|
|
GIANTS from the north made them, the
Cochimi said. They themselves did not paint. They showed their
missionary a giant skeleton they'd unearthed, perhaps of a whale.
The missionary hiked into the Sierra de San Francisco for a look...
Not until the 1970s, however, was the extent and significance
of the peninsula's rock art fully established. Over a period
of several years, guided by local ranchers, American historian
Harry Crosby and his Mexican associate Enrique von Hambleton
hiked and rode mules throughout the maze of sierras, photographing
and mapping some 180 previously undocumented sites...."The
Painters" as Crosby calls the artists, were probably a paleolithic
people from the north. To reach the high ceilings and overhangs
they would have used scaffolding made, most likely, of cardon
skeletons or palm trunks lashed together with deerhide. Their
paints were a slurry of water and volcanic rock. Radiocarbon
dating of artifacts unearthed in the caves proves they were occupied
some 10,800 years ago; but when exactly the caves were painted
remains a mystery. Crosby's guess is that the most recent cave
paintings are well over 500 years old, and the oldest 2,000 years
old or more... |
|
C.M. Mayo's cm i r a c u l o u s c a i r
