protective building, and the Learning Place visitor centre, run by Curve Lake First Nation since 2002, shows the film The Teaching Rocks on request. Photographing the carvings and bringing dogs into buildings are not allowed.
Underground water streams beneath the rock formation create sounds that First Nations communities interpret as spirit voices speaking through deep crevices. This natural phenomenon links the physical carvings to spiritual experiences that visitors may encounter during their visit.
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