A Comment On “A Reassessment of Red Linear Pictographs in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas”

2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Burr Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
American Antiquity ◽  
Diagnostic Characteristics ◽  
Pecos River ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Lower Pecos

AbstractBoyd, Castañeda, and Koenig (2013) recently published a hypothesis in American Antiquity that Red Linear style rock art predates, or is contemporaneous with, the Pecos River style. While the authors present intriguing examples of over-painting at 41VV83 and 41VV612, their definition of the Red Linear style should be questioned based on its lack of diagnostic characteristics relative to the Pecos River style. The Boyd et al. report is preliminary in its findings and falls short of overturning the existing regional chronology; thus, further stylistic studies of Red Linear art are recommended.

scholarly journals Speech-Breath: Mapping the Multisensory Experience in Pecos River Style Pictography

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Carolyn E. Boyd ◽  
Ashley Busby
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The World ◽  
Application Techniques ◽  
Graphic Device ◽  
Pecos River ◽  
Lower Pecos ◽  
Multisensory Experience

Archaic period hunter-gatherers of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico, created complex rock art murals containing elaborately painted anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures. These figures are frequently portrayed with dots or lines emanating out of or into their open mouths. In this article, we discuss patterns in shape, color, and arrangement of this pictographic element and propose that artists used this graphic device to denote speech, breath, and the soul. They communicated meaning through the image-making process, alternating brushstroke direction to indicate inhalation versus exhalation or using different paint application techniques to reflect measured versus forceful speech. The choices made by artists in the production of the imagery reflect their cosmology and the framework of ideas and beliefs through which they interpreted and interacted with the world. Bridging the iconographic data with ethnohistoric and ethnographic texts from Mesoamerica, we suggest that speech and breath expressed in the rock art of the Lower Pecos was tied to concepts of the soul, creation, and human origins.

Response to Comments by Harrison

2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 204-205
Author(s):  
Carolyn E. Boyd ◽  
Amanda M. Castañeda ◽  
Charles W. Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Field Analysis ◽  
Independent Group ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Microscopic Field ◽  
Pecos River ◽  
Lower Pecos

AbstractIn our article “A Reexamination of Red Linear Style in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas,” we presented the results of an analysis of 444 Red Linear style pictographs from 12 sites in the region. Using this greatly expanded data set, we produced a list of diagnostic attributes for the style and documented stratigraphie relationships among pictographs through macro- and microscopic field analysis. We identified 38 examples of Red Linear under Pecos River style, a style previously assumed to be older than Red Linear. No Red Linear figures were identified superimposing Pecos River style. These results were verified by an independent group of archaeologists and chemists engaged in the analysis of Lower Pecos rock art. We concluded that Red Linear style is either older than or contemporaneous with Pecos River style. In Harrison’s comments, he argues that our methods were faulty and the data inadequate to support our conclusions. We address a few of Harrison’s critiques in our response; however, a more careful reading of the original article and supplemental materials is advised.

A Reassessment of Red Linear Pictographs in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas

2013 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn E. Boyd ◽  
Amanda M. Castañeda ◽  
Charles W. Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Field Analysis ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Artistic Style ◽  
Relative Chronology ◽  
Microscopic Field ◽  
Recording Project ◽  
Pecos River ◽  
Lower Pecos ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractRed Linear is one of four presently defined prehistoric pictograph styles in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico. Based on interpretation of images and two experimental radiocarbon dates, the style was presumed to have been brought into the region by intrusive bison hunters around 1280 B.P. This would place production of Red Linear after the large, polychromatic Pecos River style paintings (4200–2750 B.P.). However, during a recent rock art recording project we identified Red Linear overlain by presumed older Pecos River style. This prompted our re-examination of Red Linear through analysis of 444 figures from 12 sites. We produced a list of diagnostic attributes for Red Linear and documented stratigraphie relationships through macro- and microscopic field analysis. We identified 38 examples of Red Linear under Pecos River figures, thus inverting the relative chronology for the two styles and forcing a reconsideration of previous assumptions regarding the culture that produced the art. This paper demonstrates the potential afforded by analysis of rock art assemblages to reveal inter- and intrasite patterning of attributes and provide insight into relative chronologies. Further, it cautions against the use of variation in artistic style as a marker for ethnicity.

Medicinal and hallucinogenic plants identified in the sediments and pictographs of the Lower Pecos, Texas Archaic

Antiquity ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (268) ◽  
pp. 256-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn E. Boyd ◽  
J. Philip Dering
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
River Region ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Pecos River ◽  
Lower Pecos

The rock-art of the Pecos River region, on the Texas-Mexico border, is deservedly celebrated for its very large and inspiring human depictions, convincingly interpreted as images of shamanism. Study of plant remains in associated middens gives a new aspect to understanding of the images.

scholarly journals A Black Deer at Black Cave: New Pictograph Radiocarbon Date for the Lower Pecos, Texas

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennon Bates ◽  
Amanda Castañeda ◽  
Carolyn Boyd ◽  
Karen Steelman
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Plasma Oxidation ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Pecos River ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Lower Pecos

A Pecos River style painting of a black deer from Black Cave Annex (41VV76a) in southwest Texas was radiocarbon dated. Using plasma oxidation and accelerator mass spectrometry, we obtained an age of 1465 ± 40 RCYBP (2 sigma calibrated age range of A.D. 470-660). This age is younger than the accepted age range for Pecos River style paintings, which is approximately 4000-3000 years B.P. This new measurement in association with other younger dates prompts us to question whether the Pecos River style endured for a longer time period than previously thought. More radiocarbon research is needed in order to understand how this anomalous result might fit within the Lower Pecos Canyonlands rock art chronology.

Ancient Texans: Rock Art and Lifeways along the Lower Pecos

1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 354
Author(s):  
Eugene B. McCluney ◽  
Harry J. Shafer
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Lower Pecos

Rock art as a source of the history of prehistory (An account to promote the understanding of prehistoric rock art)

Abgadiyat ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-35
Author(s):  
Hamdi Abbas Ahmed Abd-EI-Moniem
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Remote Past

Abstract Some may believe that the history of mankind begins with the appearance of writing only a few several thousands of years ago (cf. 4000-3000 BCE). Our history, however, extends beyond that date millions of years. The history of mankind, indeed, is deeply rooted in the remote past which is called 'prehistory'. With the lacking of any form of writing, this 'prehistoric' period can be examined directly solely by recourse to the study of archaeological remains. The purpose of this account is to introduce rock art to the readers and show the significant role of this sort of archaeological material in studying the history of mankind before the appearance of written records. The current work, therefore, is divided into three main sections: the first deals with definition of rock art and its nature; the second section is devoted to showing the significance of this aspect of material culture in exploring a long and mysterious period of the early history of man characterized by the complete absence of written records or historical documents; the third and last section, which is a vital and integral part of this work, comprises an explanatory pictorial record to promote the understanding of prehistoric rock art as a source of information needed for writing the history of prehistory.

Definition of a new genus of glossiphoniid leech and a redescription of the type species, Clepsine picta Verrill, 1872

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (9) ◽  
pp. 1942-1950 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Barta ◽  
Roy T. Sawyer
Keyword(s):  
Salivary Glands ◽  
Type Species ◽  
New Genus ◽  
Rana Catesbeiana ◽  
Blood Feeding ◽  
Single Pair ◽  
Related Genus ◽  
Diagnostic Characteristics ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Feeding Behaviours

A new genus, Desserobdella, is described to accommodate the leech Clepsine picta Verrill, 1872 which feeds exclusively on amphibians of northern and central North America. This leech belongs to the subfamily Glossiphoniinae and therefore deposits cocoons directly onto the substrate. The genus Desserobdella n.gen. has the following diagnostic characteristics: (i) two pairs of coalesced eyes; (ii) one pair of diffuse salivary glands; and (iii) a single pair of saccular mycetomes containing prokaryotic endosymbionts. Members of the new genus are distinguished from species of the closely related genus Placobdella Blanchard, 1893 on the basis of their salivary gland structure; Placobdella species have two pairs of compact salivary glands versus the single pair of diffuse salivary glands of the genus Desserobdella n.gen. Congenitors of the new genus are Desserobdella cryptobranchii (Johnson and Klemm, 1977) n.comb., Desserobdella michiganensis (Sawyer, 1972) n.comb., and Desserobdella phalera (Graf, 1899) Jones and Woo, 1990. Desserobdella picta n.gen. et comb. exhibited a stereotypical sequence of feeding behaviours on Rana catesbeiana tadpoles which involved picking at the site of proboscis insertion prior to probing, probing, and finally blood-feeding with the posterior sucker released.

Rock art of the lower Pecos

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (10) ◽  
pp. 41-5682-41-5682
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Lower Pecos
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