Rock carvings in the Sierra de San Francisco

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Rock carvings in the Sierra de San Francisco
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Antropología - Museo Nacional de Antropología ovedc wikimania 070
Rock carvings in the Sierra de San Francisco
National territory: Mexico
Type: Culture
Criteria : (i) (iii)
Surface: 182,600 ha
Reference No .: 714
UNESCO region : America
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 1993  (session 17)
Sierra de San Francisco (Mexico)
Sierra de San Francisco
Sierra de San Francisco

The rock paintings in Sierra de San Francisco in Mexico are since 1993 as a cultural heritage component of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites . The rock drawings and their sites are in an almost authentic condition because of the dry climate and the remoteness of the area.

Stone dwellings with rock carvings are best known, although petroglyphs are also widely distributed. So far, the sites in San Francisco and Guadalupe have been explored most intensively. 1,150 art sites have been registered in this area, including paintings, engravings and geoglyphs .

In terms of size, it is one of the largest prehistoric rock art sites in the world.

location

The world heritage area covers 182,600 hectares, in which more than 400 sites have been recorded. The rock carvings of the Sierra de San Francisco are located in the center of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. A small mountain range made of volcanic rock dominates the landscape . Here, high mesas are divided by deep canyons that run in a star-shaped pattern.

Indian peoples populated this area from the late Pleistocene to the arrival of missionaries in the late seventeenth century. A nation of indigenous people attributed to the petroglyphs. The remote location allowed the indigenous people to lead an isolated life, which allowed them to develop a complex, independent culture. The most striking wall paintings are in the mountains. The rock carvings are on the walls and ceilings of caves, some of which are difficult to reach.

Dating

The first mention of the rock carvings comes from the records of Jesuits in the 18th century. Modern research began in the late 19th century when the French ethnologist León Diguet led exploratory trips to the Sierra de San Francisco and Guadalupe in 1894. He then published descriptions of several sites.

Before the year 2000 there were only six mass spectrometry dating of three portraits in the area of ​​thousands of square kilometers. In 2002 and 2003 almost 300 color samples were examined. The most outstanding result comes from the Cueva San Borjitas, Sierra de Guadalupe, which names an average of 7,500 years. The result surprised the experts, because the rock carvings were estimated to be younger until then.

Specialty

In terms of size, it is one of the largest prehistoric rock art sites in the world. The rock drawings and their sites are in an almost authentic condition because of the dry climate and the remoteness of the area. After the discovery, the colors were not damaged by conservation measures and the sites were minimally affected.

The specialty in the pictures are their compositions , the sizes, the precision, the variety of colors, as well as the number of sites. The figures shown are many times larger than in nature. Humans are up to two meters tall, deer and similar animals are up to three meters long. The rock carvings are often placed very high on walls or ceilings, which must have been the most significant technical difficulty in creating the pictures. Some researchers suspected that brushes were attached to long rods for this. Another possibility is that scaffolding has been built or trunks of palm trees have been leaned against the walls in order to be able to reach the high places.

The painters

From 100 BC Until 1300 AD, the region was inhabited by a people who are now extinct. The original name of the people is unknown. They are known as "The Painters" because of their work. As semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers , they moved through the terrain with the seasons, from coast to coast. That is why there is such a large number and variety of archaeological sites. Presumably they spent the hot summers in the mountain caves.

The sites and rock carvings served various functions. The symbolic language , which contains metonymic and metaphorical elements, is based on a completely different system of thought than ours. European missionaries and historians describe some religious rituals of the natives , where the petroglyphs played a role. Ancestral worship took up a large part of the ideologies of the indigenous peoples. Trance states were used to communicate with the dead . The artifacts used include a. Cloaks made of human hair, carved figures, bars with headdresses . Artifacts of these rituals were found both on the drawings and in archaeological excavations .

Scenes with arrows and spears represent either war scenes or war magic , otherwise they depict hunting scenes or hunting magic . Hunting spells could have been made due to a drought when the hunt was not successful. The meaning of the rock carvings as a magical effect is also criticized. Recently there has been a discussion about whether shamanic scenes are depicted. Hints for this are given by human figures dressed like shamans, as well as the depiction of power animals , magicians, visions or flying souls .

The murals were very successful as a means of visual communication . Their persistence, diffusion and the permanence of certain forms show that society has been able to decipher the meaning of the symbolic language over several generations .

The peninsula evangelism in the late seventeenth century resulted in the extinction of the ancient peoples. With that, the cultural language of rock drawings and engravings also disappeared . Since then, descendants of Spanish mission workers have lived there . The rock carvings remained in a very good state of preservation because only the inhabitants of the sparsely populated, almost isolated area knew of their existence.

Representations

Rock carving in Baja California Sur

The paintings show a highly developed culture . The paintings are designed in red, black, white and yellow. The style is mostly realistic. There are large format paintings with hundreds and thousands of multicolored figurative representations. The figures often overlap.

Examination of some portraits clearly showed that brush-like tools were used, probably made of agave leaves , as the width and hardness of the traces of paint suggest. With some pictures it is assumed that it was more about the act of painting itself than about creating a narrative image. Careful analysis has shown that certain figures have been repainted over and over again. In this way they were preserved for long periods of time, possibly centuries.

Mostly human figures are depicted, in maritime and terrestrial surroundings. The drawings show people in relation to various animal species and the environment. People wear a wide variety of headdresses . Sometimes animals and people are hit by arrows or spears.

The rock carvings of some sites are dominated by men or women. It can be assumed that these sites were used for gender-specific customs, such as B. for initiation rituals of young people, but a clear use cannot be attributed. Other motifs depict couples of men and women with prominent genitals , including in sexual postures. The topographical features of the underground are recorded in a painting in the Sierra de Guadalupe . The painting depicts a couple in which the woman is painted larger than the man. Her figure was positioned on the stone wall in such a way that her mound lies exactly on a protuberance, which emphasizes her prominent vulva .

There is a clear connection between images in large cave dwellings and other archaeological material. Whereas murals in small dwellings or under rocky outcrops show little or no archaeological finds.

The artistic work led to the development of the cave painting Tradition Great Murals (in German: large wall paintings ). The rock art of this tradition were categorized into the following types: Red-on-Granite (in German: red granite ), San Francisco, San Borjitas, La Trinidad and Southern Semi-abstract (in German: Southern Half Abstract ). Those sites that stand for the tradition of the Great Mural are along the great rivers that carry water all year round. The drawings of the Sierra de San Francisco are divided into four groups: Guadalupe, Santa Teresa, San Gregorio and Cerritos. The most important sites are Cueva del Batequì, Cueva de la Navidad, Cerro de Santa Marta, Cueva de la Soledad, Cueva de las Flechas and Grutas del Brinco.

San Francisco subspecies

The Great Murals subspecies San Francisco covers a large area, in the north to the Sierra de San Juan and in the south to the Sierra de Guadalupe. There are approximately 350 known sites in the area. Among the Great Murals subspecies, San Francisco is the most uniform. Most of the representations are realistic.

The figures are one, two or multicolored in red, black, white and yellow. Analysis of color samples shows that the pigments come from local minerals . Red and yellow are made from iron oxide , black from manganese oxide ( pyrolusite ) and white from gypsum . In addition to the local sources, there are also large deposits of iron oxide in volcanic areas of Cañón del Azufre. It is likely that these deposits were used to create the colors for the San Francisco and Guadalupe petroglyphs, as well as colors for body paints . The pigments were ground in either solid mortars or grinders. The white may have been used to sketch the drawings before the area was filled with another color.

The style of this subspecies is generally very static, especially in human figures. However, the posture or placement of some animals suggest movement. The people are facing the front with their arms raised throughout. There are hardly any details like facial expressions or clothing. People are painted in one or two colors, with the two-tone color separation running in a horizontal or vertical line. Women were represented by breasts below the armpits , which e.g. B. is also used on rock carvings in Australia . Of the animals, the deer is the most common, followed by the bighorn sheep . Other animals are the Lower Californian pronghorn , birds, rabbits, hares and various marine animals such as sea ​​turtles , fish and rays . Mountain lions , coyotes and snakes are less common . The drawings of the animals follow the same coloring as the human figures.

In some large paintings there are also abstract drawings, geometric ornaments , grid and checkerboard patterns . Sometimes, in addition to classic picture scenes, there are abstract patterns in hidden places. It could be that these forms arose from visions achieved under the influence of drugs .

Petroglyphs can be found on stones inside dwellings, some on walls, even over old layers of paint.

Protective measures

Around the 1970s, tourism to art venues gradually developed . In this early period, the landscape and works of art were badly affected. There has also been artifact theft and illegal digs.

In addition to being protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993, the rock drawings are protected by the Federal Law on Historic, Archaeological and Artistic Monuments of 1972. The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) is also responsible for protection and research . In addition, the area is completely in the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve , which gives it additional protection .

An administrative plan has existed since 1994, which provides that the focus of all measures is on preservation and conservation. As part of this, two research projects were implemented in the region in 1994, on the one hand archaeological and on the other with regard to the conservation of works of art. The development of the region is to be promoted under educational, historical and environmental aspects. The active participation of the local residents is fundamental. Removable infrastructure was installed in the seven most visited sites . Visitors move in restricted areas. The construction of roads in the protected area has so far been averted. In 2011 it could be stated that the development plan led to the desired results. There was a need for improvement in maintaining the cultural identity in the communities of the Sierras .

Others

The appearance of the rock carvings are taken up in the documentary Ocean Oasis: IMAX (2000) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco. In: UNESCO - World Heritage Center. Retrieved July 26, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 53 , accessed on July 24, 2019 .
  3. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 53 , accessed on July 24, 2019 (English): "(Gutiérrez 2003; Gutiérrez y Hyland, 2002)"
  4. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 58 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English): "(Barco 1973)"
  5. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 59 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English): "(Diguet, 1895)"
  6. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 59 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English): "(Fullola et.al 1994; Gutiérrez & Hyland 2002: 337)"
  7. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 60 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English): "(Watchman et al 2002)"
  8. ↑ a b c de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 60 , accessed on July 24, 2019 (English).
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 55 , accessed on July 28, 2019 (English).
  10. ↑ a b Hambleton, Enrique: Sierra de San Francisco Rock Art. In: Cinema Corp of the Californias. San Diego Natural History Museum & Pronatura, 2000, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  11. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 63 , accessed on July 30, 2019 (English): "(Hernando, 2002)"
  12. ↑ a b c de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 61 , accessed on July 31, 2019 .
  13. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 61 , accessed on July 24, 2019 (English): "(Gutiérrez & Hyland, 2002)"
  14. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 60 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English): "(Diguet in Grant 1974: 27; Grant 1974: 114; Ritter 1979: 395; Crosby 1984: 99)"
  15. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 60 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English): "(Diguet in Grant 1974, Grant 1974: 107; Ritter 1974: 16; Meighan 1966: 390, 1969: 68)"
  16. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 60 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English): "(Meigham (1966))"
  17. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 60 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English): "(Jones 1989; Smith 1983; Ritter 1994: 22)"
  18. ↑ a b de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 63 , accessed on July 30, 2019 .
  19. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 57 , accessed on July 24, 2019 (English): "(Gutierrez & Hyland 2002: 85)"
  20. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 58 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English).
  21. ↑ a b de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 62 , accessed on July 27, 2019 .
  22. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 62 , accessed on July 24, 2019 (English): "(Gutiérrez, 2007)"
  23. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 53 , accessed on July 24, 2019 (English): "the development of rock art tradition of the Great Murals (Crosby, 1997)"
  24. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 53 , accessed on July 24, 2019 (English): "(Crosby, 1997: 210-217)"
  25. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 58 , accessed on July 29, 2019 (English): "(Gutierrez 2009; Gutierrez & Hyland 2002)"
  26. ↑ a b c d de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 57 , accessed on July 28, 2019 (English).
  27. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 57 , accessed on July 24, 2019 (English): "(Lewis Williams & Dowson 1988; Whitley, 1994; Gutiérrez & Hyland, 2002)"
  28. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 64 , accessed on July 30, 2019 (English).
  29. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 64 , accessed on July 30, 2019 (English): "(Gutiérrez & Hyland, 2002)"
  30. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 64 , accessed on July 30, 2019 (English): "(Stanley 1996)"
  31. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 65 , accessed on July 31, 2019 (English): "(ibid)"
  32. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 66 , accessed on July 31, 2019 .
  33. ↑ de la Luz Gutiérrez Martinez, Maria: The Great Murals of the Sierra de San Francisco. (PDF) Stone Memory of a Missing People. In: Tanum Museum of Rock Carvings. Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös Sweden, p. 66 , accessed on July 31, 2019 (English): "(ibid)"