Are Origins of La Rumorosa style Rock Art in Western Arizona? Patayan or Yuman Rock Art? Pimas painting Kumeyaay like Rock Art?

 

Where and when did the La Rumorosa style evolve remains one of the great regional rock art mysteries.  Since the style was in existence prehistorically there is no direct evidence to answer these questions.  If we can obtain more extensive radioactive dating data we may be able to trace earlier style efforts.

The photographs below are from Western Arizona.  While there are fewer pictograph sites in Southwest Arizona than in Southern and Baja California, those that have been discovered have a strong similarity to the La Rumorosa style.  Is it possible that some faction of the Kumeyaay were in the area?  Could this mean that ancestors to the Kumeyaay [Patayan/Yuman culture] painted them?  If that is not the case, why would another group adapt the La Rumorosa style of painting?

Historical information from various firsthand accounts of the Spanish, beginning as early as 1605, relate that this area was occupied by Piman speaking people [specifically, the Hia C-ed O'odham] and not by Patayan/Yuman [ Kumeyaay] speaking groups.  While this Piman group resembles the Yumans in their customs, it remains a puzzle if they in fact adopted a Kumeyaay, Southern California rock art style.  For further information and discussion, please see the text “Fragile Patterns: the Archaeology of the Western Papagueria” [2008].

I have seen only three of these panels firsthand and they do contain aspects very similar to Kumeyaay art found in San Diego and Imperial Counties.  These aspects include digitate anthropomorphs, sunbursts, and curvilinear abstract designs.  I hope this enigma can be clarified with future research.  Click on photographs to enlarge

Copyright Don Liponi 2014.  All 3 photos have been restored using Photoshop CS 5 and D Stretch [appreciation to Jon Harmon!].