El Gigante Rock Shelter: Archaic Mesoamerica and Transitions to Settled Life

Ethnographic Observations

In the course of surveying for archaeological sites, we were unexpectedly shown several caves that were currently in use, or had only very recently been abandoned. There are several patterns observed in the modern use of caves and rock shelters that are worth noting as they may contribute to the interpretation of the archaeological remains at El Gigante.

Rock shelters are not commonly inhabited these days, however, several very recently abandoned shelters were encountered as well as one that served as a permanent residence. We visited the home of Dona Francesca who allowed us to take photos of her entire residence. The result is a photographic inventory of her material repertoire. This inventory includes built architecture (bajareque walls, barro hornos and bancales, and set wooden posts which divided the space within the cave) many tools (both agricultural and domestic, hoes, machetes, axes) utilitarian ceramics, and a substantial domestic shrine (built of pine boughs, covered with candles and copal, and hung with miniature pots, sea shells, light bulbs, red ribbon, images of Catholic saints, etc.).

This modern pattern of rock shelter use has led us to question the use of rock shelters in the Formative. Caves are known to have been used as ritual loci or as temporary camps after the advent of agriculture and village life (Flannery, 1986). We have documented that it is possible for small family groups to inhabit shelters on a permanent basis, subsisting by farming and gathering in the local region away from permanently settled villages. Also, we have observed that the two spheres of activity, the sacred and the mundane, are not mutually exclusive, and can coexist in the same space at the same time.

Another elementary and commonly observed contemporary use of rock shelters is for storage. Appropriately dry and accessible rock shelters are used to store lumber, and corn for example. Storage figures prominently in theories for the rise of agriculture (Smith, 1995; Testart, 1982) and is a significant component of domestic strategies conditioning changes in the subsistence economy through time.

The common physiographic location of most rock shelters, perched on a valley slope with deeper talus soils below makes them unique spots on the landscape. These soils may have been some of the only arable land available in this highly dissected terrain with few broad vegas or valley bottoms. The talus below shelters, with deeper soils than most exposed and eroding slopes of the highlands is often cultivated (e.g. sites #09, #32, #20). This makes some rock shelters perfect "out-field" camp sites, convenient temporary or permanent shelter for tending crops.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page