Rock Art of the Lower Pecos

by Carolyn E. Boyd

(College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2003. Acknowledgements, illustrations, appendix, bibliography, index. ISBN 1-58544-259-3. $45.00, cloth)

Carolyn E. Boyd's book is a path-breaking analysis of the rock art found on prehistoric archeological sites in caves and rock shelters along the lower Pecos River in West Texas. In it she discusses how the study of the meaning of rock art found in this desert setting permits new understanding of "hunter-gatherer belief systems and lifeways of the lower Pecos Archaic" (p. 4). Specifically, her broader goals are to make clear how rock art was a means of social and environmental adaptation for communities of hunter-gatherers, and to explain how the creation of the rock art itself served in an active way to strengthen or challenge existing social, economic, and religious identities. She succeeds admirably on both counts.

After discussing the environmental and cultural setting of the Lower Pecos region in chapter 2, and noting how the first appearance of rock art (in this case a polychrome pictographic or painted style called Pecos River style) in Archaic times is associated with population increases while the region became drier, she analyses Pecos River-style rock art panels from five rock art sites. From these analyses, Boyd identifies three distinct and recurring motifs in the rock art, and ties their meanings together by arguing that rock art was a creative adaptive response by the Lower Pecos Archaic peoples to the conditions of the time.

The first distinctive rock art motif has a crenellated arch opening, skeletonized anthropomorphic figures above, behind, or below the arch, and there are animals or animal attributes associated with the anthropomorphic figures. Taken together, the motif appears to be imagery associated with shamans, altered states of mind, and their journeys to the otherworld. The other two motifs on the rock art panels are representations of peyote and datura, both psychotropic plants that were used by shamans "as a sacrament, medicine, and bridge to the supernatural realm" (p. 67). The pictographic elements of the peyote motif include impaled deer and impaled dots associated with antlered anthropomorphic figures; the antler tines on these figures also have black dot decorations; the sacred relationship for Archaic groups on the Lower Pecos between deer and peyote seems to hinge on the belief that rain brought deer, rain brought peyote, and rain increased the number of deer, wild plant foods, and peyote; sacrificing deer or peyote would bring rain to the people and the river. The rock art motif associated with datura is an anthropomorphic figure that held staff-like objects with enlarged and spiny ends. The enlarged and spiny ends of the staff-like objects are identified by Boyd as the seed pods of datura plants. Since datura grows throughout the Lower Pecos region, it has been identified in archeological deposits in caves and rock shelters. It is known to be one of the more important medicinal and hallucinogenic plants used by Native Americans. Boyd makes the compelling argument that the datura motif represents the use of the plant by shamans for its medical and hallucinogenic properties (i.e., altered states).

Finally, Rock Art of the Lower Pecos contains a number of black-and-white drawings and photographs of rock art, and a series of excellent color renderings of rock art from several rock art sites, including Rattlesnake Canyon (41VV180), White Shaman (41VV124), Panther Cave (41VV83), Mystic Shelter (41VV612), and Cedar Springs (41VV696). These illustrations beautifully enhance the book. For those readers and students interested in the art of ancient societies—in whatever form, be it rock art, statuary, mosaics, paintings, or ceramics found on archeological sites or in museums—and the meaning of that art to prehistoric and modern peoples, Carolyn Boyd's book is well worth the read.

Timothy K. Perttula, Austin, Texas

Rock Art of the Lower Pecos is now available from The Shumla School. To puchase a copy, call 432-292-4848 or E-mail info@shumla.org. Payment can be made with any major credit card or by check. Cost of the book is $45.00 plus $5.00 shipping and $3.04 sales tax for a total of $53.04. A portion of the price of each book goes into the endowment fund for The Shumla School.