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FAMSI © 2004: Tricia Gabany-Guerrero |
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Cliff Paintings of Parangaricutiro, Michoacán, México
Research Year: 2002 Abstract Central-West México, perhaps best known for the Late Postclassic Tarascans, has long been an anomaly in Mesoamerica. This region has frequently been omitted from classification within Mesoamerican patterns of material culture (Chadwick, 1971). Still a region of intense volcanic activity and sparsely documented biodiversity, the temperate rainforests in the highlands of Michoacán have harbored few archaeological studies in the more than 75,000 km2 once under the territorial control of the Late Postclassic Tarascans. Studies of this region have concentrated on the border with the Aztecs to the east (Pollard, 1993), the Teuchitlán complex to the northwest (Weigand, 1996), the ancient center of Zacapu (Carot, 1996) and the core Lake Pátzcuaro basin (Pollard, 1993). With the majority of studies focused on Maya (Miller, 1997; Stone, 1995) and Aztec civilizations (Smith, 2001), there is an unmistakable gap in information regarding the Tarascan civilization and its predecessors in scholarly work on Mesoamerica. This study provides documentation for iconographic and material remains for a site in the highland region of Michoacán and has the potential to provide evidence for long-term shared cultural and material systems with Mesoamerica. Although several early colonial codices exist from the Tarascan region, PreColumbian codices and Mesoamerican iconography in paintings are unknown. This research project focused on a highland cliff painting site in the foothills of the Tancítaro volcanic range, near the volcano Parícutin (eruption, 1943). An interdisciplinary team of researchers studied a series of layered cliff paintings and accompanying artifacts located in a caldera in this highland volcanic region. Located at approximately 2500 m asl., the paintings found on eight of the inner cliffs of the caldera present examples of Mesoamerican iconography. Mesoamerican motifs (including personages and deities) predominate on the principal panel. In addition, archaic motifs (hunters/dancers and animals) are distributed throughout the cliff walls. Lithics, a small number of ceramics, and human and animal remains, were excavated from test pits beneath the cliff paintings. The discovery of a burial in a test pit below one of the cliff paintings suggests that this site was of ritual importance. The stratigraphy of the site indicates two principal periods of ritual use: (1) a deer antler tool, on a cliff shelf buried beside paintings demonstrating Classic Period iconography, was dated to the Classic Period (calibrated BP 1610 to 1530); and (2) three bone collagen samples from long bones of human remains returned Late Archaic Period dates (calibrated BP 4520-4290, 4510-4480, and 4440-4260). Dating of human remains from this site would place it as the oldest known burial from Central-West México, predating El Opeño burials by approximately one thousand years (Noguera, 1931; Oliveros, 1975). Arnauld, Metcalfe, Petrequin (1992) have discussed climatic changes resulting in drier climates for the Late Holocene in lowlands of Zacapu, Michoacán. Their results coincide with studies documenting similar conditions during the same period in the Central Basin of México (Buckler, Pearsall, Holtsford, 1997). The results to-date from the Alberca research project suggest a hypothesis that high-altitude environments in Michoacán, such as calderas rich in aquatic resources, could have served as critical habitats for humans and wildlife during the Late Archaic, when dry environmental conditions persisted in the Western Hemisphere. Thus, the sparse data for the Late Archaic in Central-West México may be due to the lack of research in appropriate ecological zones. Click to download the report in PDF format: Cliff Paintings of Parangaricutiro, Michoacán, México (2.10 MB) The PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Submitted 10/09/2003 by: |
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