Sunday, February 15, 2015

Mockingbird Cave


There is painted beauty hidden deep in the heart of Riverside County. I had to go see this for myself because I don't normally associate Riverside with the word "beauty".

This site is located in a spring fed gulch amid a moat of fancy horse properties. Scrubby oak trees and tall stands of  cat tails frame the tepid stream from the spring. A scattering of granitic boulders and several larger formations dot the slopes on each side of the spring. One such formation is a collection of ground level boulders crowned by two large capstones, and beneath these are two very colorful panels of polychrome art.

Large circles or shields accompany a number of crosshatch designs. Several elements here appear (at least to me) to have a celestial connotation. The work is bright and colorful, rendered in red, white, and a blue/black.

On the opposite side of the creek is a flat granite slab with four bedrock mortars. This slab, just feet from the spring, has been described as a "birthing rock. A short pillar beside the the slab has two faded red pictographs of diamond chains on golden water streaks.  A short distance away is an additional BRM.

I was impressed with this site. The colors remain bright and crisp. Obviously any site with a consistent water source would have been an invaluable commodity in this desert region, and the depth and development of the BRMs speak it's prolonged use.








4 comments:

  1. I thought you were done posting on this subject.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous,
      I was very clear in that writing that I will no longer post Chumash art and that would continue to post rock art from other, more widely known non-Chumash sites. -DS

      Delete
  2. What happened to the fence and locked gate? Is the gang graffiti back on the exterior rocks?

    Signed, Not the original Anonymous - NTOA

    ReplyDelete