What makes Guanajuato’s rock paintings special?

Early inhabitants of our world found ways to record long-lasting messages on rocks, inside and outside caves, with varying levels of complexity and with a limited palette of colors, their topics varied from daily life scenes such as hunting to sacred events such as fertility ceremonies. While interpretations of the meaning of rock-art may be similar among scholars, it’s essentially impossible to understand in its full extent the message that each pictograph or petroglyph conveys.

Geologist Hobart King Ph.D. from the University of West Virginia defines a petroglyph as: “An image that is carved into a rock. This carving can produce a visible indentation in the rock, or it can simply be the scratching away of a weathered surface to reveal unweathered material of a different color below“1, and a pictograph as: “A drawing or painting that is created on a rock. Because they are merely a surface coating, pictographs tend to be less durable than petroglyphs. The ones that survive are most often found in caves, rock shelters, and areas with dry climates“2.

Arroyo Seco in the northeast of Guanajuato encloses several hundreds of pictographs.

The sites of major importance in Mexico for rock art and cave paintings are the Sierra de San Francisco in Baja California Sur, Sierra de San Carlos in Tamaulipas, Cueva del Oso in Chihuahua, and Cañada de Cisneros in Estado de Mexico. In Guanajuato, petroglyphs have been found in the southwest (Cerro Barajas, and the archeological site of Plazuelas), while archeologists have registered more than 3000 pictographs scattered across 56 sites in the semi-arid region of the Sierra Gorda of Guanajuato, in the northeast.

La Zorra complex at Arroyo Seco Archeological Site.

Arroyo Seco is an archeological site of rock paintings located in Guanajuato, in the municipality of Victoria, it opened to the public on March 2018 and encloses 46 pictographic sets containing several hundreds of graphic motifs. These paintings were made by a group of hunter-gatherers known as Chichimecas*, and in later stages by the Otomi. According to researchers this paintings can be a reflection of rituals (initiation, related to animal, plant and human fertility, hunting propitiation, etc.), or have functioned as markers (territorial, astronomical, historical events or cartographic) among other possibilities.

There are 2 small hills at the site, the one on the northwest is known as La Tortuga (The Turtle), and the one on the Southeast named La Zorra (The Fox), at the moment this article is being written, only the latter is open to visitors. The pictographic sets of La Tortuga are distributed on the east face of the hill as if looking towards the sunrise and in an opposite way, the paintings of La Zorra on the west and north side of the hill facing the sunset. A tributary of the Victoria River divides the site in two, and due to low rain precipitations it’s a dry creek most of the year, hence the river’s name Arroyo Seco: Dry Creek.

The recently opened archeological site of Arroyo Seco located in Victoria, northeast Guanajuato.

In my opinion, the site is remarkable not only because of the ancient paintings but for its natural allure, the trails along the La Zorra complex allow gorgeous vistas of the mountains, valleys, and striking rock formations that surround the location, lush Pirules (pepper trees), Agaves, and a mixed array of cacti adorn the intermontane landscape.

A view of the northern valley from the top of the La Zorra Complex.

Arroyo Seco is a bit less than 2 hours away from San Miguel de Allende, and the best driving route is northeast across Los Rodriguez, Doctor Mora, and Victoria, once you pass the town of Victoria, you’ll find the site few minutes ahead on the left side of the road, the visitor’s center has a good-size parking lot, clean bathrooms, and a small manicured museum with information in Spanish only, the fee per person is $39 pesos, and there are Spanish-speaking guides who will gladly take you around the site for a modest fee. Make sure you bring a hat, sun screen, sturdy walking shoes, and a walking stick for additional balance, you’ll be walking on cobblestone trails and up and downhill, don’t forget your camera and if you shoot with a DSLR or a Mirrorless type, make sure to bring a telephoto lens so you can do close ups to the paintings.

If you decide to visit Arroyo Seco keep in mind that Travelian offers unbeatable nature and culture excursions to this archeological site, remember that our highly personalized small-group adventures are available as private tours for you, your family, or group of friends, feel free to call us at 888-505-7211 or +52 (1) 415.100.2798 or send us an email to reservations@travelian.com.mx to inquire.

During Summer 2018 only: If you book a tour to Arroyo Seco during June and July 2018, we’ll provide you with a complimentary guided tour of the Colossal Biznaga Garden in Tierra Blanca on the same day and at no additional cost.  Click here to contact us and book today!

Footnotes:

1. What is a Petroglyph? – https://geology.com/articles/petroglyphs.shtml
2. What is a Pictograph? – https://geology.com/articles/petroglyphs.shtml

* Chichimecas* – The groups of people who traveled these lands were known as “Chichimecas”; they did not necessarily share the same origin, language or cultural practices. Chroniclers and religious who treated the nomads and semi-nomads of the region, mentioned that they were men and women dressed in animal skins whose bodies were decorated with different colors and scarifications as a group badge; they inhabited mountains, caves or lived in the open air changing their residence continuously and were skilled in handling the bow and arrow. One of its main characteristics was mobility, both in terms of the location of the group and the number of people who made it up according to the resources available in the season of the year; the subsistence rested on the collection of plant species and prey obtained through hunting. Towards Century XVI the Sierra Gorda and the semi-desert of Guanajuato was occupied by different nations of collectors-hunters Pames, Guamares, Copuces, Guaxabanes, and Guachichiles; these last ones would cover great extensions in their seasonal displacements until reaching the north of San Luis Potosí and south of Coahuila.
The nomads and semi-nomads of the northeast of Guanajuato were organized in bands of different sizes, strengthened by kinship relations and a territory linked to a system of beliefs and relations of reciprocity with the environment. A common feature of these ancestral societies was the practice of rock art in caves, fronts or rock shelters, the product of transcendental events for individuals and the community.