Antelope Ruin

Jorge and Mike are correct. This "symbol" is an ancient Native American marking dating back to the Anasazi or "ancient ones". And Drew, this is not a "recent paint job". If you have ever been out to the southwest where pictographs are well documented you would have a change of mind. The symbols I have seen are remarkable and very interesting to say the least and just for your info I photographed this image back in 1989 and not even Sear's best exterior "WeatherBeater" paint would last this long. I was at Canyon de Chelly again last spring and the symbol is still there. At any rate I welcome and respect all of your comments. I knew that when I posted this image it would attract attention just because of the symbol that it would seem to represent. It, if I remember correctly, is a symbol that represents "prosperity,etc." within certain Native American cultures.

Great link, Mike. Edward Curtis did not have to contend with a wire fence when he made his image. I had to crop quite a bit from my 4x5 format to get this image to look rightand eliminate some of the modern (but necessary) "inconveniences" . Maybe I will post a full frame shot of this image for comparison. I am so impressed with some of the thoroughness you guys exhibit. It's part of whate makes this users group so interesting and great!

I knew the symbol was much older with difererent meanings than the WW-2 meaning, but thought with the neo-nazi's out there, they were trying to send a message to families traveling to see places like that. I stand corrected.

beautiful photo aznative!
reminds me of mesa verde (visited it was a kid )

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it never ceases to amaze me how the nazi's took ancient symbols as part of their "new civilization" ... now, the wheel of life has such a harsh connotation a church in the boston area had them removed from their front elevation when the church was renovated (the church where tip o'neill's funeral was held) ...