Draft:Cueva Pintada (California)


 * Reply - I have created a Draft:Cueva Pintada (disambiguation) page to handle this. Once this page has been reviewed and accepted it can be used in conjuntion to the Cueva Pintada (disambiguation) information for the article. Greg Henderson (talk 10:17, 10 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Reply #2 - Please see WP:GEOFEAT, "Artificial geographical features that are officially assigned the status of cultural heritage or national heritage, or of any other protected status on a national level and for which verifiable information beyond simple statistics is available, are presumed to be notable." Greg Henderson (talk 17:39 11 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Presumed doesn't mean guaranteed; all article subjects must be shown to meet WP:GNG at a bare minimum. Left guide (talk) 00:50, 12 March 2024 (UTC)


 * - Corrected close paraphrasing from these sources. In addition, Copyvio Detector vilolation is unlikely at 16%. Greg Henderson (talk) 17 June 2024 (UTC)

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Cueva Pintada, locally known as La Cueva Pintada, (in Spanish means "the painted cave"), is a well preserved prehistoric rock shelter covered with white, red, black, and ochre pictographs created by the Salinan people. The site is protected within Fort Hunter Liggett, located 25 mi southwest of King City, California, United States. Cueva Pintada was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 13, 1975.

History


Cueva Pintada is archaeological site CA-MNT-256 southwest of King City, California, in southern Monterey County on the Fort Hunter Liggett reservation. The cave is east of the San Antonio River about five miles north of Mission San Antonio.

Its cave walls have pictographs that originate from a Stone Age civilization that inhabited this region around 10,000 in the past. Some of the pictographs stem from later Indigenous peoples who utilized the cave for religious ceremonies. The cave was preserved by the early Spanish priests at the Mission San Antonio de Padua.

The Cueva Pintada site is Salinan in origin. It corresponds to the "Cave of the Idols," which was presented to the padres at Mission San Antonio de Padua shortly after its establishment and is referenced in Junípero Serra's letter dated May 21, 1773. The Salinan Native American tribe lived along the Salinas River, encompassing present-day Monterey County and San Luis Obispo counties.

According to the California State Military Museum, visits to the site are limited by the United States Army base at Fort Hunter Liggett. The entrance to the cave is at an elevation 3000 ft. The Cueva Pintada site is protected by a chain-link fence and razor wire. The walls are covered with prehistoric white, red, black, and ochre pictographs. The rock overhangs and caves served as a rock shelter, standing approximately 16.5 ft high and 21 ft wide. The cave is at a width of 45 ft, with a depth between 15 ft and 20 ft. The pictographs illustrate animals as well as geometric and linear patterns.

These pictographs appear under and over the soot that darkens the ceiling of the cave. Before the indigenous people converted to Christianity, rituals and ceremonies marked specific events, including the celebration of the winter solstice, and the transition from boyhood to manhood was followed by ritualistic practices. According to legend, after converting to Christianity, the indigenous people informed the Franciscan priests about the cave's location, hoping that they would visit and remove the idols within. The pictographs, along with bedrock mortars created by grinding vegetable material or pigments using stones or pestles, reflect ancient practices. The white pigment may have been originated from limestone deposits or white clay, the black pigment came from soot or charcoal, and the red pigment from cinnabar. The pictographs depict human figures, a turtle, the sun, and other ideographic symbols.

In 1980, Archaeological Consulting, led by Gary S. Breschini and Trudy Haversat, began on a project focused on documenting the pictographs found at the archaeological site CA-MNT-256 at Cueva Pintada, with the support from the State Historic Preservation Office. The archaeological exploration of the site resulted in the creation of over 360 drawings, tracings, and photographs capturing the pictographs. These records are currently housed at the Rock Art Archives at University of California, Los Angeles.

Cueva Pintada was registered on the National Register of Historic Places on February 13, 1975, for King City, Monterey County, California.