Heritage, Volume 3, Number 4, Spring 1986 Page: 31
34 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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climate that we find in the area today
differs from the cool and moist climate
of 20,000 years ago. Over thousands
of years the climate became
progressively drier and by 8,000 years
ago the diet of the Lower Pecos
people reflected the aridity of the
landscape. For the most part they
subsisted on vegetable plants and
small mammals- especially mice,
rats, and ground squirrels. The
prickly pear cactus was the "potato"
of the diet. It, along with two other
plants, sotol and agave, occur year
round. In addition, seasonal foods
included seeds, nuts, fruits and
berries. This added up on a daily
average to a nutritious diet-low in
fat, simple sugars and salt.
Additional fieldwork funded by the
Witte includes pictograph pigment
dating as a means of determining the
age of the various rock art styles.
Found mainly in the shelters around
the mouth of the Pecos River, the
paintings extend west to Meyers
Springs in Terrell County, north to
Giddis Canyon in Terrell County,
east to Edwards County, and south
into Mexico. While the exact age of
the pictographs remains a mystery,
we know the earliest and most common
style, called the Pecos River
Style, dates to the Archaic Periodwhich
makes them later than about
7000 B.C. and earlier than A.D.
900. Large human-like forms, some
up to 15' tall and painted in shades
of red, black, yellow, orange, and
white, dominate the panels. Paintings
of deer, mountain lions, abstract
symbols and serpentine lines often
appear with them. The atlatl (Spearthrower),
the main weapon used during
the Archaic Period, occurs over
and over again in association with
the human-like images. Later groups
used the bow and arrow. Although
occupation of some of the shelters
began as early as 9,000 years ago, the
paintings may not date back that far.
No one knows the true significance
of the rock art. Some shelters
have paintings, others do not. Overpaintings
appear on many of the
walls. Latest thought indicates the
actual paintings of the rock art composed
part of a ritual and the place of
the rock art reflected a spiritual potency.
We will never know the exact
meanings of the paintings but we
do know that for the Lower Pecos
people they formed a means of communication
with living and spiritual
beings.
Other planned and initiated projects
include computerized ideogram studies
of the rock art, medical and dental
analyses of the skeletal remains,and comparative insights from studies
of recent hunter-gatherers. The
seum will continue its role as compiler
and research data storage for
scholars and laymen interested in
Lower Pecos prehistory.All of the aforementioned research
has finally culminated into a major
exhibition that opens in the Fall of
1986 at the Witte Museum. The exhibit
exlores the lifeways of the ancient
people of southwest Texas.
Various techniques will aid in examining
the many aspects of "everyday
life." A diorama showing a campsite
will demonstrate food processing and
domestic structures. We know that
hunter-gatherers enjoy a fair amount
of leisure time. The diorama will emphasize
this by depicting not the
static representation of "man the
hunter, woman the seed-grinder,"
but rather by having the figures engaged
in storytelling, playing, and
other activities. The exhibit includes
artifacts of stone, bone, shell, wood
and fiber. The quality of preservation
of wooden and fiber artifacts is unsurpassed.
Some sandals exceed 4,000
years in age yet remain incredibly
well preserved. Stone tools, such as
dart points and knives remain in
their original shafts of several thousand
years. The display will compare
the tools and products of everyday
life with that of other areas of the
prehistoric United States. In addition,
comparative notes with modem
hunter-gatherers of Africa and Australia
will provide a means of comparison
for better understanding cultural/artifactual
interpretations.
Much of reconstructing past events
through artifacts comes from archaeological
context. Enhancing the exhibit
will be narrated films of excavations
at certain sites reviewing the
different ways of interpreting artifactual information. Parts of the exhibit
include the procedures for recovering
materials, laboratory processing, and
interpretation of the data. For example,
certain tooth wear or loss may
have forced individuals, who could
no longer chew, to gulp some foods.
As a result, coprolite (dried human
feces) studies often reveal complete
bones of small animals or large fragments
of pecan or walnut shells. The
preservation of attached skin and
hair on a few individual remains provide
additional material to study for
evidence of health and disease. It is
the unbelievable preservation of material
from the dry rockshelters that
permit a wide and more complete interpretation
of the lives of these
people.
One large gallery will feature photographs
of the painted walls in the
Lower Pecos taken over the last 30
years by San Antonio's Jim Zintgraff.
Through his camera lens we can
examine in great detail these wondrous
paintings. Professor Emmanuel
Anati, one the world's foremost authorities
on rock art commented:"These are monumental paintingsa
landmark in world art history. They
are full of meaning and information
about the people who once lived
there."
Unfortunately, vandalism, looting
and some natural erosion have damaged
many of the Lower Pecos rockshelters
and rock art. Painted shelters
such as Parida and Fate Bell look like
bombs hit them. Looting activity destroys
stratigraphy of a site as well as
the context of any artifact. Without
careful excavation and recording we
loose much, if not all, interpretive
information.
The first modem humans, Homo sapiens,
evolved about 35,000 years
ago. We, as well as the Lower Pecos
people, are descended from these
early modem humans and as such are
part of the legacy we see today. The
rock art and the cultural deposits of
the Lower Pecos sites make up all
that remains of the people who lived
there for thousands of years. It is our
good fortune to see such a colorful
and rich past still preserved. It is our
responsibility and right to insist on
the documentation and preservation
of the legacy left to us. When we see
the painted figures, the sandals, or
the stone tools, we should remember
that these artifacts were used by
people related to us-all recognized
as Homo sapiens. If we loose this part
of the past, of our past, we surely
loose part of ourselves.
Roberta McGregor is the Assistant
Curator of Anthropology and Fred
Valdez, Jr. is the Associate Curator
of Anthropology, both at the Witte
Museum, San Antonio.REMEMBERING THE ALAMO
By William Elton Green
On Sunday morning, March 6, 1936
a Mexican army of perhaps 2,400
men under President/General Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna Perez de
Lebron overcame a group of nearly
200 Texas insurgents who had taken
refuge in the Alamo. The final siege
took place on the thirteenth day after
Santa Anna demanded an unconditional
surrender of the Alamo garrison
but received instead a single
cannon shot from rebel commander
William Barret Travis.Six weeks later at San Jacinto near
present-day Houston, a ragged army
of Texas volunteers under Sam Houston
shouting "Remember the Alamo!"
descended on Santa Anna's fatigued
troops during their afternoon
siesta. The enraged Texans successfully
routed the bewildered Mexicans
in less than half an hour, winning for
the new Republic of Texas an uneasy
peace that lasted nearly a decade.
News of the Alamo's fall from the
standpoint of the Texans spread allHERITAGE SPRING 86
31
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 3, Number 4, Spring 1986, periodical, March 1, 1986; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45441/m1/31/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.