On January 20, 2012, the Guadalajara Reporter was the first newspaper in Mexico to report the discovery of hundreds of curious rock engravings along the shores of a small dam called La Presa de la Luz, located 120 kilometers east of Guadalajara, near the town of Arandas.
Since then, archaeologists Rodrigo Esparza and Francisco Rodríguez have been working diligently to record what has been discovered, to understand what the engravings mean and to encourage local people and public officials to protect the site. Their progress toward these goals has been chronicled in scholarly publications, but now comes a beautiful, 154-page hardback book which, with the help of nearly 200 color photos and diagrams, reveals – in easy-to-understand terms – some of the secrets of this extraordinary site, while simultaneously raising new questions about it.
“The Rock-Engraving Sanctuary of the Jalisco Highlands” (El Santuario Rupestre de Los Altos de Jalisco) is written in Spanish and centers on the 671 petroglyphs so far discovered at this site, but it is also a tribute to the support and enthusiasm of the local people and the many hours of hard work they put into cleaning up the lake and surrounding land.
“We started writing this a year and a half ago,” Esparza told me before the launching of the hardback at La Casa Clavigero on December 1. “Paco kept telling me this place deserved a book, so we started looking for funds, and, in fact, we found ten sponsors. Perhaps the most unusual of them is Tokai University in Japan, which plans to work with us on the archaeological excavations we are about to initiate. We hope this book will make a big impact, to let people know how extraordinary this site is and to give recognition to the people of Jesús María (the nearest town) who helped us every step of the way.”
The petroglyphs were discovered in 2006, the book tells us, when Don Lupe, foreman of a ranch next to the dam, was clearing an area of the shore to make a corral. The tractor scraped away a rather thin layer of topsoil covering the flat, underlying rock and Don Lupe noticed some curious marks on the newly exposed surface. He got a shovel and carefully removed the dirt, revealing not just one ancient engraving, but a whole collection of them, covering an area of some 25 square meters. This spot is now known as “El Planchón Principal,” The Big Slab, and contains some 40 individual designs.
Dominating the rock art on The Big Slab are two pecked crosses, each set in the center of a pair of concentric circles. As their name indicates, all the lines consist of dots (also called cups) drilled or pecked into the rock. These crosses have been found in other parts of western and central Mexico and are principally related to the Teotihuacan culture. The arms of the crosses are oriented toward the four cardinal points and some researchers think they are solar calendars. In the opinion of Esparza and Rodríguez, the engravings on The Big Slab represent the movement of the sun and other stars over the period of a year and mark seasonal changes, such as the solstices and equinoxes. However, they stress that scientific studies still need to be carried out to corroborate this theory.
How old are these engravings? This question, I was told, is still unanswered. “A far more detailed study of the engraving techniques,” say the authors, “should tell us whether all the designs have the same age or whether they were made at different periods by different societies.”
A total of 13 pecked crosses have been found at the Rock Art Sanctuary. One of them was discovered by my friend Andrew Taylor in 2012 when Don Lupe was leading us on a tour around the perimeter of the lake.
“Figuring out what the pecked crosses mean has been a headache for researchers,” say the authors of the new book. Pecked crosses have 260 points which coincide exactly with the number of days in the Mesoamerican calendar, so perhaps they were used for keeping track of time. However, the cross in the center of the circles is usually oriented toward the four directions, so, perhaps they constitute a kind of pre-Hispanic compass, divided into 260 degrees, just as our modern compasses have 360 degrees, roughly the number of days in our own calendar. The designs around (and sometimes within) the pecked crosses might indicate when to carry out practical activities such as hunting, planting and harvesting or the beginning of the rainy and dry seasons. It is even possible that they are records of astronomical events, the alignment of the planets or even the explosion of a supernova.
The spiral is the most common design found in rock art, from Alaska to Patagonia and around 110 have been registered at Presa de la Luz. Much speculation is made on what the spirals represent: lakes, springs, mountains, wind, gods and the very cycle of birth and death, have been suggested. I should note that a simpler explanation is given by archaeologist Joseph Mountjoy, who suggests that each spiral is basically a prayer requesting rain. The same meaning might apply to the many “pocitos” or little pits found all around the area. Mountjoy suggests they may be the simplest way to depict the sun god, making them also a kind of prayer, although some of the larger pocitos have been described as “fixed mortars” for crushing plants and grain.
It is surprising to note that among the 671 designs at Presa de la Luz, only two represent human anatomy. One is a full-length figure of a woman and the other is a foot. A great many of the designs might be described as elaborate and mazelike, with several elements connected by a single, often meandering line. The fact that almost all of them are on relatively flat surfaces suggests to me that – apart from their possibly esoteric meanings – people could have moved a pebble along the single, wandering groove or poured water into it or placed beetles at each end for some competitive purpose, given that these people invented the patolli, or board game and were crazy about playing it.
Unfortunately, the delicate nature of the soft rock at this petroglyph sanctuary means it is not open to the public and may never be. This makes Esparza and Rodríguez’s book all the more valuable to people interested in fathoming the secrets of the ancient inhabitants of Mexico. It can be purchased for 400 pesos by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..