Photo by Bill Sontag
The Panther is one of the iconic images appearing in many Lower
Pecos rock shelters. This image is 13 feet long from tail tip around
the body axis to the nose.
Archaic-period paint. Mineral
rock art to secure computer
pigments such as red and yel-
models with accuracy meas-
low ochre were blended with
ured in tenths of a millimeter,
animal fat (such as deer bone
showing every nook, cranny,
marrow), then emulsified to
crevice and placement of paint
applicable tex-
in a rock
ture with the
shelter.
soapy
root
Draped
SHUMLA: www.shumla.org
residue
of
with cur-
yucca
and
rent high-
Rock Art Information:
sotol. Studies of
resolution
www.nps.gov/amis
www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/
the
calorie-
photos, the
findadest/parks/seminole_canyon
meager diets of
record is
Archaic peo-
complete
San Antonio’s Rock Art
ples
further
and useful
Foundation: www.rockart.org.
demonstrate
for compar-
the
value
isons with
If you have Lower Pecos rock art
natives placed
future digi-
photographs at least ten years old,
become part of the Panther Cave
on the spiritual
tal images
Photo Legacy Project. Contact the
importance of
and histori-
author: 830.768.1493.
the
painted
cal prints
images. They
and slides
literally moved
from the
nutrition – in the form of fat –
site’s photographic heritage.
from the “family table” to
Photo comparisons have al -
“paint pots” of the shamans.
ready revealed a crisis of infes-
Archeologists often quibble
tations of mud dauber nests at
over imponderables in their
Panther Cave. The nests are
discipline, but one consensus is
believed to rip ancient paint
solid. The first step to the stew-
from the walls each time aban-
ardship of antiquities lies in two
doned clay tubes fall. Before
words:
baseline data. In
construction of Amistad Dam
essence, what’s the best infor-
– even before humans first
mation obtainable about the
applied paint to the rock shelter
current condition of the Lower
walls, four millennia ago – this
Pecos rock art? In 2009,
lithic perch was a mere over-
SHUMLA researchers initiat-
look into the 104-foot abyss of
ed high-density laser scans of
the Rio Grande. But with inun-
dation by Amistad Reservoir to
a conservation pool level of
1,117 AMSL (above mean sea
level), only 27 feet below
Panther Cave, the now-famous
rock shelter became riparian
habitat, adjacent to and inter-
active with the swollen river’s
moisture and biota.
SHUMLA’s research efforts
are magnified by generous
photographers – amateur or
professional – or inheritors of
photographic collections. Con -
tri butions are scanned onto the
organization’s
server
at
Comstock, and originals are
safely returned to owners.
The premise of many mod-
ern archeologists – students as
well as fledglings and veterans
– is Boyd’s affirmation of a
growing conviction: “Prehis -
toric art is not beyond explana-
tion. Images from the past con-
tain a vast corpus of data –
accessible through proven, sci-
entific methods – that can
enrich our understanding of
human lifeways in prehistory
and, at the same time, expand
our appreciation for the work
of art in the present and the
future.”
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Second Quarter 2013
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