Cueva Espantosa | |
  Frightful Cave location in Mexico | |
| Location | Sierra Madre Oriental,Coahuila |
|---|---|
| Region | Mexico |
| Coordinates | 27°26′13″N101°42′21″W / 27.43694°N 101.70583°W /27.43694; -101.70583 |
| History | |
| Associated with | hunter-gatherer groups |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1950s and 1960s |
| Archaeologists | Walter W. Taylor |
Frightful Cave (Spanish:Cueva Espantosa) is apre-Columbian archaeological site located in the state ofCoahuila in northernMexico. It was occupied on several occasions during the Archaic period by what seem to be nomadichunter-gatherer groups and is an important source of archaeological evidence concerning the ancient desert tradition of the Central Mexican highlands.[1]
Located in theSierra Madre Oriental in the NorthernArid Zone ofMexico, Frightful Cave is surrounded by desert. The area is “largely too arid and rainfall is too undependable for cultivation,"[2] although edible plants can befound and the mountain ranges are covered in pine and oak forest.[3] Many groups seem to have lived in theCoahuila region despite thisarid climate, but they did not practiceagriculture. The earlydesert culture started here in theArchaic period has been identified as one of the roots of laterMesoamerican cultures, and lasted through to the 19th century amongIndigenous peoples of the Great Basin (such as thePaiute and theShoshone) and among some native peoples of the Mexican Northern Arid Zone (such as theSeri).[4]
The archaeologistWalter W. Taylor excavated many sites in NorthernMexico and the SouthernUnited States, focusing onCoahuila in the 1950s and 1960s.[5]Radio-carbon dating places the Frightful Cave artifacts between approximately 7,500 yearsBCE and 185CE.[6]
All items were found within threestrata,[14] with certain items unique to each. For example, whilesandals were found in each level, the hair was found only in the earlieststratum.[12] Prepared floors were discovered in the earliest two levels of thecave, which were created by “bringing in earth that was then consolidated by water and probably tamped.”[7] Although thin, they served the function of smoothing thecave floor. Fireplaces seem to have been distributed at random.[15] Although they were found in many other caves in the area,Taylor reports that there were noarrow parts found in Frightful Cave, “whose occupation was probably too early.”[10]
Inside Frightful Cave, comparisons of the differentstrata allowed for temporal analysis of thecave’s inhabitants, while comparisons to othercaves in the area allowed for spatial analysis. Spatially, it has been found that there was likelycultural exchange between variousnomadic groups both within theCoahuila complex and across nearby regions.[16]
Chronological trends have also been observed, indicating the repeated occupation byculturally similar groups with evolvingcultural practices.[16] In particular, changes in the use of the space within thecave suggest a changing way of life.Taylor notes that while the bottom twostrata had tamped floors, relatively low levels of bat guano and displayed “a strong tendency to deposit sandals in the farthest recesses of the cave,” in the later stratum no floor had been prepared, there was relatively more batguano, andsandals were deposited in the center of thecave.[17] These trends are thought to indicate groups’ changing duration of stay, from “more or less constant in the lower levels” to “increasingly intermittent in the upper levels,” since it appears that less effort was put in to keep a clean living space.[17] Changes of this nature would make sense if groups no longer spent such long periods in thecave. This development has been linked to a knownincrease in aridity in the region[17] which may have resulted in a new distribution offood sources.The argument for changingmigration based on new patterns of subsistence is a strong one, as groups in thedesert tradition are widely believed to have beennomads who would have settled in various areas as local wild foodstuffs became available. Shafer has theorized that Frightful Cave may have been part of a seasonal round made by thesehunter-gatherer groups, which, along with othercaves in the area, would have been inhabited fromspring through earlysummer, “when foods such as flowers, bulbs, fruits and plums were available.”[18] Similarly,Taylor posits water accessibility to be the determining factor of such groups’migratory patterns,[17] meaning shifts thereof may also be accounted for by increasing aridity. Changes in the style and construction of theradiocarbon-datedsandals also suggest a certain cultural discontinuity in the later occupation of Frightful Cave.[19]
There is almost no evidence concerning thereligious orartistic cultural lives of Frightful Cave’s inhabitants, with the exception being the human hair found deposited at the back of thecave in the firststratum.[12] The hairs appear to have “been cut at regular intervals of about one month” based on their cut ends and lengths.[12]Archival evidence suggests this may have been amourning practice, but the purpose of suchritual handling of hair has not been concretely determined.[12]