Introduction to the UNESCO World Heritage Rock

Art of Baja California – Sur, Mexico

Treasure of the Sierra

Getting

there

Along the road … El Burro

Petroglyph Site

Specialized microclimates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachycereus_pringlei

• Native blue-fan palms,

• Boojums

• Elephant trees,

• Native figs

• Cardóns

• Pitahaya dulce cactus

Ciros – Bojum Tree

Hidden Treasure

• Pitahaya dulce cactus

Early exploration

• First Europeans to

discover – 18th

century by Jesuit

Missionaries –

Francisco Javier,

Padre Sales, etc.

• Provide us with word

pictures of the

aboriginal inhabitants

and their customs.

Maltese crosses were

often found on mainsails

of the Galleons.

• Lon Diguet - industrial

chemist/naturalist – 1894

• Earl Stanley Garner – 1962

by helicopter

• Crosby – began in the late

60s

History of exploration

Four levels of visitation (rated by the Mexican

government as to their level of patrimonial value and

uniqueness)

1 Casual sites (drive up or short hikes)

2 Most visited – requires permit and local guides

3 Restricted (for general research – requires special

permit and INAH guide)

4 Very restricted – only those with research designs

UNESCO world heritage site – 1993

World Heritage Site Distribution Map

Only 2% are rock art

• Installed walkways at

most visited sites to

protect people and rock

art

• World famous rock art

specialist from

France,Dr. Jean

Clottes, says they are

the North American

Lascaux.

UNESCO world heritage site -1993

• Added signage

to 6 sites

• Spanish and

English

• Most are painted on

Volcanic agglomeration

• In shelters formed by the

collapse of volcanic rock

layers

• Undercut by erosion

• ~ 410 sites but not all of

them are alike

• Mountain ranges can be

as tall as 5000 feet

• Most sites are situated at

about 1000 feet elevation

in the mountains

• Along permanent water

sources

• Ancestors of Cochimi Culture –

possibly sister language to the

Yuman family

• Cochimi people of the area

reportedly said they were done by

a race of giants

• Radiocarbon dating of artifacts

suggests that most sites flourished

between 1500 and 500 years ago.

• Evidence of human presence in

the area as early as 9000 (Getty

Newsletter Summer 1996)

Who created the Great Mural Art?

Zoomorphic Figures in Baja Rock Art

• Deer

• Bighorn Sheep

• Antelopes

• Whales

• Sea Lions

• Rabbits

• Various fish

• Snakes

• Vultures

• Mountain Lions

• Bob cats

• Sea turtles

• Rays

• Other marine animals

• Coyotes/Wolves

• Pelicans and other shore birds

Anthropomorphic Figures in Baja Rock Art

• Often bicolored

• Sometimes tricolored

• Some patterned bodies

• Some larger than life

• Females

• Most face front

• Diverse Headdresses

• Arms raised (Sierra de San Francisco

• Arms out (Sierra de Guadalupe)

• Usually no facial features

• No indication of clothing

• Most shelters had

archeological remains.

• Many artifacts were

removed prior to 1993.

Sierra de San

Francisco

• Approximately

350 sites – the

most painted

of the Great

Mural Style

areas

• Local mineral

pigments used: Iron

oxide, manganese

oxide and gypsum

(probably used the

same for body paint)

• Many figures were

painted over and over

• Methods of painting

included dabbing, finger

painting, using brush

made of yucca leaves

Cueva del Raton – and a little magic

DStretch is a tool for rock

art researchers who wish

to enhance images of

pictographs.

One large mono represents a rare type.

The figure was divided into red and black

areas along the vertical axis in the usual

fashion, but a black oval was heavily

painted over the area where we would

imagine a face.

In addition, both the red and black

portions of the body were colored in

fine vertical stripes rather than solid

paint.

• First identified as a rat (hence the name Raton)

• Vary less than other animals or monos

• Long stiff extended tails and no neck

• Short legs cocked at similar angles

• No neck

• Round, short-muzzle heads with small round ears

• Most are painted black – never bicolored

León de

montaña

(Mountain

Lion)

Bi-colored Antelope - (Berrendos)

421 page monograph

Beginning our 11 km trek to the bottom of the canyon

Blanco

Dropping down 1050 meters

Everything has sharp edges!

Camp 6.5 kilometers down

Looking down on camp from Santa Teresa 1

• 3 major groups of

paintings

• Intentionally arranged

• Designed to flaunt the

difficulties faced in

their creation

Cueva Sta.

Teresa 1

Unnecessarily high??

So how did they paint so

high?

• The Jesuits speculated that

the paintings—in places

nine meters or more above

ground level—might have

been executed using

scaffolding.

• Others suggest they were

painted with long poles with

brushes tied to the end.

• Palm trees propped against

the walls

• Ladders

Crosby’s photo at Teresa 1 from

“The Cave Paintings of Baja

California”

• Suggests that a piece of

deerskin was attached

to the end of the pole

• Dipped into the pigment

• Using pitahaya pole

• Evidence of scaffolding,

ladders or palm logs

absent at the sites.

From “Rock Art of the Sierra de San

Francisco: An Interpretative Analysis”

by Ron Smith.

Papago and Pima

Woman picking

cactus fruit

Photo by Edward Curtis

Baja California

Tree frog

Pseudacris hypochondriaca hypochondriaca

Most of the most

emblematic Great

Mural sites are found

along permanent water

sources.

Cueva de Las

Flechas

• Unusual black cap on

the red central figure

• Central figures is

covered by

numerous arrows

• Negating the power

of the shaman/ritual specialist?

Drawing from La Cueva Pintada

Monograph by Ramon Vinas I Vallverdu

Father Maria Napoli: (March 1721) “I was walking alone

along the shore meditating when I encountered some

naked Indians, who came running toward me. One of

them , their chief wizard, was very tall and fat, and was

painted black all over, so that to me he looked like a devil

On his head he wore some tails, Taken from deer skins,

and feathers of various kinds

• Central mono painted over a bobcat

Bob cat

“gato montes”

• Unusal red and black borrego – usually bicolored Bighorns

have both horns painted the same color

• Attempt to simulate action?

Bighorn

Sheep

Dew Claw

• Over 500 feet across • No deeper than 40 feet • Painted to a height of 30 feet

Cueva Pintada

• In Arroyo San Pablo

• Above a spring

• Near palms

• Largest collection of

Great Mural Rock Art

images

• The most painted

place in the most

painted part of the

entire area of Great

Mural Art

Cueva Pintada –1990

Photo taken from Fleches – across the canyon

175 meters long

1990 photo courtesy of Bob Cates

March 1990

Watchetibatcha (Cochimi for deer)

• Rows of anthros are common in the Sierra de San

Francisco but not rows of zoomorphs

• Painted to a height of 30 feet.

As you move around this

female figure from left to right

she seems to change from a

young wasp-waisted girl to a

woman with bulging hips.

Using the rock art

surface

Dew Claws

• One mono has a

headdress that

resembles a miniature

palm tree

• Deer imagery is the

most common

zoomorph in Great

Mural Art

• This one shows

interesting brush work

• Brushes may have

been made of agave

leaves

• Sometimes first

outlined in white then

covered with other

colors

unique beauty

Possible scenes

of transformation

or magical flight

Birds

• Sometimes

outlined in

white

• Shorebirds

• Vultures

(zopilote)

Black Wolves

• Over painting showed little concern for the visibility of other figures

• Perhaps the act of painting was important

• Some created elaborate constructions

• Lots more to learn – 484 page study on La Cueva Pintada

El Cacrisco (pock-marked)

• Very poor rock art

surface

• Fifteen deer

• Five Monos

Boregos , rattlesnake and a mono with a “sack hat”

Cueva de la

Soledad

or

Pajaro Nego

(the black

bird)

Three black deer moving from

left to right are a buck, a young

animal and a mature doe.

Noteworthy is the attention to

detail such as antlers and

dewlap claws.

Soledad – complex abstract

La Musica

Piedra de Chui

Down the Arroyo

San Palo to Boco

de San Julio

Minor Cave with Major Art

Boca de San Julio

• 70 feet long

• 8-12 feet high

• Soft stone

• Paintings of shorebirds with elaborate plumage

The forms have been drawn in dark red and the then

outlined in pink and white.

… time to saddle

up Blanco and

head up

And up …

And up …

Leaving the mystery

and majesty of the

Great Mural Paintings

of the Sierra de San

Francisco

Map from Crosby P 96

Next stop

is the

Sierra de

Guadalupe

.

San Borijtas

• On Rancho San Baltazar

• First known in the 18th

century by Jesuits Jose de

Rother and Francisco

Escalantes (1770)

• AMS dating by Watchman

(Geoscientist of the

University of Australia) in

2002 indicated age at

7500 BP

• 100 feet wide X 80 feet

deep, average of 12 feet

high

• Random orientation

• Approximately 50 figures

Guadalupe style

• Spread legs

• Heads divided between

two colors, are short and

have no necks.

• Bodies are long and tend

to bulge in the middle

• Emphasis on arrows in the

bodies of individuals -

Possibly representing

conflicts between the folks

of two sierras (Crosby)

• Few animals

• Arms are more spread

out than spread up

• Figures seem stiffer

than those of the

Sierra de San

Francsico

Original Photo

• Perhaps girl’s

puberty sites?

• Calendarical notions

• Vulvas are the most

common engrave

image in the Great

Mural Region

Engravings

as San

Borijtas

La Trinidad

La Trinidad – still great mural art but different

La Trinidad – marine animals

Piedras Pintas

Painted manta rays from Cuesta de San Pablo II

http://bradshawfoundation.com/baja/sierra_de_san_francisco5.php

Six styles – chart of variations

http://bradshawfoundation.com/baja/style_table.php

So what do

they mean?

• Ancestor worship?

• Rain magic (deer/pitahaya?

• Social identity

• Initiation or puberty rites

• Hunting magic

• “Magic” war

• Guama (ritual specialist’s) visions or ceremony.

• Protection from sorcery

• Multiple layers of meaning?

Acknowledgements Santos Arce (our INAH guide), Angelina Arce Arce (our cook), Fernance Arce Ojeda (our general tour guide and Jeff LeFave who organized the trip from states side.

Francisco Humberto Arce Arce, Gertrudis Blas Arce Ojeda, Jose

Jesus Arce Altamiranco and Victor Alonso Arce Arce our local

helpers and mule/burro wranglers

Photo of Santos Arce by Mike Donaldson

• DStretch is a tool for rock art

researchers who wish to

enhance images of

pictographs. It is a plugin to

ImageJ.

•

ImageJ is an image processing

and analysis program written in

Java. It needs to be installed

first before you can use

DStretch.

• Written by Jon Harmon

• http://www.dstretch.com/

DStretch

Many thanks to Blanco

who hauled me down

and back up safely!!

Questions?