The Mirror of the Sun: Surface, Mineral Applications, and Interface in California Rock Art

Abstract

Along the Vandenberg coastal plain of California, Beehive Shelter overlooks the western shores of the Pacific Ocean (
Figure 5.1 colour section). In areas where survival is possible, faint black geometric lines and amorphous splodges of red pigment can be seen smeared on the surface of the shelter wall. In comparison to the vibrant and visually compelling polychrome pictographs typifying rock-art produced by the coastal indigenous peoples known as the Chumash, the pigment at Beehive Shelter hardly merits attention. There are no anthropomorphic or zoomorphic creatures to be seen, no series of deftly applied dotted or fine lined applications, nor any of the elaborate discs that typify Chumash rock-art (Grant 1965). At nearby Rattlesnake Shelter, similar splodges of non-representational swaths of red pigment also defy conventional categorisation (Figure 5.2 colour section). These red smears cannot comfortably be interpreted as representational images of animals, plants, tools, or entoptic phenomena. The marks seem to stand in the simplest of terms for what they are – red pigment on rock.