Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T22:33:34.118Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An Interpretation of the Pictographs at La Peña Pintada, Jalisco, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joseph B. Mountjoy*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412

Abstract

A recently discovered sheltered rock scar covered with red pictographs, in Jalisco, west Mexico, is a major addition to the rather meager data on pictographs in Mesoamerica. It appears to contain a complex set of data pertaining to the cosmology of the relatively unknown Indians who inhabited the Jalisco coast during the last Pre-Hispanic period. Analysis of the scar has incorporated both the artistic symbolism of the nearby Huichol Indians, and concepts developed through archaeoastronomy. This analysis suggests that the ceiling pictographs record the use of sky transits of the sun, Venus, or the constellation Orion as wet-season/dry-season calendrical markers. Wall pictographs show the sun on the mountainous horizon, below which is the earth filled with symbols of plants and animals; among these stand shamans calling down the life-giving rain from the god(s) of the sky. I also explore the possibility that one of the ceiling pictographs is a record of the appearance of the Crab supernova in the sky in A.D. 1054.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Arias de Sabedra, Antonio 1899 Información rendida por el P. Antonio Arias y Saavedra, acerca del estado de la Sierra del Nayarit, en el siglo XVII. In Nayarit: Colección de documentos inéditos, históricos y etnográficos, acerca de la sierra de ese nombre, edited by Alberto, Santoscoy, pp. 735. Guadalajara.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., Hartung, H., and Buckingham, B. 1978 The pecked cross symbol in ancient Mesoamerica. Science 202:267279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beyer, Hermann 1965 La astronomía de los antiguos Mexicanos, introductión. Mito y simbología del México antiguo. El México Antiguo 10:266284.Google Scholar
Boas, Franz 1903 The decorative art of the North American Indians. Popular Science Monthly 63:481498.Google Scholar
Brandt, John C, Maran, S. P., Williamson, R. A., Harrington, R. S., Cochran, C., Kennedy, M., Kennedy, W. J., and Chamberlin, V. D. 1975 Possible rock art records of the Crab Nebula supernova in the western United States. In Archaeoastronomy in pre-Columbian America, edited by Anthony Aveni, pp. 4558. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Brandt, John C, and Williamson, R. A. 1979 The 1054 supernova and rock art. Archaeoastronomy 1:138.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1975 Native astronomy in Mesoamerica. In Archaeoastronomy in pre-Columbian America, edited by Anthony, Aveni, pp. 331. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Eger, Susan, and Collings, P. R. 1978 Huichol women's art. In Art of the Huichol Indians, edited by Kathleen, Berrin, pp. 3553. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Ellis, Florence H. 1975 A thousand years of the Pueblo Sun-Moon-star calendar. In Archaeoastronomy in pre-Columbian America, edited by Anthony, Aveni, pp. 5987. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Furst, Peter T. 1978 The art of “being Huichol.” In Art of the Huichol Indians, edited by Kathleen, Berrin, pp. 1834. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Furst, Peter T., and Scott, S. D. 1975 La escalera del Padre Sol: Un paralelo etnográfico-arqueológico desde el Occidente de México. I.N.A.H. Boletín, época II. 12:1320. Mexico, D.F.Google Scholar
Grant, Campbell 1965 The rock paintings of the Chumash; a study of a California Indian culture. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Grimes, Joseph E., and Hinton, T. 1969 The Huichol and Cora. In Handbook of Middle American Indians (vol. 8), edited by Robert, Wauchope and Evon, Vogt, pp. 792813. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Kroeber, Alfred L. 1901 Decorative symbolism of the Arapaho. American Anthropologist 3:308336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lumholtz, Carl 1900 Symbolism of the Huichol Indians. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History III (Anthropology II).Google Scholar
Lumholtz, Carl 1902 Unknown Mexico: a record of five years’ exploration among the tribes of the western Sierra Madre in the tierra caliente of Tepic and Jalisco; and among the Tarascans of Michoacan. Vols. I & II, Rio Grande Press (1973 edition). Glorieta, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Lumholtz, Carl 1904 Decorative art of the Huichol Indians. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History III: 278327. New York.Google Scholar
Mariano de Torres, Francisco 1965 Cronica de la sancta provincia de Xalisco. Instituto Jalisciense de Antropologia e Historia, Serie de Historia 7. Guadalajara. Mata Torres, Ramon Google Scholar
Mariano de Torres, Francisco 1973 Vida y arte de los Huicholes; segunda parte: el arte. Artes de Mexico 161. Mexico, D.F.Google Scholar
Mayer, Dorothy 1977 An examination of Miller's Hypothesis. In Native American astronomy, edited by Anthony, Aveni, pp. 179201. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
McCarty, Kieran, and Matson, D. 1975 Franciscan report on the Indians of Nayarit, 1673. Ethnohistory 22(3):193221.Google Scholar
Miller, William C. 1955 Two possible astronomical pictographs found in northern Arizona. Plateau 27(4):613.Google Scholar
Mountjoy, Joseph B. 1974 Some hypotheses regarding the petroglyphs of West Mexico. Mesoamerican Studies 9. Southern Illinois University Museum, Carbondale, Ill.Google Scholar
Preuss, Konrad T. 1912 Die Nayarit-expedition: die religion der Cora-Indianer. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Preuss, Konrad T. 1968 Una visita a los mexicanos (aztecas) en la Sierra Madre Occidental. Traducciones Mesoamericanistas 2:209-220. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología. México, D. F. Originally published in Globus 92:189194. Braunschweig. 1907. Spanish translation 1968 by Brigitte B. de Lameiras.Google Scholar
Sauer, Carl O. 1934 The distribution of aboriginal tribes and languages in northwestern Mexico. Ibero-Americana 5. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Schondube Baumbach, Otto 1974 Dedidades prehispánicas en el area de Tamazula-Tuxpan-Zapotlán en el Estado de Jalisco. In The archaeology of west Mexico, edited by Betty, Bell, pp. 168181. Ajijic, Jalisco.Google Scholar
Vivó, Escoto, Jorge, A. 1964 Weather and climate of Mexico and Central America. In Handbook of Middle American Indians (Vol. 1), edited by Robert, Wauchope and Robert, West, pp. 187215. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Wellmann, Klaus F. 1979 Further remarks on an astronomical petroglyph in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. Archaeoastronomy 1:7577.Google Scholar
Wissler, George 1902 Decorative art of the North American Indians. Bulletin of The American Museum of Natural History 18:231277.Google Scholar
Zingg, Robert M. 1938 The Huichols: primitive artists. University of Denver Contributions to Ethnography 1. Denver.Google Scholar