Tipai/Kumeyaay Pictographs in a Rock Shelter located on the Eastern Slopes of the Sierra Juarez Mountains, Baja California.

Fortunately for modern day explorers and archaic inhabitants, both hot and cold springs find their way to the surface on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Juarez.  The 3500 foot plateau drops into the Laguna Salada area as seen in the first photograph below.  Archaeologists on both sides of the border have initiated the formal examination of the pictographs and petroglyphs in this area relatively recently.  Publications about the area began appearing in the 1960s.



A few of the hundreds of cluttered black pictographs can be seen on the ceiling of the rock shelter whose main entrance seen here opens to the north.

Only a handful of clearly discernible areas of the very congested areas of painting.  Jon Harman iterated at least 3 separate "styles" in this shelter:  a painted on black, a charcoal network of fine lines, and an older and faded red pigment painting style.  All of the work responds to subtle enhancement by D Stretch and it is easy to over saturate the complicated mural turning it into massive, amorphous areas of black and red.

Again, one of the few edge areas that is not repeatedly repainted, allowing the viewer to see some of the interesting and separate elements.   This figure is about 5" tall.

 

Another edge area that appears to show a figure riding an animal?

One other rather spartan area of the panel demonstrating a variety of black elements over some red, structured geometrics and at least one realistic shape resembling a sun or star?

A close-up of a delicately painted geometric that was resurrected by D Stretch.  By selectively emphasizing the red and eliminating black pigment areas, this well executed element has it's beauty restored.

This 2 x 3 foot area that spalled at some time in the past created a nearly white or ivory colored canvas that has been repeatedly painted in black.  By inverting the colors and tweeking the color curves, a few very faded elements are pulled out of a largely unformed black morass.

Another spalled area that may contain a Spanish cross with triangle tips and base.

A view from deep in the back of the shelter.  By emphasizing narrow sections of the spectrum and eliminating others, some structure is pulled out from the vast black areas that have little to identify to the naked eye.  Above the boulders are a few prayer sticks and then the south opening of the shelter.

The same ceiling section in the above photograph brought out through a different treatment with Photoshop, Camera Raw and D Stretch.

Photos are copyright by Don Liponi 2014.
See you on the trail.  Click to enlarge.