16

period. Thus, the Lower Pecos economy may have been part of a
widespread tradition of exploiting the soon-to-be extinct large game
animals of the last Ice Age.

The Archaic:
Classic Foragers in a Changing Environment

By about 9000 years ago, a different way of life is reflected in
cultural deposits left by the Lower Pecos people. Although the
characteristic tools, such as Golondrina and Angostura dart points,
are still called Late Paleoindian by many, the term Pre-Archaic has
been suggested by some researchers as a more apt description of the
economic adaptation to the changing environment. Reconstruction of
past environments, derived from the analyses of pollen and other plant
remains, animal bones, flood-deposits, and human excrement, indicates
that a warming, drying trend began at the end of the Pleistocene and
continued through time. Interrupted only cyclically by wetter
periods, the increasing aridity altered the natural resources and
influenced the lifeways of the Lower Pecos inhabitants. At present,
it is difficult to say if the local population adapted to changing
conditions or whether they were replaced by people conditioned to the
increasing aridity.

Projectile points characteristic of this transitional time, such
as Golondrina, are similar to those of the Paleoindian, but they are
found in contexts little different from those of the later Archaic
Period. Sites such as the Devils Mouth and Baker Cave provide
radiocarbon assays and tool types indicative of a 9000 year old
occupation but the dietary emphasis jis on small game and vegetal
foods. One hearth excavated in Baker Cave, and dated to this time
period by both radiocarbon assays and Golondrina projectile points,
contained fragments of 12 species of mammals, 23 species of reptiles,
6 species of fish, and 16 different types of plants, 11 of which are
edible. This reliance on the widely varied resources of a semi-desert
environment was to characterize the subsistence pattern of the Lower
Pecos throughout the remainder of prehistory.

The long span of the Archaic Period is often described as a
stable adaptation to the varied and variable resources of a
semi-desert environment. Stability, when discussed in the
archeological sense, takes on a very broad meaning. Many of the
short-term intermittent stresses which affected everyday life are
simply not discernible in the physical remains left after thousands of
years. Secondly, much of the interpretation of past lifeways must be
based on the more permanent artifacts, those that survive in the
refuse dumps, burials, and living areas of prehistoric people. The
abstract concepts that governed attitudes toward such social practices
as marriage, inheritance, line of descent and religion can only be
inferred from analogy to living or recorded groups. Thus, stability

‘in the Lower Pecos Archaic is a generality most appropriately applied
to subsistence, the basis of human life, and technology, the means by
which subsistence is guaranteed.


37

man's temporary contempt for settiing the region. With the exception
of the one recorded camp, these murals are the only permanent evidence
of the historic Indians. Vaquero Shelter (41VV77), Rattlesnake Canyon
(41VV205), Castle Canyon (41VV7), 41VV343, 41VV570, all in Val Verde
County, and Meyers Springs in Terrell County present detailed pictures
of mission churches, missionaries, Spaniards, horses, and domestic
animals. None of these panels have been assigned to any specific
tribe or group. Bison, tipis, guns, white riders pierced by lances,
and mounted warriors at 41VV328, 339, and 400 reflect experiences of
later times. One site, 41VV327, strongly resembles Comanche art in
the style of the horse and rider, especially the long beribboned braid
of the warrior. As the Comanche were the latest of the warrior tribes
to sweep off the Plains, displacing the Apache, this scene should date
to the nineteenth century.

Scattered accounts of battles, massacres, and raids are found in
Spanish records of their unsuccessful attempts to pacify the region.
In 1729, Jose de Berroteran was sent to explore the area searching for
a site for a new presidio. His mission was also punitive, intended to
halt raids by hostile Indians into northern Mexico. His troop of 89
soldiers and 46 Indian scouts paralleled the Rio Grande from Del Rio
to a crossing near present-day Langtry, an to Dryden where the
futility of his mission was made obvious .by lack of water and
difficult terrain. His report failed to impress the authorities who
sent Garza Falcon ona second expedition in 1735. This attempt met
with the same difficuties. The next foray, Rabago y Teran's in 1747,
completely avoided the Lower Pecos in trying to establish a route to
the western Presidio del Norte.

It was not until 1773 that a punitive expedition led by Vicente
Rodriquez against the Mescalero found its objective near the mouth of
the Pecos. Coming across a camp undetected, the Spanish ‘attacked,
killing an untold number, capturing sixteen women and children, two
hundred horses and freeing three Spanish captives. Ugarte y Loyola's
campaign two years later cost the Spanish three lives in a battle on
the Devils River. The general inability of the colonial power to
pacify the despoblado ended in detente until after the Mexican War.
The Apache raided the Spanish settlements, the Spanish occasionally
struck back. With the coming of American sovereignty, however, a
concern for linking west and east Texas became heightened by the
economic lure of trade. Thus, the military had reason to clear the
region of hostile Indians to protect the military supply routes and
civilian trade roads. The mouth of the Pecos was the scene of
skirmishes between the Army and the raiding Indians in 1856 and again
jn 1873. The participants in the latcer battle were Lipan Apaches who
lost nineteen of their party. - Théir chief and forty women and
children were captured. The Army was less fortunate in their next
encounter with the Indians. While out looking for Indians, Lt.
Bullis and his three Seminole scouts found what they were searching
for - Comanche crossing the Pecos in the vicinity of Eagles Nest
crossing. Although they were able to kill three Indians and wound a
fourth, the Army scouts were outnumbered and forced to beat a _ hasty
retreat to Ft. Clark. But the final death blow for the Indian was


33

His caravan crossed the Rio Grande beneath present-day Del Rio
and headed west to a camping ground on Seminole Canyon. From there,
with an ultimate destination of the Pecos Pueblo, his wagon train
wandered between the Pecos and Devils rivers for 26 days searching for
a crossing and for water sufficient for the needs of such a_ large
group. The stony terrain reportedly cost them 25 dozen pairs of
horseshoes. It is perhaps significant that at no time, in the midst
of all the complaints about difficult terrain and lack of water, was a
shortage of feed for the numerous domestic animals mentioned. This,
coupled with other ethnographic references to bison hunting at the
mouth of the Pecos, gives the impression that the Lower Pecos was
marginally included in the great expansion of grasslands which turned
much of the American West into a savannah parkland for a_ few
centuries.

Another clue, this time to the nature of the native population,
is the complete absence of reference to encounters with Indians from
the Rio Grande until the wagon train finally came to the Pecos River
below the present-day ruins of Fort Lancaster, several weeks into the
journey. A scouting party reported that they came upon a great number
of people of the Tepelguan (or Depesguan) nation who gave them buffalo
and antelope meat and skins, shoes made in their style, and offered to .
take them to a place of settlements and abundant maize. Tepelguan is
probably derived from the Nahuatl words tepet] (mountain) and huan (at
the junction of), implying the location of this group rather than a
tribal identity. The translators of Castano's journal suggest these
may have been members of the poorly known Jumano, buffalo hunters of
the Southern Plains who had wide-ranging contacts with settled tribes
to the east and west. In some reports, the Jumano are settled
agriculturalists of the Rio Grande, in others, nomadic hunters of the
Plains. Such a seasonal pattern jis not uncommon but some authors
believe the name Jumano was applied indiscriminately to any tatooed or
body-painted Indians. This difficulty in determining exactly who the
Spanish encountered is only the first in a long series of ambiguities.
Dozens of tribes are named by various expeditions to other parts of
the Southwest but whether the name is that by which the people called
themselves or .one stuck on by the explorers because of some
characteristic is generally impossible to determine. The names of
individual leaders were often applied to the group as a whole and any
one group could be called by several names. Even if the tribal
identification of these people is correct, the Jumano remain one of
the least known of Texas tribes. Thus, this identification does
little to clarify the true identity of the Tepelguan met by Castano's
scouts.

The next day, setting out upriver from their camp on the Pecos,
Castano's wagon train came across many recently abandoned camps
(rancherias) but only a lone Indian came out to meet them. He spoke a
tongue Castano's Coahuiltecan and Nahuat]-speaking interpreters could
not understand, suggesting to the translators of Castano's journal
that he may have been Apache or a speaker of an Athapascan language.
Within the next few days, continued contact with small groups of
similar people introduced the Spanish to the dog as a beast of burden.


43

with which many of the Pecos River style scenes were drawn suggests at
least a part-time specialist was at work. In a hunting and gathering
society, the artist may well have been the shaman, the magician thus
placating the supernatural to insure the welfare of the group as a
whole. Without knowing the mythology or cosmology of the people
involved, the interpretation of prehistoric art is open to the most
absurb and rampant speculation. There can be little doubt that the
Pecos River style art was drawn by indigenous hunters and gatherers at
a very elemental level of social organization but with a highly varied
and imaginative view of the natural and supernatural world.

One of the major problems in interpreting this art style is its
age. No good date can be estimated for its inception and its duration
is unknown. Only a general assignment to the Archaic Period can be
proposed based on the similarity of objects seen in the paintings to
those found in archeological excavations. Most authorities believe
that the art seen today is at most of Middle Archaic or younger age
simply as a matter of preservation. Even at that, these pictographs
would rank among the oldest in the New World.

Figure 18. This miniature group of Red Linear figures is so high on the wall
of' Fate Bell Shelter, 41VV74, that they can only be seen through magnification.
The elaborate headdress of the lead figure may reflect his status as headman.

The second pictograph style is the Red Linear, characterized by
miniature stick figures engaged in highly mobile group activity. This
style is much more representative of every day life among the
hunter-gatherers. Scenes of hunting, warfare, ritual and procession
brim with a vivacious energy foreign to the other Lower Pecos


10

hunter-gatherers of South Texas and Northeastern Mexico. Not until
the influx of Plains Indians, such as the Apache and Comanche, in
historic times can the tribes of the Lower Pecos be named.

Similarly, although three major prehistoric pictograph styles
have been defined and several minor styles proposed, it is difficult
to attribute them to a specific group. The styles can be roughly
arranged in chronological order beginning with the elaborate,
polychrome Pecos River style. The miniature Red Linear pictographs
are probably slightly later but their span may overlap with the older
style. The latest prehistoric style, the Red Monochrome, can be dated
to sometime after A.D. 600. Some historic pictographs are assumed to
be Apache or Comanche but many miscellaneous panels can not be
assigned to a defined style nor to even the broadest time range.

For convenience, the long span of prehistory has been divided
into four broad time periods. Each is characterized by a variety of
traits ranging from economics to art styles but projectile point
styles are often considered the hallmark of the period. Typical
examples of some of the more common Lower Pecos point styles are
illustrated in Figure § and their approximate age given in Figure 4.
The beginning and ending dates are arbitrary in the. sense that the
transition from one stage to the next was often slow and gradual.
Thus, the duration of time shown, rounded to the nearest century,
should be considered as approximating the span of each period.

The Paleoindian occupation (before 7000 B.C.) is set in the
habitat as it was at the end of the Pleistocene when large game
animals, now extinct, still roamed the Lower Pecos region. As the
climate became more arid, the human populations adapted to a
semi-desert environment, developing the cultural traits characteristic
of the Archaic Period (7000 B.C. to A.D. 600). Sometime around A.D.
600, changes such as the adoption of the bow and arrow signal the
advent of the Late Prehistoric Period (A.D. 600 to 1600). The coming
of the first Europeans at the close of the sixteenth century marks the.
end of prehistory and the beginning of the Historic Period. The
Indian presence in the Lower Pecos ceases to be significant after
1880.

The Earliest Population: The Paleoindians

Tentative evidence for the earliest human occupation in the
region is in the form of scattered and burned bones, fragments of
now-extinct animals such as camel, horse and elephant, found buried at
two sites, 41VV162A and Bonfire Shelter, 41VV218. Both sites were
excavated as part of the National Park Service program of study. No
formal tools made of flint or bone and no features, such as hearths or
pits, have been detected with these skeletal fragments. The burning

“of the bones at 41VV162A and the cut marks and breakage pattern on
specimens at Bonfire Shelter suggest that these animals were butchered
and brought into these shelters by man. Radiocarbon assays of
charcoal from 41VV162A range from 12,000 to 14,000 years in age and it


53

Texas Indians. University of Texas Press.

Newcomb, W.W. Jr. (1976) Pecos River Pictographs: The Development
of an Art Form. in: Cultural Change and Continuity: Essays in Honor
of James Bennett Griffin. C.E. Cleland, editor. Academic Press, New
York.

Shafer, Harry J. (1977) Art and Territoriality in the Lower Pecos
Archaic. Plains Anthropologist 19:228-230.

Turpin, Solveig A. (1983) Seminole Canyon: The Art and The
Archeology. Texas Archeological Survey Research Report 83, The
University of Texas at Austin.

Turpin, Solveig A. (1984) The Red Linear Style Pictographs of the
Lowr Pecos River Region. Plains Anthropologist.

Turpin, Solveig A. (1985) The Red Monochrome Pictographs of the Lower
Pecos River Region. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society.

General Readings - Social Structure

Lee, Richard B. and Irven Devore (1967) Man the Hunter. Aldine
Publishing Company. Chicago. .

Service, Elman R. (1962) Primitive Social Organization: An
Evolutionary Perspective. Random House, New York.

Yellen, John E. (1977) Archaeological Approaches to the Present,
Models for Constructing the Past. Academic Press. New York.

See also listings above for Newcomb, William W. (1969) and in
Kirkland and Newcomb (1967).


51

If we take the dictionary interpretation of the word primitive as
meaning, "relating to the earliest age or period", the Lower Pecos
aborigines can be considered primitive. However, in no way can their
lifestyle be considered as inefficient or impoverished for all time.
The pictographs for which the area is most noted testify to a complex
ideological or mythological world far more varied than indicated by
the economic and technological remains. Furthermore, by adapting to
their environment, learning to utilize rather than drastically alter
the natural resources, the native peoples were able to endure over
10,000 years. Only 400 years have passed since the first European set
foot in the Lower Pecos and only time will tell how long our culture
will survive.


49

best advocate of reconciliation. Because the headman's power was
simply a matter of acknowledged ability, high rank was not hereditary
nor endowed with much control over the rest of society. Often such a
leader functioned only during his prime, to be later replaced by
another, more competitive and able man. The elderly were not without
merit, their experience and wisdom often contributing to endurance
through times of stress.

Figure 23. This Red Linear scene
strongly resembles accounts of
curing rituals in which the seated
shaman magically drives away the
spirits of sickness or evil.

The oldest and most widespread form of religious thought,
shamanism, is found among hunter-gatherer societies throughout the
world. The most obvious evidence for its role in Lower Pecos ideology
is the Pecos River style pictographs. These complex and elaborate
artworks are considered to be shamanic works, perhaps visions achieved
in trance but made permanent on the walls of the canyons.
Traditionally, the shaman, or medicine man, was charged with the
general welfare of the group. Through their special relationship with
the supernatural world, they were able to insure the success of a hunt
or battle, cast spells to enchant man and animal, and communicate with
the spirits. In addition to their role as magician or conjurer, as
the most learned person in the group, they served as a storehouse of
oral tradition, stories, myths and facts about the group's history and
about the order of the universe. In many respects, the shaman would
have been a teacher, relating his accumulated knowledge to the youth.
On an -even more practical level, the shaman was an herbalist, curing
disease through a combination of real and magical treatments. The
shaman was probably the most powerful single individual in society;
one can only speculate upon his fate if he was ineffectual in
performing these many tasks.


20

The spear thrower, or atlatl, was the most powerful weapon. Used
to add force to propelling a dart or lance, this artifact was not
replaced by the bow and arrow until Late Prehistoric times, after A.D.
600. The presence of atlatls in both the Pecos River and in Red
Linear art panels is the major basis for their broad assignment to the
Archaic Period.

The large chipped stone projectile points, or dart points, vary
in style throughout the Archaic but their function remained much the
same. Other stone tools included scrapers and gouges used in hide and
plant processing. Knives, naturally serrated by the flaking
technique, were employed in butchering, wood cutting, and plant
harvesting. Drills for perforating bones, shell, stone and leather
were finely flaked from flint. The sharp edges of waste flakes,
debris from the manufacture of formal tools, were often expediently
used for the task at hand. Smooth, fist-sized rocks, or manos, served
as grinding implements to pound nuts, tubers and seeds into a type of
flour and powder naturally colored pebbles into pigment for paints
Mortars ranged from the enlargement of natural concavities in the
bedrock to slabs of more portable limestone, or metates. Often the
reuse of bedrock mortars deepened these pits beyond the reach of the
normal person. It has been suggested that these extremely deep holes
were used to store water and food or to ferment beverages.

Although Pecos River style art seems to show elaborate costumes,
only a few items of clothing have been identified in shelter deposits.
Rabbit skin robes, woven vegetable fiber loin coverings, fringed
skirts and sandals made of wooden frames padded with fiber make up the
entire known wardrobe. Plaited or twilled baskets, nets, matting and
cordage were manufactured from fibrous plants. Pouches made of split
prickly pear may have been carrying containers. No water bags or
flasks have been recovered but it is possible that containers were
made of prickly pear pads, animal internal organs, leather, or tightly
woven baskets. Wooden implements include the atlatl, fending or
rabbit sticks, snares and traps, digging sticks and fire tongs, drills
and hearths. A wooden mortar and pestle, cached in a rock shelter
near Pandale, had been used most recently to grind prickly pear seeds;
some were stuck in cracks in the mortar. A second similar mortar from
near Dryden was radiocarbon dated to about A.D. 900. Both these
specimens were of pinon pine, a tree no longer common to the Lower
Pecos, suggesting they may have been hidden because of their rarity
and value. Bone and antler were fashioned into ornamental beads,
pressure flakers for stone tool manufacture, awls for weaving or
sewing and other tools. Perforated mussel and snail shell, bone, wood
and stone beads, deer hoof and mussel shell rattles and long strings
of rattlesnake vertebrae may have been worn as jewelry.

The pictographs, the most spectacular of Archaic age art forms,

are not the only aesthetic expressions found in the shelters. Painted

* pebbles and clay figurines, technically called “art mobileur"” or
portable art, were produced over a long time span. Water-worn smooth
rocks, usually painted on both sides with black pigment, bear designs
ranging from abstract geometrics to reproductions of the human face


38

already in motion. The construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad
in 1881-1882 was to open the region for settlement. Even in their
last moments, however, the Apache struck back, wiping out a Chinese
work gang on the Eagle Pass extension, killing all eleven.

By the time of their final eradication, it was no longer possible
to determine the true ethnic affiliation of most of the Indian groups.
Decimated bands were absorbed into other tribes, forming composites
such as the Jumano-Apache. Apache had become a generic term for
Indian, applied indiscriminately toward most raiding groups, but they
are generally accepted as the last holdouts in this region. The
Comanche were also present but until the final days were centered
further to the north. The Seminole scouts stationed at Fort Clark
were Black-Indian imports from Florida, who achieved hero status in
the Indian wars. Thus did a 12,000 year history of native life in the
Lower Pecos ebb away, leaving only scattered traces in the genetic
pool of northern Mexico and lower Texas. “Pecos Man" did not vanish
into thin air. He was the victim of hostile expansion that began
before the advent of the white man and his displacers met the same
fate as he.


PREHISTORY OF THE LOWER PECOS RIVER REGION:
AN OVERVIEW

The Lower Pecos River Region has one of the best documented
records of continuous human occupation in the New World. This area,
surrounding the confluence of the Pecos and Devil's rivers with the
Rio Grande, can also claim a diverse and complex body of Native
American rock art, painted or carved into the hard limestone walls of
canyons and shelters. The boundaries of the region are most often
defined by the ‘extent of the distinctive Pecos River style pictographs
and by a commonality in items found in dry shelter deposits. In terms
of modern political divisions, the region includes Val Verde County
and adjacent areas of Terrell, Crockett and Sutton counties, Texas and
part of Northern Mexico bordering the Rio Grande. The lack of
archeological work immediately south of the Rio Grande inhibits a
clear definition of the southern boundary of the Lower Pecos cultural
area.

By far the majority of Lower Pecos archeological studies were
sponsored by the National Park Service in anticipation of the
construction of Lake Amistad. These and other investigations, outside
the area of the reservoir, suggest that the people of the Lower Pecos
region led a common way of life over a long span of prehistory. The
extent of their shared traditions and their interaction with
surrounding regions probably expanded and contracted under the
influence of environmental conditions and population density. Thus,
the boundaries of the cultural area shown in Figure 2 can not be
rigidly drawn as they were not a constant throughout prehistory.

The Environmental Setting

One measure of civilization is the degree to which humankind
devises buffers between itself and the environment. In modern
society, technology moderates the effect of climate, creates
artificial environments through light, heat and air conditioning, and
accelerates food production to the point where the everyday citizen is
remote from nature. Prehistoric hunters and gatherers, such as those
that inhabited the Lower Pecos throughout prehistory, present the
opposite extreme. Their relationship to their habitat was more
intimate. Rather than drastically modifying their physical world, the
people adapted to the available resources and much of this adaptation
was through cultural means. Thus, it seems only reasonable to assume
that environment played a significant role in influencing the course
of cultural development.


31

No change in the basic subsistence during the Late Prehistoric
Period has yet been detected but as most of the analyses have centered
on rock shelters with very sparse late deposits, this may be simply a
matter for redirection of study. Based on the number of Ensor and
Frio dart points found on ring or crescent-shaped burned rock middens,
these sites have generally been considered as Late Archaic. However,
radiocarbon assays of charcoal from many of these features indicate
they were used from A.D. 7008 until historic times. This places them
within the Late Prehistoric Period as defined here. Stone circles
found adjacent to burned rock middens contain Scallorn, Cliffton and
other arrow point styles along with the Ensor, Frio and Figueroa dart
points, suggesting all these types could be considered as
transitional.

The distinctive shape of the ring middens has been explained by
analogy to documented historic Apache baking ovens. A circular pit is
lined with stones, filled with dry wood and ignited. When the coals
burn down, the heart of sotol or agave are thrown in, covered with wet
grass and twigs, blanketed with earth and, often, a second fire tit
above. The tubers bake for one or two days, making them suitable for
storage and later consumption. The burned rock, when scraped away to
expose the pit oven, forms the crescent or circle characteristic of
these sites. These features reflect a continued reliance on desert
plants such as sotol and agave but the shape of the remnant rock pile
is distinctive.

Mussel shell is often found on the burned rock midden sites
indicative of a secondary food source. Faunal remains have not been
recovered from these upland sites in quantities sufficient to
determine the full range of game animals. Species recovered from
shelter deposits of this time period do not differ from those of
earlier times. The animals shown in the rock art are those known from
Archaic deposits and all are still found in the region today. The
spread of bison late in prehistory is known from many sites on the
Southern Plains, central and south Texas. A bison hide lined pit in
one shelter, a few very tate pictographs showing bison, and comments
in Spanish documents from Northern Mexico suggest that bison were
available to the Lower Pecos residents but no strong evidence fora
heavy reliance on these large herd animals has been found.

The Late Prehistoric Period has only recently come under
intensive study and much remains to be learned. Whether the changes
in fundamental cultural patterns, such as burial customs, art,
weaponry, and structures were the product of gradual adaptation or
resulted from an influx of new people is a topic now concerning
prehistorians. Until an accurate assessment of the age of each of
these traits can be gained, their sequence and origin will remain
debatable.


7

Two of the defined pictograph styles, the Pecos River and the Red
Linear, are of Archaic age. Both are products of a culture
economically based on hunting and gathering but the two styles are
markedly different in form and content. Because much of the
interpretation of preliterate art depends upon placing it within the
context of the culture which produced it, a more detailed discussion
of the various pictograph styles has been reserved for a later
section.

The 7600 years of the Archaic Period are divided into three
subperiods - Early (7000 to 4000 B.C.), Middle (4000 to 1000 B.C.) and
Late (1000 B.C. to A.0. 600). Although these blocks of time are
defined by minor variations in some cultural traits, much of the
material culture and basic economy remained basically similar.

Housing was provided by the numerous rock shelters common in this
region. The deep, ashy deposits, massive accumulations of burned
rock, and the blackened ceilings of many shelters result from
generations of fires. Discarding burned rock and other garbage by
throwing it out of the shelter mouth resulted in the talus cone, or
V-shaped rock slides which are so visible a trademark of the inhabited
shelter. Some evidence suggests partitions may have been erected to
screen parts of the shelter but domestic life must have been largely
communal. Grass-lined pits found in some sites may have been sleeping
nests, perhaps made to protect infants from the all-pervading dust and
dirt. The dead were often buried in the shelter deposits left by the
living.

Open air sites of the Archaic Period are burned rock
accumulations or middens on the upland flats and gentler slopes of the
canyons. These mounds of burned limestone are the debris from earth
ovens where desert plants were baked. A second type of Archaic upland
site is hearth fields where numerous smaller, sparser rock hearths fan
out across the caliche flats. The hearth fields usually contain much
more debris from stone tool manufacture and many more utilitarian
implements than the burned rock mound sites, suggesting they were open
living areas where many varied activities took place. No remains of
structures or temporary shelters have been found on these sites but it
is possible that some sort of rudimentary lean-tos were built.
Perishable building materials would not survive in these exposed
locations.

By far the majority of information on Archaic lifeways comes from
the dry shelter deposits where normally biodegradable materials were
preserved. Extensive study of seeds, leaves, pollen, bone and the
Contents of human excrement reveals a most varied and eclectic diet.
The staple plant foods were prickly pear, lecheguilla and sotol,
augmented by seasonally available nuts, seeds, fruit and flowers.
Although deer and other large mammals were probably prized, the bulk

‘of the meat was supplied by rodents, rabbits, snakes, lizards and
other small animals. Birds, fish, turtle and insects were eaten. It
is noteworthy that many of the protein sources were trapped, netted or
scavenged rather than hunted.




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32

The Late Comers: The Historic Indians

Technically, the historic period begins with the first Spanish
expedition to cross the Lower Pecos, Gaspar Castano deSosa's journey
from Monclova, Mexico to the Pecos Pueblo in 1590-1591. In reality,
repercussions from the Spanish colonization probably touched the lives
of the native population before this date. One possible source of
jnformation about the approaching European was the native tribesmen of
northern Mexico, who reportedly retreated into the semi-desert
regions. Spanish documents also refer to the northern Mexican
practice of travelling to the Rio Grande for winter bison hunts and
trade. Here they met with the nomadic hunters of the Southern Plains,
called the Cibolos and Jumanos in the Spanish records. The arid lands
and rugged terrain presented no significant barrier to these people
long before the horse granted them mobility. The Spanish considered
the desert dwellers extraordinarily ferocious but clashes between
cultures often accelerate violence on both sides. To what extent the
natives of the Lower Pecos warred among themselves is unknown. It
seems probable, however, that some form of alliance was established
making it possible for these northern and southern groups to coexist
at a temporary meeting ground along the Rio Grande. At least, by
1693, a Spanish campaign to the Conchos-Rio Grande area, La Junta,
found that the camps of allies of the southern tribes lined the Rio
Grande to the mouth of the Pecos. Thus, the Lower Pecos may have
served as a refuge long before the Spanish scribes recorded the
movements of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The second possible source of unrecorded contact may have come in
the form of illicit commerce in slaves. As lieutenant governor of
Nueva Leon, Castano was allegedly involved in widespread slave trade,
sending out expeditions to garner jabor for the mines and fields of
Northern Mexico. His ill-prepared and hasty expedition in 1590 was to
be financed in part by capture of Indian slaves along the route. His
knowledge of the location of the mouth of the Pecos may well have come
from slaves or stavers. His ignorance of the rough terrain beyond
would suggest that the Rio Grande may have been the upper limit of his
information. He was, however, aware that the Pecos was the same river
which flowed by the Pueblos described by the Espejo expedition of
1582.

Slavers kept no records of their illegal operations and no tales
of the Indians are preserved by a written language. Thus, in that
sense, Castano's travels provide us with the first sketchy description
of the Lower Pecos in historic times. When his wagon train, composed
of 160 to 170 people, 8 or 10 two-wheeled ox carts, cattie, goats,
horses, and dogs, left Monclova without permission from the Spanish
crown, he became a fugitive, eventually apprehended and returned to
Mexico. Exiled to the Philippines, he died in a revolt by his Chinese
galley slaves. The court reversal of the verdict of exile came too
late. His later adventures are a topic for historians; only the
casual facts noted as he passed through the Lower Pecos are of
interest here.


4

is probable that the as-yet undated lowest bone deposits at Bonfire
Shelter are equally as old.

More definitive is a second bone deposit at Bonfire Shelter.
This bone bed is composed of the remains of an estimated 120 bison of
the extinct species Bison antiquus who were stampeded over the cliff,
falling to their death on .the rocks below. This site is ideally
situated for mass slaughter and for the preservation of the remains of
the animals who tumbled over the cliff above, struck the massive roof
fall below, and rolled back into the shelter where they could be
butchered under the protecting overhang (Figure 6). Layering within
this bone mass suggests at least three separate drives or stampedes
over the cliff above took place within a relatively short period of
time. Considering that this extinct form of bison was about one-third
again as large as the modern ‘species, this method of hunting was
certainly effective. Butchering of the carcasses and the recovery of
the tools used demonstrates that the drives were the work of humans
and not accidents of nature. Among the stone artifacts are the
distinctive Folsom and Plainview dart points, time-markers of the
Paleoindian Period. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from small hearths
in this level places these events at about 10,000 years ago. Lesser
amounts of the extinct species bisom bone were recovered from the
lowest level of Arenosa Shelter and the intermediate zone at 41VV162A,
both approximately the same age as the Bonfire bone bed.

Although Bonfire Shelter is the only mass kill site known this
far south of the Southern Plains, some information on the lifeways of
the Paleoindian in the Lower Pecos can be gathered from this 10,000
year old bone level. The economy obviously relied to some degree upon
hunting of big game although undoubtedly this highly mobile -food
supply was supplemented by smaller game and plant foods. Human groups
whose economy relies on following migratory herds generally develop
cooperative hunting techniques. Although a bison stampede may be easy
to start, it is difficult to control unless a prearranged plan is
followed and each hunter plays his role correctly. Based on the
assumption that hunting is primarily a male skill, handed down from
father to son, the big-game hunter is seen as a member of a smal]
band, related to the other members through the male line of descent.
Whether this pattern can be applied to the Lower Pecos Paleoindian is
as difficult to answer as the second question, whether these people
were permanent residents of the region or merely transitory passersby.
It is often thought that the scarcity of sites from this time period
indicates a sparse population or one that passed through the region
leaving few remains at their camp sites. Nomadic hunters, constantly
on the move in pursuit of migratory herds, would leave few perceptible
traces behind. In addftion, the great length of time that has passed
since these people lived has to be taken into account. The
environmental changes discussed earlier would have worked to eliminate
much of the evidence for their occupation of the region. Finding
sites of this stage in prehistory may often be more an accident of
preservation than a reflection of the intensity of use. However, the
big game hunting strategy and the Folsom projectile point are similar
to those found across great expanses of North America at this time


Springs, such as San Felipe, Dolan, and Goodenough, attracted
prehistoric settlement. Intermittent runoff was retained in tinajas,
concavities in the bedrock. Seep springs, now often dry, flowed
episodically inside shelters and from the canyon walls. The
variability in these secondary sources would have affected the season
and duration of their exploitation.

The trend to aridity also resulted in a reduction in effective
moisture, that retained in the soils and by vegetative cover. A cycle
of lowered rainfall causes a reduction in ground cover, exposing the
soils to accelerated erosion, and reducing the capacity to retain
moisture when the rains return. The modern pattern of rainfall
reaches its maximum in the spring, only to lose much of its beneficial
effect through high evaporation. Vacillations in the drying trend
throughout the Archaic Period are reflected in the types of animal
bone recovered from archeological deposits, and by the flood record
preserved at one site, Arenosa Shelter, now under Lake Amistad. This
remarkable rock shelter was intermittently occupied between flood
stages of the Pecos River. The cultural materials deposited during
low water flow were sealed by sterile sediments left by overbank
flooding of the Pecos River, creating alternating strata for over 9000
years. The stratigraphy of the upper levels is illustrated in Figure
3. The most massive flood, the result of Hurricane Alice in 1954,
filled the shelter to the top. When excavated under the National Park
Service salvage project, this stratified site provided a record of
human and natural deposits, clearly separated in time.

A significant break in the drying trend about 3000 years ago is
reflected” by the reappearance of bison bone and the increase in grass
pollen found in-some shelter deposits. Although this more clement
climate was apparently short-lived, similar conditions may have again
prevailed at the time of first European contact and settlement. A few
very late pictographs showing bison, tangental references in Spanish
documents, and the accounts of the first settlers in the region hint
at a much more mesic environment than is currently in effect.

In summary, a composite of the floral, faunal and flood records
throughout prehistory permits a general reconstruction of the Lower
Pecos paleoenvironmental sequence over the Jast 10,000 years. At the
end of the last Ice Age, the vegetation of the region was parkland
savannah, grasslands dotted with trees and bushes. This habitat in
turn supported bison, camel, horse and elephant. By 9000 years ago,
what must have been a severe period of aridity, marked by intense
erosion, forced the populace to adapt to desert plants and animals.
Although the drying trend may have vacillated somewhat over the next
6000 years, the first major documented return to moister conditions
began about 3000 years ago. This mesic interlude may have lasted only
a short time, perhaps only a few centuries, but it permitted the
grasslands to recolonize the region. A return to aridity forced the
retreat of the grasslands. and the herd animals they supported but the
precise timing of this cycle has yet to be determined. The
semi-desert conditions prevailed until some time shortly before
European contact and colonization when moister, cooler conditions


29

suggests exploitation of previously less important food sources. The
analysis of the stomach contents of one woman who died about 1150
years ago, late in the transition from the Late Archaic to the Late
Prehistoric Period, shows a remarkably eclectic last meal or meals.
Represented were parts of bat, snake, fledgling birds, small whole
fish, bone elements and fur of white tail mice and pocket gopher,
prickly pear, grass, and other plants but the dominating feature was
grasshopper parts. It has been proposed that either a population
increase or a deteriorating environment forced the people to rely upon
food sources they had not fully utilized previously. This point must
be reconciled in order that the transition from the Late Archaic to
the Late Prehistoric period can be understood.

The Late Prehistoric Period: The Beginnings of Change

The Late Prehistoric is the period most marked by changes that
affected many of the basic patterns established during the long
Archaic continuum. The first sign of change, and the one used as a
time marker for the period, is the adoption of the bow and arrow.
Arrow points are found in the upper level of sites mixed with dart
points of Late Archaic age. The earliest radiocarbon date associated
with arrow points, A.D. 510 to 630, comes from the top stratum of
Arenosa Shelter, now under Lake Amistad. This date is difficult to
interpret as this level was highly mixed, containing items ranging in
age from Late Archaic Ensor and Frio dart points to historic trash.
Arrow point types include Scallorn, Perdiz, Toyah, Cliffton and
Harrell. Few good dates have been obtained to clarify the sequence of
arrow point types but evidence from outside the region suggests that
the earlier expanding stem Scallorn was replaced by the contracting
stem Perdiz. Toyah and Harrell arrow points are considered to be
jater adaptations coming into use after about A.D. 1300.

The drawing of human figures with bow in hand in the Red
Monochrome pictographs places this style in the Late Prehistoric
Period. The contrast between the realistic humans and animals
characteristic of the Red Monochrome art and the mythic qualities of
the earlier Pecos River pictographs is so strong that the Red
Monochrome is recognized as intrusive, brought into the region as a
fully developed art form. The close similarity to rock art of the Big
Bend region and the western Plains points to a possible origin with
the nomadic hunters who travelled the Southern Plains in late
prehistory and early history.

A new form of mortuary custom, burial under low mounds of rock,
may have come into use during the Late Prehistoric Period. The only
such cairn excavated to date contained four projectile points - two
dart points similar to Late Archaic forms, one Perdiz and one Scallorn
arrow points - and one smooth stone in the heart of the feature. No

* skeletal material was recovered but chemical tests of the fill show a
high phosphate concentration, indicating the composition of large
quantities of bone or other organic material. Similar features are
common higher on the Pecos River and along the margins of the Southern



26

The large dart points found in this bone bed are similar to those
defined as Montell, Castroville and Marshall, which are more common on
Late Archaic sites in Central Texas. Interestingly, these specimens
are also very much like forms found on some Archaic bison kills in the
Texas Panhandle. However, similar styles are found in quantity at the
Devils Mouth Site, Arenosa Shelter, and fn numerous other excavations
and on open sites. In all these contexts, they are considered as time
markers for this period. As Bonfire Shelter is the only site where
mass hunting techniques were clearly employed, the excavator came to
the conclusion that for a very brief time the bison of the Great
Plains expanded their range to include the Lower Pecos. There they
were followed by their human predators, bearing their characteristic
weapons. When the trend to aridity was reinstated, the herds and
their attendant hunters retreated with the grasslands, leaving only
these slight perceptible traces of their intrusion.

A second change possibly coincides with the advent of the bison
herds and hunters. In the miniature monochrome art style called Red
Linear, scenes of combat, hunting and -ritual include one
representation of a herd of bison racing toward a crack in the shelter
wall. Although no concrete radiocarbon dates or associated cultural
deposits can be related to this art style, the uncanny resemblance of
this scene to the events at Bonfire Shelter seems more than
coincidental.
Std

. cm

Figure 11. In a second Red Linear scene showing bison, miniature hunters
pursue a large, humped animal toward @ geometric design at 41VV612.


The landscape of the Lower Pecos region is rolling hills and
rocky flats dissected by drainways which become increasingly deep and
entrenched as they reach the three major rivers, the Pecos, Devils’
and Rio Grande. To the casual visitor, these barren hillsides and
steep canyons seem a bleak and inhospitable habitat. However, the
semi-desert of today is in part a result of a century of overgrazing
by domestic livestock which accelerated the effects of an increasingly
drier climate. The past environment, reconstructed from plant and
pollen studies, animal remains, flood sequences, and the debris of
human populations, was one of deeper soils, more effective moisture,
and more plentiful native foodstuffs. Within the living memory of
long-time ranchers, erosion has claimed the sediment cover, floods
have eradicated stands of oak and walnut, and thorny = shrubs,
unpalatable to livestock, have expanded their hold on the remnant
rocky soils. In historic times, since natural conditions have been
recorded, climate has vacillated, alternating between wet and dry
years and decades. Century-long cycles similarly occurred throughout
prehistory, affecting the everyday life of the aboriginal population
and influencing the development of their culture.

The processes which were to influence the lifeways of the Lower
Pecos inhabitants began during the Cretaceous Period, 100 million
years ago, when the region lay beneath the sea. Particles drifting to
the ocean floor intermingled with the shélls and skeletons of marine
life to form the massive beds of limestone now exposed. Changes in
the depth and composition of the seas created a layered effect,
visible as distinct strata. Long after the land uplifted and the
water receded, erosion played its role, reducing the youngest
limestone formations to remnants now seen as rolling hills. Wind,
water and temperature extremes hollowed caverns along the fault lines
and bedding planes exposed by the downcutting of rivers and
intermittent streams. Millions of years later, these caverns became
the housing of many of the Lower Pecos people.

Four of the limestone formations variously exposed throughout the
region were each used in some way by man. The youngest formation, the
Boquillas Flags, is a laminated shale-like limestone recognizable in
road and railroad cuts by its bright red, yellow and white color. The
tendency of this formation to split into tabular slabs attracted
commercial exploitation. Quarrying of ftagstones in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century has since become largely
uneconomical but the old scars are apparent in many locations.

The second formation, the Buda limestone, is topographically
expressed as rounded hills of a dull brown rock distinguished by
numerous small fossils. This formation is of great help to the
archeologist because the high iron content reacts to heat, turning the
burned rocks of prehistoric hearths a distinctive red. Beneath the
Buda formation, on caliche flats that border those domed outcrops,
lies the Grayson Formation or Del Rio clay. These flat, soft surfaces
were prime campgrounds in prehistory.


Figure 2

‘moruyo!



Figure 6. Bonfire Shelter during the 1983 excavations. Bison driven over the cliff

The 10,000 year old Bone Bed 2, composed of

tumbled down the notch at right.
posed in the bottom of an excavation pit.

the skeletal remains of nowextinct bison, is ex|


“9:8 00S © pG6, Woy eouanbes aip suaA09 ayljoud siyy “Bulpooy juassnoe1 pue uoNednav0

uewny Aq ya] 838435 Buljeusa}je pesodxa suONeAeoxa aiaym 4a}jayS esouay “— aunbig

sodap Pool 4
6b WOLVES

Sissodap seyauy ae) JO WORCG — I
syjsodap poo} pus saoepans BuyAy UEWINH,

Bez vivuls J
a F

saysodup

pooy pus jenna pexiw

‘year —— ae ee a ie

ib wives
veer — — — —

S{{kOdep Pooy Pusu jesM{Nd. Rit
oO wo1y Ss

4sodap poo} pus jemjna PoxiW,

6 WNLVELS
3 ye0 —- — — — —

ysodap pooiy
BWwNivuts

O14 F ‘01a o2— eens BuyAy) UU ¢ WALES ee

usodap pool
9 WNLvuLsS

DIVHOUY 34v7

ysodap poo) pus jamind pexiw
SWNivels |
01+ Ov ‘av = —— —_— —_ — ——|

tysodap poo pue jesnyjn9 Pex
ywhivuLs

|

Usogep poy pUE jBsnajn> PaXiyy
ewnivuis
-—
NINO POX

ysodap pooy pur

sas ‘a __ewhLvuss
apOssyedg 2 O89 4 OLS ‘OW a

_—.

sayeg uoqazo}pey

(pooy pepsoras ‘pGE, ‘aUNr) ys0dep poo) 4
| WALLS

[ Nuacow


21

Figure 9. Snail shell beads found still strung on a grass cord, during the 1932
University of Texas éxcavations at Fate Bell Shelter, Seminole Canyon State Park.

and body (Figure 10). There are some indications that styles changed
over time but detailed study of the sequence has been neglected in
favor of the mural art. The most interesting proposition is that
painted pebbles were amulets or charms, possibly used by the women as
ritual objects.

Clay figurines are rarer but these simple lumps of pinched or
shaped unfired clay have been found at several sites. Some of the
fragments have conical appendages, perhaps breasts, and only those
female figures have incised or punctated designs. The object seems to
have been to reproduce the human body; rarely is the head shown.
These figurines have bebn interpreted as ritual paraphernalia, perhaps
used in fertility rites, witchcraft, or curing ceremonies as a
substitute for the human subject.

With the possible exception of the pictographs, the material
culture of the Archaic Period was simple and expedient. The raw
material for the most common items, stone tools, was so abundant that
a suitable implement could be easily fashioned, used and discarded.
The wooden and bone tools were not only more perishable but the raw
material was less easily acquired and required more labor to convert
to a suitable form. The mobile lifestyle inhibited the size of a tool
kit to items easily carried or difficult to replace. Although simple
by our standards, this technological level was highly adaptive in that
it was sufficient to maintain the Archaic population for thousands of


D-30

File:
e Amistad
iN
STORAGE
Prehistory in the Lower Pecos:
An Overview
by Solveig A, Turpin
(Performed pursuant to Contract C3530(70)
between the National Park Service and
The University of Texas at Austin)
Texas Archeological Survey
Research Report 90
@ The University of Texas at Austin
PLEASE RETURN TO:
- 1984 TECHNICAL INFORMATION CENTER
ON MICROFILM DENVER SERVICE CENTER

RATIONAL PARK SERVICE


45

traditions. Life-size and life-like human figures are posed frontally
with arms and legs outstretched. Realistic animals of many
economically useful species - deer, turkey, rabbit, catfish - as well
as the panther and coyote are clearly shown. Hostility is prominently
displayed in figures riddled with arrows (Figure 19). This
characteristic is not, however, limited to this style. The rarity of
Red Monochrome pictographs and the strong similarities between the
sites led to the conclusions that this style was brought into the
region in fully developed form but lasted only a short time. The
strongest resemblance to other art styles is with certain figures in
the Big Bend region of Texas.

Figure 20. {n this historic
pictograph on the Devils

River, a bison stands above
a man armed with a rifle.

The fourth major pictograph category, historic aboriginal art, is
defined by evidence for European contact in the panels. The traits of
European culture most often shown are domestic livestock, guns, and
Christian symbols, such as churches or priests. Only ten sites of
this era have been recorded. Some bear strong resemblances to
Comanche art and others may be attributed to the Apache. Both tribes
were known to raid back and forth across the Rio Grande until the
middle 1800s.

By far the majority of the rock art sites are now only remnants
or of miscellaneous styles which can not be assigned to any category
or time period. The petroglyphs remain poorly studied as do some
minor pictograph classifications which have been suggested but not


project, intended to salvage as much information as possible in the
area to be inundated by the Jake. A research unit, the Texas
Archeological Salvage Project, was formed at the University of Texas
specifically to carry out this and other salvage projects. The first
step was to survey the district to locate, record and assess the most
important sites. The next phase was a combination of limited testing
to determine the potential of some of these sites for full excavation
and intensive excavation of others.

The first excavations, at Centipede and Damp caves and the
Devil's Mouth site, were oriented toward establishing a basic
chronology, a framework that could be used throughout the duration of
the salvage program. Limited excavations, carried out at several
sites, were used to select the most promising sites for more intensive
study. Large-scale excavations then continued at the Devil's Mouth
and began at Bonfire Shelter, Eagle Cave, Parida Cave, Conejo Shelter
and the Devils Rockshelter. The last site excavated before the waters
rose was Arenosa Shelter, completed in 1969.

Running concurrently with these excavations, an accelerated study
of pictographs in the Amistad District was carried out by art
historians, David: Gebhard and Terence Grieder. A relative chronology
of the rock art, based on stylistic change and superimposition of
figures, resulted from Gebhard's work. Survey‘of areas outside the
Amistad Reservoir boundaries to locate and recommend pictographs and
petroglyphs for more thorough documentation continued under the
auspices of the Texas Memorial Museum and the Texas Historical
Commission.

In 1967, the University of Texas Press published a compendium of
Kirkland's water colors with a thorough commentary and analysis by
W.W. Newcomb, Jr. He presented a typology and chronology of Lower
Pecos pictograph styles similar, but not identical, to Gebhard's.
This book remains the most complete and detailed presentation of Texas
rock art still available.

Under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, a
preliminary study of the paleoenvironment of the Amistad District was
assembled by DeeAnn Story of the University of Texas at Austin and
Vaughn M. Bryant, Jy., now of Texas A & M University. Bryant's
doctoral dissertation at the University of Texas was the basis for the
climatic sequence in the region. .

Since the cessation of the Amistad salvage program, archeological
investigations have largely resulted from the efforts of academic
institutions, funded by Federal, State and private grants. National
Science Foundation grants enabled Texas A&M University to carry out an
exhaustive ecological study of dry shelter deposits at Hinds Cave.
Much of the generalized reconstruction of human dietary patterns

* during the Archaic Period was produced by their analysis of pollen and
plant parts, human feces, and animal remains from this site. The
University of Texas at San Antonio is involved in on-going excavations
and analyses at Baker Cave providing essential data on Early Archaic

°


transformed the American west into the grasslands of frontier history.
Extreme droughts are recorded in Northern Mexico from 1640-1€45 and in
the Lower Pecos during the late 1800's but short-term climatic
fluctuations such as these are usually not discernible in the
archeological record after the passage of time.

Hardy as the desert may seem, the flora and fauna adapted to
these conditions are in delicate balance. The fragile ecosystem
evolved over millenia as plant, animal and man mutually adapted to a
changing habitat. Following fast upon the droughts of the 1880s, the
introduction of domestic livestock further reduced the vegetative
cover, accelerating runoff and eroding the sparse soils. Only in
relic stands of large oak trees and isolated protected pockets along
the canyons are remnants of the prehistoric environment preserved.

The History of Archeological Work in the Lower Pecos

When the first surveyors mapped the area surrounding the
confluence of the Pecos River and the Rio Grande, they named the
region Painted Caves. The first railroad station erected along the
route of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1881 bears the same name.
The deep, dry shelter deposits attracted several formal expeditions in
the 1930s, largely sponsored by museums and academic institutions to
garner specimens for their collections. The Smithsonian Institution
of Washington, 0.C., the Witte Museum of San Antonio, Texas
Technological University of Lubbock, and the University of Texas all
carried out major excavations during this decade. Many of the
research techniques used today had not been developed so the material
objects collected by these projects have limited utility in the
reconstruction of prehistoric lifeways. Even at that early date,
vandalism was so severe that many deep rock shelters were considered
too destroyed to yield meaningful information.

Fortunately for today's researchers, two most remarkable pioneers
in rock art studies began their work in the 1930s. Forrest Kirkland,
a commercial artist and draftsman, devoted much of his leisure time to
the self-appointed task of copying Texas rock art in measured water
colors. His work, curated at the Texas Memorial Museum, University of
Texas at Austin, is often all that remains of once spectacular
pictograph sites. A.T. Jackson, an archeologist from the University
of Texas, began compiling his book "The Picture-Writing of Texas
Indians", describing, photographing, drawing and interpreting
pictograph and petroglyph sites all over Texas. His records, on file
at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory jin Austin, and
Kirkland's water colors provide the major basis for studies of
deterioration and condition of rock art sites.

World War II brought an end to this phase of archeological
“research in the Lower Pecos. Only sporadic investigations continued
over the next decades. Then, in the late 1950s, in anticipation of
the construction of Lake Amistad (then Diablo Reservoir), the National
Park Service launched an intensive, integrated cultural resource


7 _ way
ans 2

ona

Figure 15. This towering Pecos River style shaman stretches from floor to ceiling
in Panther Cave, 41VV83, one of the most spectacular of Lower Pecos pictograph
sites. The massive amount of overpainting suggests ceremonial or ritual! art.


28

Devils Rock Shelter. The latter site reflects heavy use during this
time, based on the quantity of Marshall points and one radiocarbon
date of 3000 years ago. The primary feature associated with these
characteristic points was a large accumulation of burned limestone.
This site, and the similar projectile points found on open burned rock
midden sites, suggests the bison hunters used rock ovens to process
meat or desert vegetation much as their predecessors and the following
Late Prehistoric residents did.

With the return to arid conditions came the retreat of the bison
and their hunters and the apparent revival of the old way of life.
Whether the pattern of the Archaic adaptation continued throughout the
short span of this intrusion or was temporarily broken is not clearly
shown in the archeological record. The general consensus is that this
interlude left little permanent mark on the stable lifeways of the
desert adapted population.

Ensor and Frio dart points are the hallmarks of this late phase
of the Late Archaic. These time markers are found in upper shelter
deposits and on open sites. They are the most common styles
associated with the circular or crescent-shaped burned rock middens
described in the following section. Their use continues well into the
Late Prehistoric period, after the first signs of adoption of the bow
and arrow.

By far the majority of the burials recovered from shelter
deposits are of Late Archaic age. Thus, our knowledge of Archaic
burial practices is greatest for this time period. The general
mortuary pattern consists of flexed or semi-flexed burial, usually
close to the-shelter wall. These burials are often wrapped in matting
or overlain with basketry and the pit covered with limestone slabs.
Very rarely, the grave holds remnants of clothing, ornaments made of
shell and bone, or tools used.by the person during their lifetime.
Infants, wrapped in deerskin and matting, are interred with their
broken cradle boards. That some ceremony or ritual for the dead was
performed is indicated by the traces of ochre found in some graves.
The magical properties of ochre, or powdered hematite, are suggested
by the projectile points stained with red pigment and its use as paint
for the pictographs. Skeletons have been found interred under rock
falls, in smaller clefts, or in sinkholes. Based on the nymber of
individuals represented by skeletal remains and the absence of
household debris, some small shelters may have been specifically set
aside as burial locations. Cremation is rare but has been reported.
It has been suggested that cremation was afforded only to individuals
who had some special status in the group, such as shamans. Burials
reported from formal excavations are, however, relatively few in terms
of the long human occupation of the region.

The number of upland sites bearing Late Archaic points coupled
“with an increase in the proportionate number of unifaces, usually
considered as vegetal material processing tools, has led to
speculation on an escalating reliance on desert plants. A higher
recovery of fish bones and scales in shelter deposits at the same time


Figure 21. Two miscellaneous pictograph styles. a) This cross hatched human holds two
flowering stalks. b) A solid‘red Shield’ bearer’ is considered a late prehistoric pictograph.

proven. The single greatest problem in rock art studies is the rapid
natural decay of the pictographs and the vandalism inflicted by
unknowing individuals. Ours may be the last generation to see the
splendor of this ancient art.

The Social Structure of Lower Pecos Aboriginal Life

Each of the broad time periods in Lower Pecos prehistory is
characterized by a variety of cultural traits, most obviously those
reflected in the material objects which have survived over time.
However, despite shifts in emphasis, for example, from hunting to
gathering, much of the basic lifeways remained the same. By comparing
the information on Lower Pecos technology and subsistence to living or
documented groups in similar arid environments, some inferences about
the social structure of the people can be made.

Although the emphasis may have ranged from mass kills of herd
animals to trapping rodents or roasting prickly pear pads, hunting and
foraging were always the mainstay of the Lower Pecos economy. Slight
differences in social attitudes probably prevailed during times when

“hunting had priority, but those are also the periods about which we
know the least.



27

Although the bison and their hunters were probably not in the
Lower Pecos for more than a few decades or centuries, their very
presence suggests that a different way of life may have been practiced
for this short period, at least by the followers of the herds.
Driving and mass slaughter of large, untamed herd animals depends on
cooperation between the hunters. Accounts of Plains Indian communal
hunts prior to their acquisition of the horse describe methods by
which they positioned the herds for stampede. In one approach, a
V-shaped drive line was built of piled stones, arranged much like a
funnel whose opening was the cliff or bluff selected for the jump.
Hunters lay behind the piled stones hidden beneath brush or hides. A
human decoy dressed in a bison costume wandered between the animals
and the jump location. The curious bison would drift toward this
runner until he had attracted them to the head of the drive line. At
the appropriate moment, the hidden hunters would leap up waving brush
or hides starting the stampede. The decoy would jump into a hole dug
for that purpose or dart out of the way as the herd began to run. If
the lead animals saw the danger and tried to stop, the mass of
panicked animals behind pushed them over the edge. This technique
reportedly required considerable coordination and timing so that the
herd did not-turn from the chosen path. Discipline was imposed so
that an overanxious: hunter did not prematurely start the stampede or
frighten the animals before they were in the proper position.
Shooting of individual bison was detrimental to the success of the
mass kill and was discouraged. This, and the efficiency of this
killing technique, perhaps explains why so few projectile points are
found in many kill sites. Another possible technique, known from
historic times, was the judicious use of grass fires to force the
herds to run in the chosen direction. It is not known what methods
were used to stampede the bison of Bonfire Shelter but it is certain
that they were successful.

If analogy to historic Native Americans can be continued here,
the bison was highly prized for a number of uses. The large
quantities of meat obtained were probably dried on racks in the sun or
over low fires. Powdered dried meat mixed with fat or bone marrow and
various berries or fruits were a storable staple. Bones were
shattered to get to the nutritious marrow and boiled for bone grease.
Tools were made from some of the bones. Bison hides were preferred
for robes and, in later times, were used to make war shields. Bison
horn headresses were also prized. Very few parts of the animal could
not be used to advantage. However, at Bonfire Shelter, waste is
apparent in the number of skeletal parts that were not dismembered and
in the few butchering tools recovered. It seems the hunters were too
successful and the overkill was too great for the labor available to
fully process all the carcasses

The meat and hides garnered from the mass slaughter seemingly

would require immediate processing at a nearby camp. Several likely

’ shelters and open camp sites lie close by but only Eagle Cave, 1/2
mile down the canyon, shows any evidence of bison or the
characteristic projectile point styles. In addition, bison bone has

been found in deposits of this time period at Arenosa Shelter, and the


The oldest formation, variously called the Salmon Peak, Devils
River or Georgetown, is the grey, hard-surfaced limestone exposed
above and along the rivers and canyons. In addition to the excellent
housing provided by the many rock shelters hollowed from this
formation, the hard surface was to become the preferred canvas for
prehistoric artists who created a large and diverse assemblage of rock
art. .

A final geological resource exploited by prehistoric man is the
plentiful raw material for stone tool manufacture. Prime sources are
chert nodules eroding from the parent limestone, redeposited river
gravels and ancient terrace gravels now exposed on degrading upland
surfaces. The abundance of this raw material would encourage
extensive use, allowing for the discard of worn or broken tools, more
easily replaced than repaired.

In terms of the slow clock of geologic time, little has changed
during mankind's tenure in the Lower Pecos. Other environmental
factors, however, did change, forcing the human population to adapt to
an increasingly stringent habitat. At the end of the last Ice Age,
when the human record in this area begins, the Lower Pecos was a
parkland savannah. Expanses of grassland supported large game animals
such as elephant, bison, camel and horse. These species disappeared
as part of the mass extinction that took place throughout the
continent at this time. The reasons for this widespread eradication
are poorly defined but in the Lower Pecos specifically it seems a
trend to aridity, which continues to today, may have reduced the food
resources in their natural habitat until it could no longer support a
breeding population.

By 9000 years ago, under the pressures of increasingly less
moisture, the hardy plants that characterize the region today made
their appearance in human diet. The preservation of many normally
perishable items in the dry shelter deposits has provided an uncommon
opportunity to inventory the plant resources exploited by the Archaic
people. Prickly pear, Jechueguilla, and eventually sotol became the
mainstay of life. Smaller game such as deer, rabbits and rodents
predominate in the shelter deposits. Contrary to popular opinion, in
many ways the food resources of a semi-desert are more reliable than
those of the forest or plains. The hardy desert sucqulents survive as
a dependable resource and the variety in plants and animals provide
alternatives if one source fails. The reconstruction of human diet
from coprolites, dried human feces found in latrine deposits in the
dry shelters, clearly indicates that the Lower Pecos Archaic
population consumed every available edible item, ranging from
grasshoppers to deer but the heaviest component was plant foods. The
nutritional deficiencies in this high bulk, low protein diet are
apparent in the stress indicators found in human skeletal material.

Perhaps the single most influential environmental factor
affecting human settlement in semi-arid lands such as the Lower Pecos
is water. Three permanent rivers, the Devils’, the Pecos and the Rio
Grande, traverse the region, providing a constant source of water.


e
Figure 7. Examples of artifacts preserved in the dry shelter deposits of the Lower Pecos
a) sandals with ties intact b) bone awis, the largest is approximately 2% in. long
ch) a curved, grooved fending or rabbit ‘stick about 15 in. long d) fire drill and hearth
stick 18 in. long e) 6 in. long fragment of a probable atlatl


“GLLGB-DS-L LE SeAIYouy JeUOHeN “duwed ayoURWOD d1OISIyY UY “EL aunbiy

Ne ery



36

e@ controlling the Apache. A cache recovered in adjacent Pecos County
held bison skin pouches, calico cloth, pigments, and an iron axe but
no age or affiliation could be attributed to it beyond assigning the
cloth to the Civil War Period. The scarcity of historic Indian
remains is understandable when the short duration of their occupation
of the Lower Pecos and the mobility of their lifestyle is taken into
account. If the Comanche camp shown in Figure 13 is typical, the
meager possessions would leave little trace once camp was broken and
moved.

Figure 14. This outstanding pictograph at Vaquero Shelter reflects the Native
American view of the white man. This Spaniard stands beside a mission church.

@ Ten pictographs convey some of the worldview of the series of
Indian groups which sequentially retreated into the despobtado,
protected by the Spaniards discomfort with the terrain and the white


General Readings - Paleoindians
Dibble, David S. and Dessamae Lorrain, Bonfire Shelter: A Stratified
Bison Kill Site, Val Verde County, Texas. Texas Memorial Museum
Miscellaneou Papers, The University of Texas at Austin (1968).

General Readings - Archaic

Hester, Thomas R. (1980) Digging Into South Texas Prehistory. Corona
Publishing Company. San Antonio.

General Readings - Late Prehistoric

Turpin, Solveig A., Seminole Canyon: The Art and the Archeology.
Texas Archeological Survey Research Report 83, The University of Texas
at Austin (1982).

General Readings - Historic Indians
Griffen, William 8B. (1969) Culture Change and Shifting Populations in
Central Northern Mexico. Anthropological Papers of the University of

Arizona 13, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 10, Southwest (1983) esp.
Campbell, T.N. Coahuiltecans and Their Neighbors pp. 343-358.

Hammond, George P. and Agapito Rey (1966) The Rediscovery of New
Mexico 1580-1594. The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

John, Elizabetn A.H. (1975) Storms Brewed in Other Mens Worlds Texas
A&M Press, College Station.

Schroeder, A.H. and D.S. Matson (1965) A Colony on the Move: Gaspar
Castano deSosa's Journal 1590-1591. School of American Research,
Alphabet Printing Company, Salt Lake City.

i

Newcomb, W.W. Jr. (1969) Indians of Texas. University of Texas
Press, Austin.

General Readings - Pictographs

Grieder, Terence (1966) Periods in Pecos Style Pictographs American
Antiquity 31(5):710-720.

Jackson, A.T. (1938) Picture Writing of Texas Indians. The
University of Texas Publications 3809, Austin.

Kirkland, Forrest W. and W.W. Newcomb, Jr. (1967) The Rock Art of


24

years. Changes in tool forms, such as projectile points, are one
trait used to differentiate between the Archaic subperiods.

The Early Archaic Period, 7000 to 4000 B.C.

Deposits of this time period have been found at several sites.
The dietary pattern which was to characterize the majority of the
Archaic stage has been well-established by studies of plant parts,
animal bone, and human feces recovered from these sites. The most
informative about the overall lifeways of the Early Archaic are Baker,
Hinds and Eagle caves. A heavy reliance on the desert succulents,
such as lecheguilla, soto] and prickly pear, which are high in bulk
and low in nutritional vatues, was supplemented by. all manner of
fruits, roots, seeds, and leafy plants. Virtually every animal and
reptile was consumed but the Early Archaic appearance of lecheguilla
signals the advent of the desert plants as a major dietary component.

Early Archaic age skeletal remains found below the vertical shaft
of a deep sinkhole corroborate the dietary stress experienced by the
human population at this time. Several individuals, apparently thrown
down this hole after death, showed extreme tooth wear, bone pitting
caused by iron-deficiency, and arrested growth lines indicative of
severe nutritional strain during childhood.

In the Lower Pecos region, Early Archaic dart point styles are
generally lumped under the broad descriptive names "Early Barbed",
"Early Stemmed" or “Early Corner Notched". Names borrowed from other
regions, such as Bell, Martindale, Uvalde or Gower, are sometimes used
and new types, such as Baker and Bandy, have been proposed. Few
tools, other than the projectile points popular during this time
period, set the Early Archaic apart from the general Archaic
technology. If the lithic technology remained constant, it can be
presumed that many of the more perishable items found in Middle and
Late Archaic contexts were also in use in earlier times.

At present the only features recognized in Early Archaic deposits
are refuse pits and burned rock accumulations. Although no one can
give a beginning date for the rock art, it is highly improbable that
any of the pictographs visible today were painted by Early Archaic
artists. Given the rapid deterioration shown in modern times, the
chances of painted artworks surviving for this long a time are remote.
The few painted pebbles, the surviving fragments of baskets, nets and
‘sandals, rare wooden and bone artifacts ‘and the stone tools all
indicate that much of the technology which was the mainstay of Archaic
life was developed by Early Archaic times.

The Middle Archaic Period, ca. 4000 to 1000 B.C.
Although cultural deposits of the Middle Archaic Period

predominate in the majority of the rock shelters excavated in the last
thirty years, it remains a time whose material culture is well known


i” =<, 2 : 2 H
igure 1. The confluence of the Rio Grande and Pecos River prior to inundation by

Lake Amistad. Looking down the Rio Grande canyon, mouth of Pecos at lower left.

~


44

pictograph styles. The underlying themes are, however, more solemn,
in their concern for basic survival in the form of conquest, hunting
success, and human reproduction. Red Linear is the one style which
treats with sexuality and gender. The emphasis on pregnancy and erect
phalli in this style hint at a fertility as a dominant factor in
ritual painting. The secluded Yocation of some of these panels and
the male-oriented activities portrayed suggest ritual painting,
perhaps for puberty ceremonies or initiation rites.

The weapons pictured are, as was the case in the Pecos River
Style, of Archaic age. The occasional bison shown in the hunting
scenes suggests the time frame can be narrowed to the Late Archaic,
ca. 2600 years ago, when a slightly moister climate allowed the
grasslands to expand into the region. The consistency in Red Linear
art and the lack of a developmental sequence may result from its
origin in another medium, such as hide painting, and it may be that it
was brought into the region by the bison hunters who mimicked the
earlier occupants by painting their designs on the walls.

Figure 19. Less realistic than many Red Monochrome figures, the naked man at
right is pierced by two lances or arrows. The contorted figure at left is found at
several Red Monochrome sites.

The latest prehistoric pictographs, the Red Monochrome, are
definitely of Late Prehistoric age, after A.D. 600 and before
‘ European contact in 1590. This can be assumed from the frequent
drawing of the bow and arrow which were introduced into the Lower
Pecos at that time. This style is again markedly different from the
preceding styles, indicating a break in art and possibly cultural


“OUI 4BAOD 49qjOUS SIL
pasnas oym dosh ayioeds 8 40 Wejquia 10 yids UBIpeNn ey, Uueeq sAey AeW UO}). WIBUNOW ey, BuNsebins
‘sobeu! sayjued 2U2104)1p OAly 1688, JE SPjOY BE SUL “EBAALY ‘PACD JOLUeY JO voYued ey, “ZL aundLy



Tims Periods in Lower Pecos Prehistory

-
[ore eco Rediocarton Deted Diagnostic Artifacts Thane Puried Dow OP
Hatori |
Sreepty beveled end scrapers,
— ceramics, trisngulsr poms Infieroo chase
00 “Townson, Perdis Late Prhiorte vooo
Scatiom
sited ion
BCIAD —— Ener Archaic 000
Shumis, Mercos_
|, Castroville: |
000 Marshall 3000
_ Val Verde, Langvy,
‘Aimagre, Ariedge Wicidie |
2000 - 4000
EEE Aechaic
— . |
3000 ed soos
acco > ooo
00 Eaty 7e00
‘Early bared
ooo 4 en aise esco
7000 4 Gotondrine, Angosturs 9000
Plairviow ae
— Pulecind
9,000
b= 9000 =
Figure 4



k) Langtry 2) Val Verde m) Almagre n) Pandale o-q) Early Archaic series

Figure 5 (cont).

-f) Plainview s) Folsom Specimens #q are

from Arenosa Shelter, r-s from Bonfire Shelter


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements . . 6 1. ee te ee ee ee ee we eee es iv
Environmental Setting 2... - ee ee ee ee ee 1
History of Archeological Work in the Lower Pecos... ee ee ee 7
Prehistory in the Lower Pecos: An Overview .... ~ Le ee 9
The Earliest Population: Paleoindians .. 1... + + + ee eee ».. 10
The Archaic: Classic Foragers in.a Changing Environment ...... - 16
The Late Prehistoric Period: Beginnings of Change. ....-..+--s 29
The Late Comers: Historic Indians 2... 6 ee ee ee et es 32
The Pictographs of the Lower Pecos Region... . + +e eer eee 39
The Social Structure of Lower Pecos Aboriginal Life ......-+.-- 46
General Readings ... 1... ee ee eee re 52

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1, The mouth of the Pecos River «6. eee eee ee es vi
Figure 2, Map of the Lower Pecos Region... ee ee ee eee ees 2
Figure 3, Stratigraphic profile from Arenosa Shelter 2... ee ee 5
Figure 4. Time periods in Lower Pecos prehistory .. 1... +226 11
Figure 5, Projectile point’styles of the Lower Pecos Region... , 12-13
Figure 6. Photographs from Bonfire Shelter 2... 0 ee ee et 15
Figure 7, Well-preserved artifacts from dry shelters in the Lower

Pecos Region 2. eee ee te ee eee ee 18
Figure 8, Archaic basketry and netting «0. we ee ee ett es 19
Figure 9. Snail shell beads from Fate Bel] Shelter ..... 1.4; 21
Figure 10, Painted pebbles... . 6 ese ee ee es 22-23
Figure 11. Red Linear pictograph of a bison hunt... . 2. ee eae 26
Figure 12, Red Monochrome style pictograph . . 6 ee ee ee es 30
Figure 13. Historic Comanche camp . . 1-1 + sees Cee eee 35
Figure 14, Historic era pictograph of a Spaniard... ... wee es 36
‘Figure 15. Pecos River style pictograph of a shaman .. 1... es 40
Figure 16. Pecos River style pictographs from Black Cave... .... 4.
Figure 17, The panther from Panther Cave... ee ee ee ees wee 42
Figure 18, Red Linear figures from Fate Bell Shelter, 2... ee eee 43
Figure 19, Red Monochrome style pictographs ......-.+-+ wee 44
Figure 20, Historic era pictograph . . 2. ee et 45
Figure 21. Two miscellaneous pictograph styles .. 2... 2 ee eee 46
Figure 22. Miniature cradleboard ©... eee ee ee et es 2. 4
Figure 23, Red Linear pictograph of a shaman. 2... ee ee ee 49
Figure 24. Medicine bundle from 41WV171 . 6. ee ee ee ee es 50


34

The cattle, however, proved to be too great a temptation; theft of
some stock precipitated what may be the first known battle between
Apache and Spaniard. At this point, Castano's caravan passes out of
Texas and into New Mexican history.

The apparent depopulation of the area immediately north of the
Rio Grande can be easily explained if the natives had experienced the
effects of contact with the Spanish slavers or if Castano was, in
fact, capturing them for shipment to Nueva Leon. In the latter case,
no records would be kept as evidence. The sight and sound of a wagon
train the size of Castano's would serve as ample warning to fade away
into the refuges offered by the rugged terrain. The term
“despoblado", which means unpopulated, given to the arid lands of
south, southwest and western Texas, reflects the value the conquerors
placed on mineral resources, arable land, and centralized Indian
populations they could enslave and exploit. Whether the Spanish
really thought the vast-arid lands were unpopulated or the term was @
value judgement indicating the area was unfit for Christian Europeans
is of consequence only in the myth currently circulated that "Pecos
Man" vanished like dust in the air, leaving only a mysterious legacy
of art and artifacts. True, the indigenous people, if already exposed
to the effects of contact with Spanish slavers, would melt away into
hiding at the sight, sound and smell] of such a large wagon train.
Castano's first recorded encounter with Indians north of the Rio
Grande high on the Pecos River near present day Sheffield probably
reflects more the range of Indian experience with the white man than
any population distribution. Castano seems to have recorded contact
with the buffalo hunters and the dog-travois users because these
unusual traits excited the Spaniards curiosity. It is also probable
that the Apache expansion into the Lower Pecos after the great Pueblo
uprisings in the late 1600s forced out the remnants of the earlier
residents who had survived disease and death. By this time smallpox,
measles and other contagious disease had afflicted the native
populations who had no natural immunity to these imported illnesses.
Whether they became stragglers in lower Rio Grande missions or
refugees in northern Mexico, the fate of these people is unknown. If,
however, the history of other Indian nations can be extended to this
area, the three hundred years between contact and total eradication
were centuries of displacement by other native cultures, retreat,
bloodshed and disease. No chroniclers traveled with the native
peoples and few white men ever penetrated this rugged refuge of the
Jater Apache and Comanche. However, scattered pictographs, metal
arrowpoints, gun flints, and an occasional recorded massacre tell the
tale of people finally defeated by the steady encroachment of the
Anglo-American, the bearer of civilization whose iron horse was the
railroad. :

Only one historic Indian encampment has been reported in the
Lower Pecos. The noted recorder of the rock art, Forrest Kirkland,
published an account of a rock shelter near Pandale where glass beads,
glass, metal bells, scrap metal, scissors, and brass buttons were
found. A local resident could identify the buttons as from soldiers
stationed nearby in 1879 following a request to Fort Clark for help in


Figure 10. Painted pebbles, smooth river worn pebbles averaging from 2 to 5 in. in tength
usually painted in black, bear geometric designs and reproductions of human attributes.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This overview, intended for the general public, could not have been
written without the unsung labors of many professional archeologists who
worked in the Lower Pecos for five decades. Those names are too numerous
to list, but Dr. David S. Dibble must be singled out for his contribution
to this manuscript. His experience in the region, his singular talents
at interpretation and his patient reading of several drafts are reflected
in this final report. Illustrations were selected from previous publications
by A. T. Jackson, Michael B. Collins, Jeremiah F. Epstein and David S.
Dibble. Others were taken from the photographic collections of the Texas
Archeological Research Laboratory, the Texas Memorial Museum and private
holdings. The nineteenth century historic Comanche camp was acquired
from the National Archives. Maps and charts were drafted by Abby Treece.
Artifact drawings were produced by Linda Harris Brown in 1973 for Dibble's
Arenosa Shelter report. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department gave permission
to reproduce photographs taken during the 1980 inventory of Seminole Canyon
State Historical Park. Figure 22, Miscellaneous pictograph styles, was
drafted from stereophotographs by Dennett, Muessy and Associates, Ltd., as
part of this same project, Herbert H. Eling produced the plates from some-
times old and deteriorated negatives. Draft versions of various chapters
were read by Drs. Dee Ann Story, T.N, Campbell and David S. Dibble.

J.J. Hoffman and Jack Rudy of the National Park Service were ever
helpful, Finally, this manuscript could not have been produced without the
support of Dr, G.J. Fonken, Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Research,
and his staff.

iv


47

The diversity and distribution of food resources called for a
nomadic life, moving from place to place as dictated by the
availability of food, water and other resources. Sedentism, or living
jn permanent settlements, is usually prompted by a surplus food supply
which can be stored for use throughout the year. Although some
hunting and gathering groups are granted such a surplus by an abundant
nature, all current information indicates the Lower Pecos people were
nomadic throughout prehistory.

As another form of human adaptation, the structure of society can
be inferred from the conditions imposed by a hunting-gathering lifeway
in an arid environment. The population must remain sparse and thinly
distributed in order to exploit resources without seriously depleting
them. Thus, the basic social unit would be the extended family, a
small, highly mobile group drawn together by ties of kinship. The
familial relationships served to further the unity of the group,
increasing cooperation through familiarity and affection. Other
members may have been attracted by the success of some individual or
simple compatability. Group composition was fluid, permitting any
friction to be resolved by removing to. another band. Practicing a
nomadic life, these small groups could make seasonal rounds,
harvesting plant foods as they ripened or moving when local supplies
were diminished. In anthropological terms, the social structure of
the Lower Pecos remained at the band level of organization.

During times of relative plenty, for example, when the desert
fruits such as prickly pear ripened, the dispersed families
congregated for communal harvests and celebrations. The need for
exogamy, the rule of marrying outside the group, could be satisfied at
these meetings. A forum for exchange of information was provided and
political ties were formed or cemented. It seems probable that much
of the most elaborate rock art was painted as part of rituals enacted
during these periods of aggregation.

Marriages contracted between members of different groups served a
most useful function by providing ties with a larger segment of the
population. The more links an individual could forge the more options
would be available during times of stress. Thus, marriage was a
political alliance with implications beyond that of the individuals
concerned. However, the union was probably highly informal by modern
standards.

By necessity, some form of population control - sexual abstinence
or infanticide - would augment the high infant mortality rate to keep
the nuclear family small, within the limits imposed by the food supply
and the need for mobility. Life expectancy was short and children
probably made a rapid transition to adulthood, learning to perform
their mature roles at an early age. Miniature weapons and domestic
utensils found in shelter deposits would serve the dual purpose of
amusement and education.


Wea ee Bs 3 ,

Figure 12. Life size and lifelike human figures and realistic animals are the primary
characteristics of the Red Monochrome style pictographs. The deer with outstretched
tongue in this panel at 41VV78 has a cross hatched body, perhaps a convention
borrowed from Plains Indian groups.

Plains where their function as burial cairns has long been known.

Among the upland sites attributable to this time period are
several locations with the structural remains of a different type of
housing. Stone circles, popularly called tipi or wickiup rings, made
of six. to eight paired blocks, probably held supple pole frameworks
for grass or hide covered huts much like those used by the historic
Comanche. Some of these structural remnants are found adjacent to
burned rock middens and bear a mixture of Archaic and Late Prehistoric
stone tools. On the later ring sites, artifacts such as small,
triangular arrow points, steeply bitted end scrapers, and a few
fragments of plain bone-tempered pottery are more characteristic of
sites on the fringes of the Southern Plains than any earlier Lower
Pecos tool kits. Similar ceramics are informally called Abilene
Brown, indicative of their common occurrence in that area. A few
sherds in the collection from the Lipan Apache mission of San Lorenzo
de la Cruz indicate the late date of this pottery type. Examples in
the Lower Pecos come from the Devils Mouth, Javelina Bluff, Infierno
Camp, 41¥V241, 41VV365 and 41VV424. These stone circle sites and
their characteristic artifact assemblage are probably of very late or
proto-historic age and could very well represent early Apache
occupation of the Lower Pecos. Alternatively, Spanish documents refer
to the practice of several tribes along the Rio Grande gathering at
the mouth of the Pecos for winter bison hunting. These upland camps
would be aptly suited for such a temporary occupation.


39

The Pictographs of the Lower Pecos Region

The Lower Pecos River region is famous for its prehistoric and
historic aboriginal rock art. Pictographs, the painted art, are found
throughout the region in rock shelters and on canyon walls, wherever
suitable surfaces for painting are found. The pigments used are
usually powdered minerals, such as hematite, limonite, and manganese
dioxide, mixed with a liquid binder and applied with brushes made of
plant fibers, fingers, or as crayons of pressed mineral powder.
Occasionally, charcoal jis used. The binder has not been identified,
but experiments have shown that animal fats work well.

Studies carried out as part of the Amistad salvage project
defined four major categories of pictographs. The three prehistoric
types represent three different periods in time, and reflect three
widely varied world-views. The fourth category, historic pictographs,
includes all panels which show contact with the European; domestic
livestock, guns and Christian symbols are favored topics.

Through the study of overpainting and stylistic changes within
the major types, a relative sequence of pictographs has been derived.
The oldest art, the Pecos River Style, has been considered as
religious or magical art. The central figures are large, faceless,
costumed humans, called shamans because they give the distinct
impression that they are religious practicioners. The figures are
armed with a set of objects, such as fending sticks, atlatls (spear
throwers) and prickly pear pouches, all found in the dry shelter
deposits. These articles date the style to the general Archaic
Period.

Smaller figures include other humans, animals, or strange

geometric forms. The positioning of many of these groups suggests
dominance of the central character over his enemies or the game
animals. The one animal in these scenes which exudes power akin to

that of the shaman is the "panther" or mountain lion, still living in
the region today. Deer are a favored topic, as are snakes, fish,
turtles, and an occasional bird.

The massive amount of overpainting at some sites, such as Panther
Cave and Rattlesnake Canyon,; suggests recurring ceremonial events
perhaps carried out during times when the scattered populace came
together for harvest celebrations. Ethnohistorically, | such
aggregations took place when desert fruits, such as prickly pear,
ripened. Congregating for social events such as this gave smal]
groups the opportunity to exchange information and goods, make
political alliances, and marry outside their immediate family. What
motivated the painting of these enigmatic figures and how art served a
function in their society can only be inferred from living groups.
Often wall. painting is part of rituals conducted for events such as

“puberty celebrations or initiation into select societies. The
mystical nature of Pecos River style art has given rise to speculation
that it originated as an expression of hallucinogenic visions, induced
by eating mescal beans, a known practice in historic times. The skill

ipergsn


25

while the underlying social mechanisms are poorly understood. About
4000 B.C., the cultural sphere of the Lower Pecos appears to contract.
No longer are the characteristic projectile point styles shared with
adjacent cultural areas. The distinctive Pandale point, a beveled
dart point with a highly recognizable twisted blade, is considered as
the horizon marker for the Middle Archaic. The very names given to
the most popular dart points of this time period - Langtry and Val
Verde - indicate the core of their distribution. Although a few
specimens are found in other areas of the state, the widespread shared
styles of the earlier and later periods stand in marked contrast to
the localized distribution of the Middle Archaic.

One avenue of research now being followed by prehistorians is the
scattered and tentative evidence for widespread erosion during the
early Middle Archaic. Both the Devils Mouth and Arenosa Shelter show
marked discontinuities in strata bearing projectile points of this
age. Radiocarbon dates from Black Cave, a major Pecos River style
pictograph site, show that a lengthy Early Archaic occupation was
almost completely washed away sometime in the Middle Archaic. This
suggestion of widespread drought which reduced vegetal cover,
accelerated the runoff of what moisture there was, and prompted
massive . flooding should be detectable in pollen studies and analyses
of subsistence debris of this period.

Based solely on relative dating of art styles, it is possible
that the Pecos River pictographs originated in the Middle Archaic. At
present, none of the Lower Pecos art can be securely dated by methods
other than stylistic comparisons and similarity of objects shown in
the panels to those recovered from datable cultural deposits. Clay
figurines make their appearance in Middle Archaic times but this may
be purely a function of preservation.

The Late Archaic Period, ca. 1000 B.C. to A.D. 600

The beginning of the Late Archaic Period coincides with a brief
interval of wetter, cooler climate which in turn promoted an increase
in grassland vegetation. This environmental change is most clearly
shown in the archeological record by the reuse of Bonfire Shelter,
after a period of about 7500 years, for mass bison kills. Once again,
herds of bison were stampeded over the cliff above, probably on
several different occasions. Their carcasses fell and were butchered,
portions dragged into the shelter, stripped of meat, and the bones
broken and discarded. The remains of an estimated 800 animals form a
massive bone layer 3 feet thick. The rotting meat scraps, bone and
grease apparently ignited spontaneously, much as oily rags left in a
pile may, reducing much of the deposit to brittle fragments and ash,
and obscuring any possibility of detecting layers which might reflect
different hunting episodes. Radiocarbon dates were derived from this

* burned bone and charcoal taken from two small hearths, remnants of
fires lit during the butchering process. The most reliable assays,
those run on charcoal samples, average 2645 years ago.


subsistence. In 1980, the University of Texas at Austin inventoried
and assessed the archeological and historical resources in the newly
formed Seminole Canyon State Historical Park for the Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department. UT-Austin then returned to Bonfire Shelter, the
only Paleoindian kill site known in the region, to excavate the
deepest deposits. In 1984, several skeletons of Early Archaic age and
a cremation were removed from a sinkhole in Seminole Canyon State
Historical Park by UT-Austin for the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department.

These many years of archelogical study have provided a
chronological framework, permitted a reconstruction of the
paleoenvironment, established the technological and subsistence
patterns of prehistory, and defined rock art styles and sequences.
Readers of the following summary chapters will realize that although
Lower Pecos prehistory is still imperfectly known, one fact is
indisputable. Under the pressures of natural decay, increasing
urbanism and exposure to vandals, this cultural heritage is dwindling
at a time when public support for archeological study has little
priority.

Prehistory in the Lower Pecos River Region: An Overview

The long, continuous occupation of the Lower Pecos River Region
has been reconstructed from the information accumulated over 50 years
of formal archeological study. Native American occcupation of the
region began before 8000 B.C. and continued in varying forms until
comparatively late in historic times, the end of the nineteenth
century. A considerable amount is known about the technology and diet
of the prehistoric hunters and gatherers of the Lower Pecos because
the refuse from these activities forms a significant portion of the
rock shelter deposits. Factors that motivated the selection of
certain localities for open air camp sites or a preference for one
rock shelter above another can be inferred from the distribution of
known sites across the landscape. The social rules that made for an
orderly society are only assumable by analogy to known cultures who
functioned at the hunter-gatherer level in similar environments. The
notable rock art for which the region is justly famous affords a view
into the aesthetic or ideological world of the aborigines but the
exact translation of their symbols into our frame of reference is
probably beyond our reach. Although the art conveys considerable
detail about prehistoric lifeways, it is doubtful if modern man can
ever completely understand the supernatural world of the aboriginal
mind.

Other questions about Lower Pecos prehistory are also no longer
answerable. The tribal identity of the aboriginal populations, or
what they called themselves, is unknown. The common name given them

“in the popular press, Pecos Man, is simply a geographical referrant.
Based on similarities in lifeways and material culture, the Lower
Pecos Archaic people are often classed as Coahuiltecans, implying only
that they probably belonged to the same language group as other


48

’ Figure 22. A miniature cradle board and an artist$ reconstruction. This toy, made of
twigs, is only 6 inches long.

Women, in an economy which emphasizes the gathering of plant
foods, would be reponsible for the bulk of the foodstuffs. Girls
would learn to harvest and process plant material for both consumption
and manufacture of clothing and utensils. Traditionally, the men
would have controlled hunting of larger animals and the manufacture of
the more complex stone tools. The production of the finest projectile
points involves labor that goes far beyond that needed to produce an
efficient weapon. Such an expenditure of time and effort to produce
aesthetically pleasing tools must have carried psychological or social
rewards beyond that of sheer utility.

In all human societies, some able members of the group fulfill
the need for leadership although the degree to which power can be
exercised corresponds to the population density and the resources to
be controlled. In an area such as the Lower Pecos, where both people
and basic commodities were sparse and dispersed, a leader would
usually rise to the-top during times when organization was needed for

“a specific task. Examples might be the most able hunter directing a
communal hunt or the bravest warrior leading a raid or defending the
camp. Many Texas tribes had both war and peace leaders on the
principle that the one most qualified to fight may not have been the


Figure 24. Often called a medicine bundle, this basket found in 41VV171 contained
antler tools, mussel and tortoise shell, a ball of pink clay, pieces of hematite (red mineral)
leather thong, sinew, deer hide and, more curiously, 230 mountain laurel beans and 11
left halves of rodent jaws. Mountain laurel or mescal beans are hallucinogenitic in small
doses, fatal in large quantities. Rodent jaws with teeth were used as scarifiers by some
Texas Indians, scratched across the flesh to determine if the mescal had induced a trance.


Figure 5. Examples of some of the projectile point styles used as time-markers in the
Lower Pecos, ordered from latest in upper left to oldest at lower right. a) Perdiz
* b) Toyah c) Scallorn d) Frio ef) Ensor g) Shumla h) Marcos f) Montell j) Arledge