Cabrillo Students Discover Rock Art
By Bob Franks, Freelance Writer
It was a hot June afternoon in 1995. The afternoon sun lit up the back of the rock overhang and revealed red lines of ochre forming a figure of a man holding something with outstretched arm, perhaps a small child.
The Cabrillo students had not expected to find such art during their summer training in Archaeological Survey. They had traveled in the heat of summer to the Los Padres National forest to look for other signs of past lives such as shell and stone fragments; the remains of old fire hearths; and for bedrock mortars where ancient peoples had ground their acorns and other foods. The students were part of cooperative agreement, between Cabrillo College and the U.S. Forest Service, to survey a small part of the Forest. This was the second of what would be six such surveys over several years.
The students had first noticed the rock overhang in the morning and recognized that it could have been used as a shelter. As they approached, they began to notice the soil was of a different color, often a sign of ancient fires and remains of foods processing, and then began to see stone tools and shell fragments. Under the overhanging rocks, students found cup shaped holes in the rock, bedrock mortars that had been used in grinding seeds or acorns. The wall above them was deep in shadow, and there was no expectation of finding rock art. The students took careful notes, and then continued on their way to complete the survey.
Later in the afternoon, the students returned to formally record the site accompanied by Forest Archaeologist Andrea Maliarik and their instructor, Rob Edwards. As the afternoon sun moved across the sky, the interior of the shelter was suddenly illuminated. "What about the drawings?" Andrea called out. "What drawings?" Edwards replied. And everyone gathered into the shelter to stare at the newly revealed figures.
The students were astonished to see this ancient art in a part of the forest so isolated and restricted that only a few hunters have been there. "It was fantastic," said student Jeanne Goetz."The students were floating on air for the rest of the class," said Edwards. "so was I." It was the first rock art discovery in his 30-year career. The pictures were simple stick figures made with red ochre in a style highly unusual for the area. There are some caves with much more complex drawings in the area, but nothing like this. A nice surprise was to see that the site was undisturbed with no graffiti, no bullet holes, and no shotgun shells. The meaning of the drawing is uncertain. Edwards hypothesized that, "The site could have been a healing place where a shaman or doctor used to live and the drawings have some curing significance. We really can’t know the precise intent of the artist," he added, "but the power of the image is very clear."
As with most rock art, the elements of wind, rain, heat, and cold are slowly destroying the drawings. Already the pictures are flaking off and the main figure is missing an arm. Careful recording and preservation of the art will be a priority of the Forest Service. That the students found it will mean that a record of its existence will be part of our collective understanding of the Salinians who inhabited this wild area many years ago.
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