Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T09:55:55.486Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prehistoric Rock Paintings in Baja California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Clement W. Meighan
Clement W. Meighan*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles, California
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Elaborate rock paintings from several rock shelters in the central part of Baja California are reported and described. The paintings are assigned to the Comondú culture on the basis of artifacts found in the shelters, one of which yielded a radiocarbon date of A.D. 1435 ± 80. The paintings apparently served as hunting magic. The complexity of the rock art and the wealth of sites and paintings suggest a somewhat more advanced culture than reported by the Spanish.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 31 , Issue 3Part1 , January 1966 , pp. 372 - 392
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1966

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

Aschmann, Homer 1959 The Central Desert of Baja California: Demography and Ecology. Ibero-Americana, No. 42. Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Clavijero, Francisco Javier 1852 Historia de la Antigua o Baja California. Juan Navarro, Mexico. (Originally published in Italian in 1789; available in English through translation of Sara Lake and A. A. Gray, Stanford University Press, 1937. The name is spelled Clavigero in most references.)Google Scholar
Dahlgren, Barbro and Romero, Javier 1951 La Prehistoria Bajacaliforniana. Cuadernos Americanos, Vol. 58, pp. 153–78. Mexico.Google Scholar
Dahlgren De Jordan, Barbro 1954 Las Pinturas Rupestres de la Baja California. Artes de Mexico, March-April 1954 (No. 3), pp. 22–8. Mexico.Google Scholar
Davis, Edward H. 1949 We Found the Cave of Lost Art. Desert, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 25-7. Palm Desert, California.Google Scholar
Diguet, Leon 1895 Note sur la pictographie de la Basse-Californie. L'Anthropologie, Vol. 6, pp. 160–75. Paris.Google Scholar
Diguet, Leon 1899 Rapport sur une mission scientifique dans la Basse-Californie. Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques, Vol. 9, pp. 1–53. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris.Google Scholar
Gardner, Erle S. 1962a A Legendary Treasure Left by a Long Lost Tribe. Life, Vol. 53, No. 3, pp. 57-64. Chicago.Google Scholar
Gardner, Erle S. 1962b The Hidden Heart of Baja. Wm. Morrow & Co., New York.Google Scholar
Gebhard, David 1960 Prehistoric Paintings of the Diablo Region of Western Texas. Roswell Museum and Art Center, Publications in Art and Science, No. 3. Roswell.Google Scholar
Jordan, Fernando 1950 La Tierra Incognita. Impacto, March 11, 1950, pp. 58–70. Mexico.Google Scholar
Levine, Morton H. 1957 Prehistoric Art and Ideology. American Anthropologist, Vol. 59, No. 6, pp. 949–64. Menasha.Google Scholar
Massey, William C. 1947 Brief Report on Archaeological Investigations in Baja California. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 344-59. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Massey, William C. 1949 Tribes and Languages of Baja California. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 272-307. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Massey, William C. 1961a The Cultural Distinction of Aboriginal Baja California. In Homenaje a Pablo Martinez del Rio, pp. 411–22. Mexico.Google Scholar
Massey, William C. 1961b The Survival of the Dart-thrower on the Peninsula of Baja California. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 81-93. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Massey, William C. and Osborne, Carolyn M. 1961 A Burial Cave in Baja California. Anthropological Records, Vol. 16, No. 8. Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Pepper, Choral 1964 Bewitched by Baja. Desert, Vol. 27, No. 8, pp. 22-5, 32. Palm Desert, California.Google Scholar
Reinman, Fred M. and Townsend, S. 1960 Six Burial Sites on San Nicolas Island. Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1959–60, pp. 1-114. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar