Cueva Pintada (California)
 | This article contains close paraphrasing of non-free copyrighted sources. (September 2024) |
Cueva Pintada | |
 Pictographs from Cueva Pintada (1912) | |
  Cueva Pintada Location in Monterey County | |
| Location | King City, California |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 35°59′24″N 121°29′44″W / 35.99000°N 121.49556°W |
| Built | |
| NRHP reference No. | 75000445 |
| Added to NRHP | February 13, 1975 |
Cueva Pintada, locally known as La Cueva Pintada, (in Spanish means "the painted cave"), is a well preserved prehistoric rock shelter covered with white, red, black, and ochre pictographs created by the Salinan people. The site is protected within Fort Hunter Liggett, located about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of King City, California, United States. Cueva Pintada was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 13, 1975.
History
[edit]
Cueva Pintada is located southwest of King City, California, in southern Monterey County on the Fort Hunter Liggett reservation.[1] The cave is situated to the north of the Mission San Antonio de Padua by about five miles, and east of the San Antonio River.[2]
It is archaeological site CA-MNT-256.[citation needed]
Its cave walls have pictographs that originate from peoples who inhabited this region around 10,000 in the past. A U.S. Army report from 1975 states that some of the pictographs may have been created by more recent Indigenous peoples.[1][3]
The Cueva Pintada site is Salinan in origin. It corresponds to the "Cave of the Idols," which was presented to the padres at Mission San Antonio de Padua shortly after its establishment and is referenced in Junípero Serra's letter dated May 21, 1773.[4] The Salinan Native American tribe lived along the Salinas River, encompassing present-day Monterey County and San Luis Obispo counties.[5]
According to the California State Military Museum, visits to the site are limited by the United States Army base at Fort Hunter Liggett. The entrance to the cave is at an elevation 3,000 ft (910 m). The Cueva Pintada site is protected by a chain-link fence and razor wire. The walls are covered with prehistoric white, red, black, and ochre pictographs. The rock overhangs and caves served as a rock shelter, standing approximately 16.5 ft (5.0 m) high and 21 ft (6.4 m) wide. The cave is at a width of 45 ft (14 m), with a depth between 15 ft (4.6 m) and 20 ft (6.1 m). The pictographs illustrate animals as well as geometric and linear patterns.[6]
These pictographs appear under and over the soot that darkens the ceiling of the cave. Before the indigenous people converted to Christianity, rituals and ceremonies marked specific events, including the celebration of the winter solstice, and the transition from boyhood to manhood was followed by ritualistic practices. According to legend, after converting to Christianity, the indigenous people informed the Franciscan priests about the cave's location, hoping that they would visit and remove the idols within. The pictographs, along with bedrock mortars created by grinding vegetable material or pigments using stones or pestles, reflect ancient practices. The white pigment may have been originated from limestone deposits or white clay, the black pigment came from soot or charcoal, and the red pigment from cinnabar. The pictographs depict human figures, a turtle, the sun, and other ideographic symbols.[6][2]
In 1980, Archaeological Consulting, led by Gary S. Breschini and Trudy Haversat, began on a project focused on documenting the pictographs found at the archaeological site CA-MNT-256 at Cueva Pintada, with the support from the State Historic Preservation Office. The archaeological exploration of the site resulted in the creation of over 360 drawings, tracings, and photographs capturing the pictographs. These records are currently housed at the Rock Art Archives at University of California, Los Angeles.[3]
Cueva Pintada was registered on the National Register of Historic Places on February 13, 1975, for King City, Monterey County, California.[7]
See also
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- La Cueva Pintada CA-MNT-256: A Technical Report on Documenting the Rock Paintings at CA-MNT-256 Site
- Prehistoric Rock Art of California Volumes 1-2
- Indians and Pioneers of Old Monterey
- California Prehistory: Colonization, culture, and complexity
References
[edit]- ^ a b Cary, Norman Miller (1975). Guide to U.S. Army Museums and Historic Sites. Center of Military History, Department of the Army. pp. 72–73. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ a b J. Alden Mason (December 14, 1912). "Ethnology Of The Salinan Indians" (PDF). University of California Publications. 10 (4). Berkeley, California: 154–156. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ a b Trudy Haversat, Gary S. Breschini (1980). La Cueva Pintada, the Painted Cave: CA-MNT-256 (National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form). Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ "Ethnographic Overview of the Los Padres National Forest" (PDF). Northwest Economic Associates. February 6, 2004. pp. 65, 68–69, 97, 174. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ Campbell, Lyle (September 21, 2000). American Indian Languages The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford University Press. p. 125. ISBN 9780195349832. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
- ^ a b "Historic California Posts: Fort Hunter Liggett". California State Military Museum. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
- ^ "Cueva Pintada". Office of Historic Preservation. February 13, 1975. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
External links
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Media related to Cueva Pintada, Monterey County, California at Wikimedia Commons
Municipalities and communities of Monterey County, California, United States | ||
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| Unincorporated communities |
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| Ghost towns | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county | |
