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Chumash rock art is a genre of paintings on caves, mountains, cliffs, or other living rock surfaces, created by the Chumash people of Southern California. Pictographs and petroglyphs are common through interior California, the rock painting tradition thrived until the 19th century. Chumash rock art is considered to be some of the most elaborate rock art tradition in the region.

The Chumash are probably best known for the pictographs, which were brightly colored paintings of humans, animals, and abstract circles. EDIT: They were thought to be a part of religious rituals and astronomical events.

Chumash people

Main article: Chumash people

The Chumash lived in the present-day counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo in southern California for 14,000 years. They were a maritime, hunter-gatherer society whose livelihood was based on the sea. They developed excellent skills for catching fish, shellfish, and other marine mammals. Beyond fishing, however, they were also skilled in creating rock art. Hudson and Blackburn define rock art as "an aesthetic, symbolic representation of significant concepts and entities that is painted on or carved into a rock surface." Rock art may have been created by shamans during vision quests, most commonly in the form of pictographs (paintings on rock), but sometimes petroglyphs (engravings on rock) as well. No one is absolutely certain about the meaning of the Chumash Rock art, but scholars generally agree that it is connected with religion and astronomy.

EDIT: Currently, the only federally recognized Chumash tribe are the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians. They have a cultural resource management team who protect and manage artifacts, landscapes and sacred places. According to the List of unrecognized tribes in the United States, there are at least six other Chumash tribes that are unrecognized, but there may be more.

Locations

Chumash rock art is almost invariably found in caves or on cliffs in the mountains, although some small, portable painted rocks have been recorded by Campbell Grant. The rock art sites are always found near streams, springs, or some other source of permanent water. In his research of southern California rock art, Grant recorded numerous sites from different areas that were all close to a water source. He found twelve painted sites in the highest parts of the mountainous Chumash territory, the Ventureño area. The Ventura and Santa Clara Rivers and several coastal streams flow through this area. He also recorded forty-one painted rock art sites in the Cuyama Valley region (north of the Ventureño area), where the Sisquoc River flows between the San Rafael Mountains and the Sierra Madre Mountains. The most easily accessible example is at Painted Cave State Historic Park, which is located in canyons above Santa Barbara.

Painted Rock is a free-standing rock on the Carrizo Plain near the Sierra Madre Mountains at the southern tip of the Great Central Valley. The interior alcove of the horseshoe-shaped rock features pictographs by Chumash, neighboring tribes, and non-Native Americans.

The Burro Flats Painted Cave petroglyphs are located in the Simi Hills in Ventura County. They are on the private land of Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), which has protected them from public harm since 1947. The SSFL is closed and in the initial stage of a significant toxins and radionuclides site investigation and cleanup. Boeing, U.S. DOE, and NASA (current property owners and responsible parties) and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) are responsible to protect Chumash and other historical elements during the extensive SSFL work.

EDIT: The San Emigdio Rock Art Site, is located near the San Emigdio Mountains in Kern County, California. The site consists of four cave shelters all adjacent to a creek. The cave shelters have elaborate and colorful Rock art, all in a typical Chumash style; however, the rock art at the shelters displays more colors and is more complex than at any other Chumash site. Limited work continues to be done at this site due to deterioration.

EDIT: Swordfish cave is on the land now occupied by Vandenberg Space Force Base. It is named after the swordfish petroglyph found in the cave. In the 1990's, it was obvious the art was deteriorating and needed preservation. The conservation efforts revealed new data about the human occupation of the cave. "They identified three periods of human use, including an initial occupation around 3,550 years ago, an occupation about 660 years later, and a final Native American occupation that occurred much later, between A.D. 1787 and 1804."

EDIT: Indian Caves is a site located west of San Marcos Pass near San Jose Creek. The pictographs in the cave were first described by John V Frederick who teamed up with Julian Steward to have drawings of the pictographs published in his book, EDIT: Petroglyphs of California and Adjoining States. The site contains several elaborate examples of zoomorphic style glyphs.

EDIT: The rock art site named "House of the Two Suns" was first described by Dick Smith, a historian and naturalist. The site in on the land now know as Dick Smith Wilderness, where he did a majority of his work. There are several cave shelters located one above the other in a rock outcrop. The pictographs are red and black, possibly representing the sun during the summer and winter solstice.

Interpretations

In the early 20th century, non-Natives began studying California rock art, including a number of archaeologists, such as Julian Steward and Alfred Kroeber. Because of some commonly occurring symbols in paintings, it was believed that at least portions of the rock art depicted themes of fertility, water, and rain; however, the Native California Indians are very reluctant to talk to anyone about the rock art and some deny any knowledge of it altogether. The natives' hesitancy to discuss the art led archaeologists to believe that they had no idea of the origin of the pictographs. Kroeber recorded some of his thoughts on the origins of the rock art in 1925.

"The cave paintings of [Southern California]...represent a particular art, or local style or cult. This can be connected, in all probability, with the technological art of the Chumash. [An] association with...religion is also to be considered, although nothing positive is known in the matter. Many of the pictures may have been made by shamans; and it is quite possible that medicine men were not connected with the making of any."

Kroeber was unsure about what specific associations could be made between the paintings and the artists. Julian Steward researched California rock art as well, and in 1929 he deduced that the only way to understand the meanings of the petroglyphs and pictographs was to compare them with the art and symbolism of the different Indian groups and their respective culture areas. In his book EDIT: Petroglyphs of California and Adjoining States, Steward wrote: "It has frequently been stated that the petroglyphs and pictographs are meaningless figures made in idle moments by some primitive artist. The facts of distribution, however, show that this cannot be true. Since design elements and style are grouped in limited areas, the primitive artist must have made the inscriptions with something in mind. ... He executed, not random drawings, but figures similar to those made in other parts of the same area."

At Painted Cave, a circle enclosing five spokes surrounded by other circles–some spoked, some rayed–is thought to represent the solar eclipse of November 24, 1677. Pinwheel shapes, dots, and concentric circles are believed to be celestial bodies. Figures combining human and animal features represent states of transformation the 'alchuklash experienced. Certain animals, such as rattlesnakes and frogs, are believed to represent spirit helpers.

EDIT: There are several sites with archaeoastronomy interpretations of glyphs. The site at Painted Rock (San Luis Obispo County, California), has an arborglyph that looks like a lizard with what seems to be Polaris, the North Star and the constellation Ursa Major.

EDIT: Condor cave in the San Rafael Mountains near Sisquoc River, has a cave entrance that lines up with the sun at dawn on the winter solstice. Inside the cave are motifs that are described as "a possible solar symbol".