The Rock Paintings of the Chumash: A Study of a California Indian Culture

In the remote regions of the Los Padres National Forest, thousand year old art galleries hide in sandstone caves and overhangs. The rock art ranges from simple geometric designs--lines, circles, cross-hatching-- to elaborate, sometimes bizzare anthropomorphic creatures. Archaeologists think shamans created the paintings for ceremonial purposes, to represent supernatural beings or forces. Many of the paintings clearly represent animals and events that the Chumash encountered in their everyday lives. We find pictures of snakes, bear tracks, birds, frogs, insects and geometric shapes that are thought to represent rain, and astronomic events. And some of the pictures clearly come from deep within the minds of the painters. Paint pigments came mostly from minerals. Red was made from an iron oxide called hematite, or red ochre. White came from gypsum or diatomaceous earth. Black was made from charcoal or from manganese oxide. These ground-up pigments were mixed with a binder -- water, animal fat, or plant juices -- to make them into paint, which was applied to the rock with the fingers or with brushes made from animal tails. Chalk-like lines made with dry lumps of pigment can also be seen at some sites. Most of the rock art is found in the mountainous interior regions of the Chumash territory. The majority of sites are found in wind-blown caves and overhangs in sandstone formations. The paintings range from simple geometric symbols (e.g. circles, lines, cross-hatching), to complex and often bizarre anthropomorphic figures. There is much speculation regarding the purpose and meaning of the paintings, but one theory is that they are semi-abstract representations of supernatural beings painted by the shamans. The predominant color used in the paintings is red, but black, white, yellow and blue were also used.