Cultural Continuity in the

Sierra Tarahumara of Southern Chihuahua, Mexico

By C. Melvin Aikens, June 2003

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Doug “Diego” Rhodes, proprietor of the Paraiso del Oso country hotel near Cerocahui, for inviting me to do an archaeological reconnaissance of the local area. Diego provided for everything needed in the way of logistic support and local contacts. I thank him and his wife, Ana Maria Chavez de Rhodes, for their hospitality, and Steve Horvath, for his boon companionship in the field. My special appreciation also to the great group of staff members, family, and friends of the Oso: Olga Perez, Manuel Buelna, Hugo Rhodes, Horacio Ayala, Trinidad Ruiz, Leopoldo Chavez, Gabriel Castellon, Maria Castellon, Jose Frias, Felipina Gill, Trinidad Mancinas, Jesus Maria Mancinas, and Guadalupe Perez. Staying at the Oso was like coming to live with a large and friendly family! I also greatly thank Annmarie and Lucile Housley for introducing me to the beautiful and endlessly intriguing Sierra Tarahumara.

Introduction: Land and Culture of the Tarahumara People

The Sierra Madre Occidental--especially the central portion known as the Sierra Tarahumara--is an extremely rugged country, formed by the uplifting and spectacular erosion of extremely thick, predominantly volcanic deposits. The landscape is one of highland plateaus between 1500 and 2200 meters in elevation, steeply cut by canyons that are as deep as 1500 meters in some areas. The steep altitudinal gradients make it possible to go in a day’s walk from cool, pine-oak forested highlands to hot valley bottoms dominated by tropical scrub and cactus. The Sierra Madre Occidental is well known to biologists for the unusually great diversity of plants and animals there, caused by the closeness of highland temperate habitats to lowland tropical habitats within a deeply dissected landscape.

The Tarahumara people who give this region its name are numerous and widely dispersed. Even today, though increasingly linked into modern international society, they pursue to a remarkable degree a traditional life way based on farming and herding, and on harvesting the native plants and animals of their country. Spanish accounts from the 15^th through 18^th centuries record that the Tarahumara once occupied a broad band of territory extending as far east as modern Chihuahua City, but withdrew gradually into the remoteness of their Sierran heartland as the crush of Spanish/Mexican incursions from the south grew ever more intolerable (Bennett and Zingg 1935, Spicer 1962, Pennington 1963).

From the time of the Aztec empire, and no doubt before, the vast deserts of Northern Mexico were seen by the people of Central Mexico’s great cities as the domain of wild and uncivilized “Chichimecas.”  Indeed the Aztecs themselves were in origin Chichimecas, having moved into the Valley of Mexico from the north long before their rise to political dominance. The Tarahumara also were considered Chichimecas, in company with all the northern tribes

Archaeological research has shown that both Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States were long influenced by the cultures of Central Mexico. The growing of maize, beans, squash, and cotton, making of pottery, construction of masonry buildings, and a host of other cultural characteristics, were Mexican elements shared all across the great northern region that has been labeled “the Gran Chichimeca.”   It was a region that lacked the great cities of Central Mexico, but was not without duly impressive centers of its own at a considerably smaller scale.

The history of the Tarahumara within this region is not well known; the written records of the Aztec civilization do not mention them, and the archaeology of their country has scarcely been studied at all. Although a good deal is known about the archaeology of northern Mexico generally, the sites for which there is a published record lie predominantly around the edges of the Tarahumara country rather than within it.  

“Basket Maker” and “Cave Dweller” Cultures

Of the High Sierra

A crucial exception to the above statement is a small monograph by Robert M. Zingg (1940), based on fieldwork done in 1931. This provides extremely valuable information on some sites near Norogachic, a Tarahumara community high in the Sierra of southern Chihuahua, just west of the continental divide. These sites, in the adjacent headwaters of the Rio Urique and Rio Batopilas, lie in the heart of the Upland Tarahumara region. Zing defined “Basket Maker” and “Cave Dweller” cultural phases for this area from the materials he observed and collected [ii]

By 1931, archaeological research in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah had established a long sequence of Native American occupation. This was precisely dated through the counting and matching of annually formed tree growth rings seen in the structural beams of many native houses. The tree ring dated sequence led back some 700-800 years from the modern pueblos to a time when people built major but highly compact “cliff houses” of stone and adobe masonry in the large open caves or rock shelters of the northern Colorado Plateau. They grew maize, beans, squash, and cotton, and made a great array of pottery, basketry, and many other artifacts. The record continued back to a time earlier still, near the beginning of the Christian era, when people built only small individual houses of poles and adobe, and associated storage pits. They grew maize and squash, but made no masonry houses or pottery. These earlier people came to be known as “Basket Makers” for the beautiful woven containers and trays that were characteristic of their sites [iii] 

Zingg and his colleague Wendell Bennett spent the spring of 1931 investigating sites around Norogachic. Zing’s report, which is a summary of information that remains to this day largely unpublished, discusses two of three identified Basket Maker sites and 12 of 47 identified Cave Dweller Sites. Zingg says much about specimens from the various sites, but only a few key facts are recounted below, which help identify and date the archaeological sites near Cerocahui that are the subject of the present report.

The Basket Maker culture of the Sierra Tarahumara shared the following basic characteristics with the Basket Maker cultures of the Southwestern U.S.: cultivated corn, circular slab storage cists, human burials flexed in storage cists, coiled basketry, blankets of rabbit fur and turkey feathers, the string apron skirt, antler punches and bone awls, an absence of dwellings or hearths, an absence of pottery, and an absence of beans. Zingg (1940: 40; 1937) discusses at length how these (and many more) archaeological similarities demonstrate a distinctive cultural pattern that was ancient and widespread in the arid interior of Northern Mexico and the Western United States.

The Cave Dweller culture of the Sierra shared many characteristics with the Pueblo culture that followed Basket Maker in the Southwestern U.S. Zingg described several Cave Dweller living structures, but most typical were small round houses, 2.4-3 m. in diameter, “roughly built of very irregularly coursed masonry held by mud plaster…one site gave evidence that this type of dwelling survived until post-Hispanic times (Zingg1940: 46).”  Small storage structures for maize and other household items were built of stones and adobe, or poles and adobe, often in niches or against the cave walls. Again Zingg noted that some of the types observed were still in use by the contemporary Tarahumara. The largest Cave Dweller site he saw was a series of six dwellings and subsidiary structures, “of poor masonry, uncoursed in mud mortar” in a large rockshelter some 50 m. long. He also reported “a half-dozen burial crypts” at the site, possibly former storage structures (Zingg 1940: 48).

Pottery was another important trait of the Cave Dweller phase. Of great utility to its makers, pottery is also a key artifact type for archaeological study, because of its value in identifying and dating the sites where it is found. Zingg (1940: 52) reports bowls 10 to 20 cm. in diameter and 3.8 to 7.5 cm high, globular bowls or “seed jars” of about the same size, and deep cooking ollas 12.7 to 15.2 cm across the mouth, and 14 to 18 cm. deep. The paste of the bowls was grit-tempered, and medium fine to coarse in texture. Surfaces were “fairly well smoothed but never highly polished,” and workmanship rough, “…consistent with ordinary serviceable pottery.” The pottery was in general undecorated, but three among 30 bowls examined had a cross painted in red ocher on the concave surface. Two ollas that had been chipped revealed “a paste of coarse texture with grit temper” and were “smoothed but not highly polished.”  Three ollas heavily coated with soot were obviously cooking vessels. Three others, not smoked, were apparently used for storage. Zingg comments repeatedly on the similarity of Cave Dweller pottery to that still made by modern Tarahumaras.

Overall, Zingg (1940: 65) saw in the archaeological evidence a clear continuity of tradition from early Basket Maker culture into the following Cave Dweller culture, and from that into the culture of the modern Tarahumara. He listed the following traits (including some not previously mentioned above) as carried over from Cave Dweller times by the modern Tarahumara:

Zingg’s work in the Tarahumara heartland, and the evidence reported below of sites around Cerocahui, wholly refutes the idea ventured by some historians that the Tarahumara only moved into the fastness of the Sierra during the 16^th century and later, to escape Spanish/Mexican invaders coming north in search of silver. Clearly, their ancestors were well established in the Sierra Tarahumara at least two thousand years ago, if not much earlier (as will be noted in a later section of this report).

Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Vicinity of Cerocahui September 2003

The investigation reported here is intended to add to our extremely limited knowledge of archaeology in the Sierra Tarahumara. Tarahumara ranchitos at Cerocahui first became the locus of a Jesuit mission in 1680, and today Cerocahui is a small Mexican town and seat of local government. It is located in the high Sierra some 15 km northwest of the Rio Urique, which has, over millions of years, cut the stupendous and justly famed “Copper Canyon” of modern tourist literature. Cerocahui lies about midway along the rough dirt road that leads southward from Bauichivo, a stop on the Chihuahua al Pacifico railway, to the pueblo of Urique, at the bottom of the deep Rio Urique canyon. Southeastward beyond Urique, some 25 km over a high and rugged tongue of the Sierra that is crossed only by footpaths and horse trails, the Spanish/Mexican mining town of Batopilas nestles in the bottom of another deep canyon. Batopilas too was a Tarahumara community, where Spanish explorers first found silver in 1632. The triangle of deeply dissected uplands between Norogachic, on the continental divide, and Cerocahui and Batopilas some 60 km west, is the most isolated portion of today’s Tarahumara country and may have been the Tarahumara heartland for many centuries, if not millennia (Map 1). Since the seminal work of Zingg and Bennett near Norogachic in 1931, little new archaeological information has been developed for this core area.[iv]

The reconnaissance around Cerocahui was conducted on foot, and one day on horseback, during the period September 10-19, 2003. The sites visited were a series known to “Diego” Rhodes (see acknowledgments), based on his years of residence and travel in the area. The latitude, longitude, and altitude of all sites were established with a hand-held global positioning system instrument (Garmin GPSIII+). As is well known, such instruments can fix latitude and longitude within an error range of a few meters, but altitude measurements are subject to considerably greater variation. (Note, locations were deleted for publication on the website,  they are available to qualified researchers)

The survey was conducted under a strict “no collection” policy. Potentially diagnostic artifacts were recorded in notes and photographs, but nothing was removed from the sites. Few artifacts were observed at most sites, but at others a fair number of flakes, bones, and potsherds were seen, sometimes gathered by previous visitors into small concentrations. As recorded below, in several sites small pits gave evidence of digging by previous visitors.

Sites Around Huateivo 

Alt. 1662 m                  Waypoint ElOso 

Huateivo is an old name for the locality around El Paraiso del Oso, a country inn 3 km north of Cerocahui. El Arroyo de Ranchito (shown as Los Cantiles on topographic maps), a slow, shallow stream that gathers water off the higher ground to the north and west, flows through Huateivo. There it joins the Boroscachi, a watercourse that drains higher country to the north and east. This stream, becoming the Arroya Cerocahui, winds its way southward through the nearby pueblo of the same name on its way to an ultimate conjuncture with the Rio Urique about 30 km to the southeast. Huateivo, like nearby Cerocahui, is a valley-bottom zone surrounded by higher country on all sides.

Boca del Cajon

Alt. 1716 m                        Waypoint 390

 The Site and its Cultural Features

Boca del Cajon, a small rockshelter near the mouth of a box canyon that drains into the  Arroyo Cerocahui, lies at the southeastern edge of Huateivo. The rockshelter faces south, toward a creek some 30 m away that flows vigorously during late summer rains. The shelter, of no great depth or height, measures 12m across the front. Five good-sized flat blocks of roof-fall under the shelter offer good sitting or working places.

 Artifacts 

Contemporary use of the shelter was indicated by various artifacts, including a small opened Latorre Bonito Tuna can, other tin cans, and paper wrapping trash. A nopal cactus pad, a small elongate flake of white chert 3.5 cm long, and a larger ovate flake of pinkish chert 5.5 cm across, lay on the shelter floor near the flat “sitting stones.” The fragments of four flat milling stones and two manos were seen in the same area. Two rim bead segments of a Firestone ATX radial tire (P235/75 R15/1056) were left behind in the shelter after the sidewalls and tread had been cut away. Perhaps Tarahumara sandals of contemporary tire-tread type were made at Boca del Cajon, or at any rate the soles for such sandals cut out, possibly to be carried on to a highland settlement upstream.

 Los Molinos

Alt. 1700 m                        Waypoint 391

The Site and its Cultural Features 

Many milling features have been worn into the bare rock surface of a low bluff along the northern side of Arroyo del Ranchito, about 150 m west of the Paraiso del Oso hotel complex. This slickrock flat stands about

 6 m above the creek, which flows from the northwest into the Arroyo Cerocahui just below the hotel. Beyond the milling features, no artifacts or other cultural traces were observed.  

The milling features include deep, circular bedrock mortars and shallow, ovate grinding slicks. The grinding slicks are natural depressions in the native rock that were somewhat further developed by use. The area

 over which these features extend parallels the bluff edge, measuring 50 m east-west by 7 m north south. The stone into which the milling features are worn is a welded volcanic tuff, permeated by tiny bubbles. These bubbles break through when subjected to grinding, which would serve to keep the milling surfaces continuously “sharpened.”   

In all, 3 mortars and 14 grinding slicks were identified. A complete cleaning and examination of the rock surface, which was not wholly free of sediment in some areas, would probably reveal at least several more such features. In the tabulation below, the milling features at Los Molinos are numbered from the east toward the west end of the site, and their dimensions given in cm. Mortars, distinguished from grinding slicks by their much greater depth in relation to breadth, are tagged with an asterisk *. 

                                           Arroyo del Barro 

                     Alt. 1685 m                        Waypoint 387 

The Site and its Cultural Features

The Arroyo del Barro, which enters the Huateivo area from the north, is locally so called for the fact that clay has been dug near its mouth possibly for making ollas and recently for making adobes. The archaeological zone is located immediately upslope from a little flat where a thin stratum of clay has been stripped from the surface. Three localities, separated from one another by distances of 50-150 m, give clear evidence of occupation.

Locality 1, a narrow sheltered area some 12 m in length beneath the rimrock along the east side of the arroyo, shows both architectural and artifactual traces. Roughly midway along this sheltered stretch is a short wall made of sizeable stones, chinked with adobe mortar, that projects outward at a right angle from the back of the shelter. It is 180 cm long and 70 cm high. Adjacent is a large flat piece of rockfall that has worn into it a grinding slick 25x20 cm long and a bit more than 2 cm deep. Scattered small chunks of charcoal remain visible on the shelter floor in this area.

About 150 m to the south and down slope from Locality 1, several large blocks of fallen rimrock offer sheltered areas at their bases. Locality 2 is a shelter  ~3 m high at the front and ~ 4m deep front to back, formed under the upward end of a large tilted block. It was clearly occupied, as shown by a wall extending approximately halfway across the front of the shelter. This wall is made of 2-3 courses of stone, probably once chinked with adobe. Locality 3, down slope and ~50 m distant from both localities 1 and 2, is a large space surrounded by great blocks of detached rimrock. It would have made a fine “outdoor living room,” though no cultural features or artifacts could be seen through the dense grass that carpets it.

Artifacts

Much modern trash, including the detached beds of two pickup trucks, is scattered across the site. Workers digging clay may have left some of the trash, but much of it was obviously dumped off the edge of the modern road that runs along the ridge just above the rimrock on the east side of the arroyo. A few artifacts clearly attributable to site occupation were found in the sheltered area of Locality 1.

An ovate flake of grey chert 2 cm long was found just down the slope in front of the shelter, and a narrower piece 1.5 cm long lay next to the short rock wall. In the same area was seen a small nodule of grey chert toolstone that had been assayed by being broken off a larger piece, but was not otherwise flaked and showed no indications of use-wear.

Two quite large, roughly ovate sherds of redware pottery, 5 cm and 7 cm long respectively, lay in the back of the rockshelter. The pottery was tempered with particles of crushed whitish rock, of somewhat uneven size, and its unpainted plain surface was partially blackened by fire-clouding. The curvature of the broken fragments suggests the vessel was probably a small olla, though no confirmatory rim sherds were seen.

On the shelter floor near the rock wall several pieces of an automobile tire’s side wall were also seen. Two of the pieces matched, and showed that a rectangular piece, of a proper size to become the sole of a modern Tarahumara rubber-tire sandal, had been cut out at the site.

 Cueva de las Cruces 

            Alt. 1700 m                        Waypoint 377 

The Site and its Cultural Features

The cave of the crosses is a large crescent-shaped rockshelter 28.5 m long and 7.5 m from the dripline to the rear wall. The high, open front of the shelter faces north. Much of the shelter wall and ceiling is blackened with a mineral encrustation, and painted in thick white pigment on this background is a series of 52 crosses. These extend along the back wall for most of its length. The crosses are of quite uniform size, about 30 cm tall and 12-20 cm wide; 32 of them, ranged along the east wall, are drawn with heavier lines than are the 20 seen west of the shelter's center. The crosses of course provide the name by which the cave is locally known.

Much human bone is scattered around the floor of the shelter, and many bones lie partially buried in a pit about 50 cm in diameter toward the east end. A manuscript document (Bridgemon et al. 1991) in the library of the Paraiso del Oso hotel reports that a small team of visitors in July 1991 gathered, studied, and buried many human bones they found on the surface. The same document recounts a local story that an epidemic around the turn of the 20th century [perhaps the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918] killed many people, who were buried in the cave.

The rockshelter also contains much evidence of domestic occupation. This evidently predates its use as a cemetery site, perhaps by quite some time, as no Euro-American artifacts were noted in a thorough inspection of the surface

In the eastern half of the shelter are two tumbled concentrations of large stones, apparently the remains of two collapsed masonry structures of one room each. The western concentration measures 4 by 6 m across, the eastern concentration 3 by 3 m across. Amid the rocks of both concentrations were observed broken pieces of saplings or thick branches that ranged from 3 cm diameter and 25 cm length, to as large as 6-12 cm in cross-section and 80 cm in length. The larger pieces were branches or saplings that had been split in half. Two of them had very rough-cut ends that suggested they were cut with a stone rather than steel axe.

Several bedrock grinding features occur within the shelter. Near the east end is a very well worn ovate grinding basin that was worked into the sloping bedrock floor next to the back wall. It measured 27 cm long, 19 cm wide, and 6 cm deep. A previous visitor to the site had left two fragments of broken hand stones, or manos, lying in the basin. Near the middle of the shelter, toward the dripline, a block of roof fall 1.3 m long has three grinding features worked into its surface. These were respectively 21 cm long, 11 cm wide, and 1.5 cm deep; 15 cm long, 11 cm wide, and 1.5 cm deep; and 16 cm long, 11 cm wide, and .5 cm deep. Farther west, and nearer the back wall, is a larger block of roof fall that also has three grinding features worked into its surface. These were respectively 21 cm long, 13 cm wide, and 3 cm deep; 25 cm long, 18 cm wide, and 6 cm deep; and 21 cm long, 13 cm wide, and 3 cm deep. Finally, at the west end of the shelter, two grinding features are worked into the sloping bedrock floor near the back wall. These were 22.5 cm long, 15 cm wide, and 4 cm deep; and 21 cm long, 15 cm wide, and 4 cm deep.

Artifacts 

A considerable number of artifacts, including nondescript flakes and other stone fragments, were observed at the site. Reported below are only those specimens complete enough to be reasonably characterized.  

A small globular pottery olla from the site is 23 cm high and 23 cm in maximum diameter. Its mouth is narrower, 15.5 cm in diameter at its slightly everted rim, and 0.5 cm thick at the rim edge itself. The vessel is unpainted and undecorated, with a lightly pebble-polished surface. It is red on the lower 2/3 of its body and fire-blackened on the upper 1/3. The tempering is crushed white rock particles of varying size. The vessel is effectively identical to the redware sold by Tarahumara artisans in the area today, and the redware sherds observed at other sites near Cerocahui appear to be of the same type. This vessel, along with a projectile point and three flake scrapers reported below, had been kept hidden away at the site to prevent their being pilfered, but were later brought temporarily to El Paraiso del Oso for examination and recording.

A number of mano fragments and several metate or grinding slab fragments were scattered about the floor of the shelter. One complete mano was a large ovate pebble of rhyolite, 15 cm long, 10 cm wide, and 6 cm thick. A small, unbroken milling stone of greenish volcanic rock from the site was 24 cm long, 14 cm wide, and 2.5 cm thick. Along three sides it had been quite well squared-off. The underside was rough; the upper surface showed heavy grinding, and signs of deliberate pecking to roughen the grinding surface. This specimen, quite small and thin, was evidently a portable metate.

Two "pounding stones" from the shelter were unworked, slightly battered ovate cobbles of hard volcanic rock, both ~10 cm long, 10 cm across, and 6-7 cm thick.

A small stemmed projectile point of pinkish-white chert, broken at roughly the midpoint of the blade and with its right shoulder missing, was 1.9 cm long and 1.9 cm across at its widest measurable point. The stem was 1.1 cm long and 0.9 cm wide.

A second projectile point of white chert had an unbroken upper blade, and enough of one side of the lower portion remained to show that the original was stemmed and had a slightly indented base. This nearly complete fragment was 3.7 cm long and 2.5 cm across at its widest, just above the stem. It resembled the "Pinto" points widely reported from the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.

Three well-formed flakes of a deep buff-colored chert, roughly chipped around their edges, probably functioned as scrapers or knives. Two were roughly ovate, the third more triangular. They measured 6-7 cm across in their longest dimension, and 4-5 cm across in their shortest dimension.

Two cylindrical shell beads were seen, and fragments of two more. One of the complete specimens was 1.4 cm long and 1.0 cm in diameter, the other 1.4 cm long and 0.8 cm in diameter. Both displayed somewhat uneven outer surfaces, and were apparently cut from the inner “hub” portion of an unidentified marine snail shell. Two flat disk beads were also of unidentified white shell. One was 0.9 cm in diameter, the other 0.6 cm. 

Specimens Reported from Cueva de las Cruces by Bridgemon, et al. (1991)

Over a three-day period a team of knowledgeable visitors examined the Cave of the Crosses in some detail.

P. Willey and Mary Henry studied 668 human bone fragments they found scattered on the surface, and subsequently buried them in an existing pit found at the site. They concluded that a minimum of 21 individuals were represented: 14 adults and 7 children, the latter aged 1 year, 2 years, 4 years, 6 years, 7 years, 12

 years, and 16 years. Willey and Henry noted that some bones were stained with red ochre. Artifacts reported from the site by the visiting team are tabulated as follows. Chipped stone:  1 projectile point, 7 bifaces, 1 uniface scraper, 1 drill, 36 unworked flakes. Ground stone: 2 metate fragments, 1 mano, 5 mano fragments, 3 small "smoothing rocks," 2 fragments of red pigment stone. Shell beads: 8 complete, 1 fragment. Pottery sherds:  1 red on black, 1 red on red, 5 plain. Other: unworked specimens of shell, tortoise bone, and a gypsum crystal. This tabulation is quite congruent with what was seen at the site in 2002, the chief differences being that fewer shell beads and no pottery sherds were noted on the latter occasion. 

Cueva de la Escalera

            Alt. 1652 m                        Waypoint 386 

The Site and its Cultural Features

Cueva de la Escalera lies along the west side of a little stream that flows shallowly over bedrock, forming quiet pools in places. The site is a high, open-fronted rockshelter looking out on a park-like wooded flat that slopes gently down to the stream. It is part of a quite extensive occupation complex that also includes the Cueva de la Calavera just east of the stream (see below).

At the south end of the shelter is an apparent "sleeping platform” 5 m long and 2.7 m wide. It is made of large flattish rocks, in size about the limit of what two or three men could move. The platform is well leveled and filled on top with soft white earth. On a natural shelf situated at a higher level under the north end of the rockshelter was a cluster of stones, one of them a well-smoothed rectangular grinding slab 25 cm long and 8 cm thick. A corncob lay nearby. Two toeholds, battered into the steeply sloping rock face that joins the lower and upper shelters, comprise the "staircase" that gives the site its name. Near the north end of this shelf, a hole 10 cm in diameter and 8 cm deep was ground into the living rock. It could have anchored a small pole for some unknown function.

A large, freestanding block of rimrock just east of the sleeping platform partially encloses the space at the south end of the shelter, giving further structure to the living area. Cut and bored into the side of this block that faces the platform are a keyhole-shaped slot and 4 holes that were apparently made to anchor some sort of fixture or frame made of wooden poles. The slot and holes are above, but near the existing ground level. The slot is 34 cm long, and cut 13-15 cm deep into the rock. The round holes (the largest 11 cm in diameter) are 3-5 cm deep and clustered some 3.8 m apart from the slot.

An apparent cooking pit or earth oven was observed a few meters away, under a small overhang along the southern edge of the same detached block. This pit, dug into and exposed by a previous visitor, was 1 m in diameter and 40 cm deep. A substantial pile of fist-sized to head-sized stones, evidently removed from the pit, had been piled around its edge. Nearby, worn into the surface of a large boulder, was a grinding basin 35 cm long, 24 cm wide, and 4 cm deep. A handstone or mano, which had a smoothed nether surface, was found sitting in the basin. The associated features and specimens suggest a food preparation area. Found several meters east of this spot was a large bedrock mortar 40 cm in diameter and 27 cm deep, worn into a substantial flat boulder on the west side of the creek. Again, food preparation is implied.

Immediately above and behind the Cueva de la Escalera, to the west of the occupation complex, is an extensive slickrock flat. It is quite uneven and contains a number of shallow natural basins and declivities that would capture and channel runoff from the thunderstorms characteristic of the Sierra. A broad natural slot in the bedrock leads down from this flat toward the southern end of the occupied area. An obviously constructed dam of heavy boulders, piled 3-4 stones high, blocks this slot. This dam, if rendered impervious to water by adobe plastering, would have formed a cistern ~3.5 by 8 m across and perhaps 1.5 m deep. 

Artifacts 

Three large sherds were found in the rockshelter that represented two small pottery bowls. Two rim sherds fitted together to show the shape of a small bowl 7 cm deep and 13 cm in diameter. The vessel was well smoothed and displayed a well-polished exterior that was reddish-orange in color, with some fire clouding. The other sherd, also a rim portion, was thicker and represented a second bowl that was roughly brushed and all blackened on the outside. Both pots were of the same general type that is currently being made in the region. 

A complete mano, smoothed on one side, was observed lying on a bedrock grinding slick where a visitor had placed it. A second mano had one end broken off, perhaps from use as a pounding stone. A rectangular metate, well worn on one side, was 25 cm long by 8 cm thick. 

A large, roughly ovate stone was 70 cm long, 40 cm wide, and 7-8 cm thick. It exhibited a well-defined groove, v-shaped in cross-section and 0.5-1 cm deep, that paralleled its perimeter 5-10 cm in from the edges. The two grooves come together to lead off the narrow end of the stone as a single channel. The ovate area enclosed by the groove is quite smooth. Conceivably the implement could have been a grinding stone of specialized function, with the groove a means of collecting a finely ground powder made on the stone. Alternatively, the grooved stone could have functioned to drain off and save liquid pressed by hand from a loaf of cheese during the process of manufacture. The specimen is vaguely reminiscent of early Euroamerican kitchen equipment used in this way. 

A flake of purplish chert 4.5 cm was sharpened along one edge to make a knife or scraper. Several smaller flakes of white chert were also observed. 

Cueva de la Calavera 

            Alt. 1698 m                        Waypoint 378 

The Site and its Cultural Features 

The site is a long, narrow rockshelter lying along the east side of a well-shaded little stream that flows slowly down from north to south. Very shallow, the stream flows on bedrock but forms quiet pools in places. The shelter is 44 m long, and immediately upstream is another, much lesser overhang of very little floor area. The place is named for a well-preserved human skull excavated from the southern end of the shelter at some time in the past. It is kept covered and hidden by local people, but shown to interested visitors.  

The shelter floor is covered with very large blocks of roof fall, except near the south end. Here is an area about 3 meters across, where a broad, shallow depression reflects the digging that brought up the human remains. In addition to a well-preserved adult skull were observed some long bones, ribs, and half of a pelvic girdle, probably of the same individual. A fragment of a child's cranium was also seen. 

Artifacts 

Previous visitors to the site had placed on a large rock 4 pieces of pottery, 2 small and 1 large lithic flakes, and 3 small stream cobbles slightly battered from use as pounding stones. The 4 small, irregularly broken sherds ranged between 2 and 4 cm in their longest dimensions. Three of the sherds were of a well-fired gray ware 5 to 6 mm  thick, with well-smoothed interior and exterior surfaces. Temper was fairly uniform small particles of crushed white rock. The curvature and smooth interior and exterior surfaces of the sherds suggested they all came from bowls, possibly the same vessel. The fourth sherd was rough on both inner and outer surfaces, and fire-blackened on the outside. Its crushed rock temper particles were of varying sizes, some quite large. This sherd exhibited no clear curvature and was apparently from a quite large vessel, perhaps an olla. 

Cueva Escondida 

            Alt. 1734 m                        Waypoint 379 

The Site and its Cultural Features 

Cueva Escondida is a secluded overhang at the head of a small wooded draw. A dry sheltered area ~ 100 m long faces toward the north. Opposite the overhang, around the headwall of the draw, another shelter kept wet by groundwater seepage exhibited no traces of occupation. The occupied area at Cueva Escondida is ~6 m wide from dripline to back wall, and has a high ceiling. The shelter floor is uneven, littered with chunks of stone fallen from the ceiling. 

Extending back into the cliff wall from the middle part of the sheltered area is an oval, low-ceilinged chamber ~10-12 m across and ~ 1.5 m high. No cultural features or artifacts were seen in this space, but immediately in front of it were remains indicating that a dwelling structure may have been built against the shelter wall in such a way as to incorporate the rear chamber as an auxiliary room. Five stout poles 8-10 cm in diameter and 2.2-3.5 m in length, along with some additional fragments, lay in this position. These poles would have been sufficient to support a wattled or otherwise covered structure built against the back of the rockshelter, though no traces of additional materials remained to be seen. One of the poles had a well-preserved end that exhibited two sharp, well-placed cuts, perhaps made by a steel axe. Counterparts to these poles are seen in the young Ponderosa pines that grow in front of the rockshelter today. 

Toward the west end of the sheltered area, large slabs of roof fall, partly coursed and partly placed on edge, forms a D-shaped storage cist built against the cliff wall. This structure measures 3.6 m along the cliff wall, and 2 m front to back. Up to 5 courses of stone remain in place, to a height of 80 cm There is no trace of a roof, and the low-hanging ceiling of the rockshelter at that point may itself have served that function. The door of the cist adjoins a large vertically set slab near one end of the structure. 

Visitors to the cave have collected, and piled on a rock near the south end of the shelter, a number of human bones. They appear to be the remains of a single individual. 

Artifacts 

A thick, heavy milling stone lay on the ground in the area of the probable dwelling. It measured 22 by 28 cm across and varied between 9 and 14 cm in thickness. The stone had shallowly worn grinding surfaces on both sides. 

Two pieces of roof fall rock nearby both had long grooves 1-2 cm wide abraded into their surfaces, and were evidently used to sand down or perhaps sharpen objects of wood or stone. 

No other artifacts were observed in the shelter. 

Cueva de la Calavera Quebrada 

            Alt. 1642 m                        Waypoint 385 

The Site and its Cultural Features 

Two adjacent low rockshelters, which extend some 42 m along the west side of a small creek named calavera quebrada (broken skull) for unknown reasons. At the north end of the site, a rock wall now one to three courses high projects outward 3 m from the cliff wall. Bounding one end of a flat area ~3 m across, it may have helped define a living floor in front of the shelter that extended back some 4 m under the low overhang. The sheltered area is not high enough to stand up in, but could have provided a good space for storage and sleeping. The southern shelter, with a ceiling 1.5-2 m high, was bounded along about half its length by a stone wall 2-4 courses high. When observed, much of the floor was wet, supporting a dense mat of moss, but it was presumably dryer at the time of occupation. Between the northern shelter and the stream a few meters away, a bedrock shelf provided a good work area. This was attested by one place where three bedrock grinding slicks 24-27 cm long had been worn into natural depressions in the rock. 

Artifacts 

Few artifacts were observed at the site. Near the back wall of the southern shelter were 4 large (16-20d) wire nails; much rusted, they were at least a few years old. In the northern shelter were seen 1 rough basalt scraper and one broken stream cobble. 

Sites in Arroyo Boroscachi 

Arroyo Boroscachi drains the high country north and east of Huateivo. A now-abandoned logging road generally follows the course of an old footpath, leading up into a highland zone of widely scattered households. Bacagomachi is the principal modern hamlet in the high country above. 

Cueva Pintada 

            Alt. 1855 m                        Waypoint 388 

The Site and its Cultural Features 

Cueva Pintada, well up on the rugged southeast slope above Arroyo Boroscachi, is a sheltered area at the base of a high cliff. The shelter is named for the numerous pictographs in deep red and orange paint that are to be seen along its back wall. The ground slopes quite steeply upward along the base of the cliff, so that the 70 m long occupied area is approximately 10 m higher at its southeastern edge than at its northwestern edge. The shelter faces generally southwest, and the ground also slopes away quite steeply in that direction. 

Lying on the ground in the northwestern part of the shelter were a dozen or so stout poles 8-15 cm in diameter and 2.5-4 m long. They were aligned in parallel and clustered in such a way as to show they were remnants of one or more structures that had been leaned against the cliff face. Farther upslope, three low walls of piled rubble projected outward from the cliff face, approximately equidistant from one another. The lowest two appeared to be retaining walls, built to help level spaces that could serve as occupation areas. Next to the middle wall was a stout oak pole with a fork at the top, well anchored in the rubble of the shelter floor and still in vertical position. It probably served as a structural support for some kind of building or framework no longer evident. In the uppermost space, the piled rubble formed a roughly U-shaped enclosure, with the open end facing outward. This enclosure was small enough that it might have formed a storage rather than occupation space. 

Cueva Pintada showed by far the most extensive architectural evidence of any site seen during the reconnaissance. Interestingly, it is located in very steep terrain not conspicuously near arable lands, though perhaps there is flatter ground fairly nearby above the high cliff. 

The pictographs that give the site its name were scattered along the cliff face over nearly the whole length of the occupied area. Along the northwest wall are a series of inverted triangle motifs, along with vertical rows of dots, all in a deep red pigment.

Further southeast along the wall are more triangles, some stick figures that could be construed either as anthropomorphs or lizard forms, and a sunburst motif. Again, all are painted in a deep red or red-orange pigment. 

In this same vicinity, visitors to the site have piled a number of human bones on the middle retaining wall previously mentioned.

Artifacts 

Artifacts observed at this quite extensive site were few, though more time spent there would probably have revealed more specimens. Several redware pottery sherds found on the shelter floor could be fitted

 together to indicate they came from three different bowls, and the shape of another large sherd showed that it came from an olla. Also observed was a textile fragment woven of coarse fiber, possibly the remnant of a mat or sandal. A single corncob was also seen. 

Cueva del Arroyo Boroscachi 

            Alt. 1851 m                        Waypoint 389 

The Site and its Cultural Features 

The site is a long, crescent-shaped rockshelter with a low ceiling, generally 2-3 m high and tapering lower toward the back wall. A few toeholds battered into the rock face below give access to the shelter. One well-made jacal storage cist in very good condition is built against the back wall. This structure is 1 m high, 1 m deep from front to back, and 1.75 m wide. The walls consist of a pole framework well plastered with adobe. The cist is tucked back into the shelter so that the roof of the shelter constitutes its roof as well. A rectangular doorway with a high sill is barely large enough to allow a person to crawl inside. The shelter also contains traces of one or two other possible features, now represented by only a few stones. 

The shelter faces south, standing some 20-30 m above the floor of the well-wooded and vegetated Arroyo Boroscachi. A stream winds along the arroyo floor, and on the far side are other shelters which perhaps contain occupation sites related to this storage location. 

Artifacts 

Three long, slender corncobs were found inside the storage cist. All measured 17 cm long, and they varied between 1.5 and 2 cm in diameter. No kernels remained on the cobs. 

Several pottery fragments were found near the cist. Four sherds of gray pottery, 4 mm thick, contained crushed rock temper and were lightly pebble-polished on their outsides. The interior surfaces were rough, suggesting they came from a jar or olla rather than a bowl. The largest sherd measured 4 cm across, the smallest 1.8 cm. Additionally observed were three sherds of a thicker, coarser redware pottery which also contained crushed rock temper. They ranged from 3 to 11 cm in their longest dimensions, and measured 6-7 mm in thickness. Two straight rim segments show they came from a bowl. 

Two grey chert flakes, one of them retouched along one edge, measured 3.5-4 cm in their longest dimensions. A small ovate obsidian flake 1.8 cm long was also observed. 

Cueva Pasada 

A small, low rockshelter near the east edge of the trail, several kilometers southwest and downstream of Cueva del Arroyo Boroscachi, was observed in passing but not examined due to failing daylight. It was said, however, by people who knew the area well, to have until recently had a low stone wall in front. By its location, the shelter would seem likely to be an important trailside stopping place for people traveling between the lowland and highland zones northeast of Huateivo. 

Sites in Arroyo Huicochic 

The Arroyo Huicochic is a stream course that drains the high Sierra Guepagaro south and east of Cerocahui. A well-worn footpath up the arroyo gives access to the highland hamlets of Santa Rosa, about 4 km from Cerocahui, and Huicochi, about 7 km away. 

Cueva de la Boca Huicochic 

            Alt. 1666 m                        Waypoint 383

The Site and its Cultural Features

A small rockshelter showing traces of occupation marks the mouth of the Arroyo Huicochic, next to the trail that leads into the mountains. The sheltered area is approximately 4 meters across, and scattered stones there perhaps once formed the base of a light structure. The surface is quite disturbed, apparently by deliberate digging. 

Artifacts 

 A small mano fragment was seen on the surface, as well as three large flakes of basalt 3.5 to 5 cm across. One thick piece of white chert, 2.5 by 3 cm across, was steeply flaked at one end to give it a good scraping edge. A pasteboard lollipop stick was also noted. 

Campo del Arroyo Huicochic 

            Alt. 1647 m                        Waypoint 382 

The Site and its Cultural Features 

A probably recent campsite lies immediately along the footpath leading up Arroyo Huicochic, some distance above its mouth. No artifacts were observed at the site (which has a well-vegetated surface), but the close proximity of its cultural features to the modern trail suggests modern, or at least recent, use. At the downstream end of the site is a large square fireplace outlined in stone; it is 75 cm, square, open at one end, and contains fresh-looking charcoal. Between it and the trail is a large flat stone that exhibits an ovate grinding depression. A little farther along a series of large stones, arranged in an open-ended rectangle 1.5 by 3 m across, is probably the former base of a small temporary shelter. At the upper end of the site, 18 m east of the fireplace is a substantial circle of stones measuring 3 by 4 m across, apparently the base of a pole and brush structure now decomposed. 

Cueva Bienvenidos # 1 

            Alt. 1680 m                        Waypoint 380 

In order to acquire a clear overhead view for adequate satellite readings, the above GPS measurements had to be taken from a trail beneath the cave and ~ 100m west of it. 

The Site and its Cultural Features 

The site is a rockshelter formed in the west side of a rocky point. Its name comes from the word "Bienvenidos" painted prominently in white on an adjacent rock face, which overlooks the Arroyo Huicochic trail. The shelter measures 7 m across its open front, and 3 m from the dripline to the back wall. It is reached by a set of five toeholds battered into the slickrock face that slopes steeply up to its mouth. The floor is level, uncluttered by roof fall. No structural features were noted. 

In the middle of the shelter floor was a thick bed of dried plant stalks and leaves, and several red beans found there showed that the cave had been used for threshing beanstalks. Notably, from the mouth of the cave a large cleared field is visible on a steep slope across the Arroyo Huicochic. Scattered young Ponderosa pines growing on this slope are of a size to suggest the milpa was abandoned perhaps 8-10 years ago. Bits of charred wood near the northwest wall of the shelter are probably the remains of a small campfire, and several agave seedpods lay scattered on the floor. A candy bar wrapper with text in Spanish and English completes the list of observed dietary indicators. 

Artifacts 

A small sherd of plain pottery 2 to 2.5 cm across was found on the floor. The exterior was a dull orange-red, with traces of polishing streaks. The interior surface was black and smooth but not polished. The sherd’s temper was coarsely crushed rock. Surface characteristics and curvature suggest the sherd probably came from an olla or jar rather than a bowl, and in all respects the specimen appears to represent the plain redware type still widely made in the Sierra today. 

Other artifacts included an angular piece of broken basalt, a thick flaked chunk of purplish chert, two thin flakes of pink chert, and a fragment of a clear glass bottle. The chert flakes were 2.5 and 3 cm long respectively, and the bottle fragment was 5 cm long. All of these specimens could have served as cutting and scraping tools. 

Cueva Bienvenidos # 2

            Alt. 1685 m                        Waypoint 381 

The Site and its Cultural Features 

This site is on the east side of the same rocky point that holds Bienvenidos # 1, and its high portal faces east. Access is facilitated by a number of small toeholds battered into steeply sloping rock faces at both north and south ends of the shelter. No structural remains are evident in the site, which has bout twice the interior area of Bienvenidos #1. A number of artifacts lay on a large patch of soft earth near the south end of the shelter. 

Artifacts 

Eleven sherds of plain pottery apparently represented two vessels. One set of 4 sherds were 2 to 3 cm in their longest dimension and ~ 5 mm in thickness. They were light gray on the inside and reddish to blackish (fire-clouded) on the outside. Temper was crushed whitish rock, very fine and uniform. These were pieces of a bowl, as shown by one rim sherd and the curvature of the other pieces. The other 7 sherds were slightly thicker but less uniform, and 1.5 to 4 cm in their longest dimension. Their exterior colors graded from gray to reddish to black (fire-clouded). Some of the sherds show traces of wiping on the inner surface, and some show pebble polishing on the outer surface. Temper was crushed whitish rock, and quite uniform. The vessel was probably a quite large olla or pot rather than a bowl, but this could not be definitely determined. 

One broken corncob, lacking kernels, was 1.7 cm in diameter. Four basalt flakes included two small specimens 2 cm long, and two that measured respectively 5.5 and 8 cm in their longest dimensions. A very small fragment of thick clear glass was probably from a soda pop bottle. 

Urique Vista 

            Alt. 1636 m                        Waypoint 384 

From the site of an unfinished modern adobe casita not far from the modern road leading down into the canyon of the Rio Urique can be