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

Appendix I: Cueva El Salitre

Some rock shelters are mined for fertilizer, so called "salitre." Sediments from one cave, named for such activity, are so valuable that people will walk the nine-hour round-trip walk to procure them. Though no chemical tests were performed, we assume that they are rich in Potassium (and probably a suite of micro-nutrients), derived from the volcanic sediments. Our informants indicated that the white precipitate that formed on the cave walls and in the soils was "salitre." Many small box screens for sifting out the gravel and rock fragments were found stashed in crevices, and discrete work areas around the mining pits were evident. Our informant left with a bag of about 3.5 liters, a significant weight to carry out and up (8 kilometers and 1300 meter elevation change) back to the truck.

Cueva Salitre was visited for more intensive excavations and has a high potential to add to our sample of sites occupied during the Archaic. The single one-by-one meter test unit yielded cultural material to great depth (180 centimeters) and the bedrock was not reached due to time constraints. Money was not available for any dates from this rock shelter. However, in the future it may prove to be an interesting counterpoint to the El Gigante remains as it is located at a much lower elevation and out of easy reach of any arable land.

Cueva Salitre, showed evidence of lengthy pre-historic deposits. This cave was quite unique in-and-of itself. Sondages were not placed in the shelter because the mining pits showed the stratigraphy quite clearly. The profiles exposed in the mine pits showed multiple lenses of charcoal and ash including lithic and botanical remains. These anthropogenic strata were interspersed in coarser sediments, presumably eroding from cave walls and roof, interestingly the base of these deposits revealed a pumicy white tephra, much like the terminal strata in El Gigante.

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