Sacred Places and Rock Art Sites in the Sonoran Desert:

Defining Common Patterns

Julio Amador Bech

First of all, I pose the question: How can researchers

know a place is sacred? The answer can only be found in the

religious tradition in which the place factors. Then, a

second issue arises: When that tradition has disappeared,

leaving no written record, how can researchers resolve what

was once sacred? In order to formulate a reliable hypothesis

about the factors that determine the sacredness of cultural

landscapes within the Trincheras tradition of the Sonoran

Desert, I point toward four analytical domains: landscape

archaeology, cultural astronomy, the analysis of rock art

iconography, and ethnohistoric and ethnographic documents.

In order to inhabit the world, human beings need to

transform landscapes and create a structured cosmos.

Symbolically speaking, the natural environment becomes

meaningful when it is humanized. Sacred places are created by

a complex articulation of natural and cultural factors. Their

degree of sacredness depends on how significant certain

features of the landscape are for each specific community. If

this is so, then researchers must know how landscape is

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conceived within the framework of each cultural worldview

under investigation.

When considering landscapes from an anthropological

perspective, the relation between the human body and space is

implicit. “Embodied space is the location where human

experience and consciousness take on material and spatial

form” (Low and Lawrence-Zúñiga 2003:2). For Low and Lawrence-

Zúñiga, embodied space is “a model for understanding the

creation of place through spatial orientation, movement, and

language” (2003:2).

Curiously, landscape is a concept introduced into the

English language in the late sixteenth century as a technical

term used by painters (Hirsch 2003:2). From an

anthropological perspective, landscape has been approached,

traditionally, from two principal angles. First, it has been

described from a supposedly “objective” perception--landscape

as it is seen by the Western cultural eye of the researcher,

a scenario that serves as a context for their study and

portrayal of the cultural life of a certain social group.

From a second angle, researchers sometimes work to uncover

and explain the ways in which certain communities conceive

landscape and how it factors into their cosmovision (Hirsch

2003).

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 Recently, space has become an essential component of

sociocultural theory and, for some anthropologists, “the

notion that all behavior is located in and constructed of

space has taken on a new meaning” (Low and Lawrence-Zúñiga

2003:1). In order to comprehend what a sacred landscape is or

means, researchers should not see landscape as a purely

visual field where people display their activities, and not

merely as a fixed cultural construction, created by people

who inhabit a specific place. Landscape is better understood

as a complex cultural process (Hirsch 2003:5).

Anthropologists should entertain different cultural ways of

este concepto es esencial

experiencing landscape. For hunter-gatherers, their

environment is not something external or alien to them, it is

not only a place to display their action, but mainly, a

living being, just as humans are; culture and nature do not

exist, in their worldview, as separate concepts (Ingold

2000).

<a>Sacred Dimensions of Landscapes<a>

For my aims in this chapter, I call attention to the

basic qualities of the landscape that I consider most

relevant to the issue of sacredness. My position is

generalizing, and, to a certain point, inspired by

constructivism (Berger and Luckmann 1966), perspectivism

(Brightman, et. al. 2012; Viveiros de Castro 1998) and

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phenomenological anthropology (Geertz 1973, 1983; Ingold

2000), yet grounded in ethnographies and archaeology of non-

Western and pre-industrial societies. First are the “natural”

dimensions of landscapes to which humans often attribute

sacredness. These include those things and beings that permit

and promote human existence--water sources, abundances of

flora and fauna, and the presence of natural materials that

enable humans to build dwelling places and artifacts. They

also include the geomorphological properties of landscape

that have a strong impact on the senses. A place which has a

visual presence of especially prominent qualities, due to its

particular form, color, size, light and material

constitution, is more prone to be considered sacred. Other

tangible phenomena, conditioned by geomorphology, such as

sound, are also notably significant. Several specialists have

highlighted that many sacred places have exceptional acoustic

properties, like echo and the possibility of projecting voice

and music across long distances. The ceremonial spaces of

Mesoamerica like Chalcatzingo, Monte Albán, Chichen Itza,

Teotihuacán, and all the ceremonial plazas with sunken patios

throughout Guanajuato and Zacatecas (Aboites and Wilson 2013;

see also Scarre and Lawson 2006), to mention just a few,

possess this special attribute.

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 Relevant here is the effect those geomorphological

characteristics have on the subjective perception of the

place, the kind of emotional and spiritual stimulus that

landscape provokes on people; the power of the place, as

ritual specialists perceive it. People of knowledge decide

what places are to be considered sacred or to be ritually

consecrated. This is something confirmed by certain

traditional narratives, such as that of the Nahua migration

(Boturini Codex; Durán 2005 [1581]; Garibay 1979 [1965];

Johansson 1999, 2007; Navarrete 2011).

Setha Low also emphasizes the importance of the

relationship established between traditional narratives and

landscapes. She refers to Keith Basso’s (1996) work, among

the Western Apache, in order to illustrate how they use

narratives tied to the land to acquire wisdom. Elders’

knowledge is enacted by visiting places and recounting the

traditional stories tied to them. “By thinking of narratives

set in place and the ancestors who originated them, Apaches

inhabit their landscape and are inhabited by it in an

enduring reciprocal relation” (Lowe 2017:29). In a similar

fashion, Robert Layton (2003) demonstrates how deeply

mythical narratives are embedded in the Australian landscape.

The person’s identity depends completely upon the place each

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one was born, and the mythical narrative associated with that

place within the landscape.

Some places can be considered sacred in accordance with

mythical narratives. For instance, in many origin accounts,

specific features of the landscape are setting where gods or

other mythical beings accomplished essential deeds, such as

the creation of humans, the invention of bow and arrow, or

the learning of agriculture. The Nahua account of the

foundation of Tenochtitlan is a prime case in point. They

built the first temple in the exact place where they found

the symbols that their god Huitzilopochtli had told the

leading priests they should look. It became the most sacred

place (Boturini Codex; Durán 2005; Garibay 1979; Johansson

2007; Navarrete 2011).

Those places considered especially sacred become the

scenario for ritual performances, in accordance with mythical

narratives. In numerous cases, specific characteristics of

landscapes become ideal for rituals, like the mountaintops

that unite heaven and earth or the seashore, due to the

sacredness attributed to the ocean.

Many sacred places are directly associated with

astronomic observations. Certain landscape features can

facilitate the observation of the heavenly bodies that are

significant to each culture. Landscapes and skyscapes are

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ritually and cosmologically aligned in this way. They can be

considered two interrelated and complementary aspects of the

same cosmos. Aveni relates that the separation of earth and

sky in Western cosmology did not occur until the Medieval

Period, when maps of the world took on decidedly religious

connotations. “Prior to that time, the bond between heaven

and earth was enforced by the knowledge and practice that one

needed to observe the stars in order to produce a faithful

map of the environment” (Aveni 2008:254).

In the case of the Trincheras tradition, rock art

production is also a meaningful attribute that confirms the

sacredness of places, due to its mythical and ritual

symbolism. In that respect, Aaron Wright has underscored that

“Hohokam rock art, as both symbol and practice, was an active

ritualized medium in the negotiation of religious knowledge”.

He further asserts that “How such knowledge was acquired,

distributed, and controlled reveals relationships of power--a

power sanctified by other-than-human entities--that steered

the historical trajectory of the Hohokam” (Wright 2014:1).

There were strong cultural ties between the Hohokam and

the Trincheras traditions, and I hypothesize there was

similar correspondence between rock art and religion within

Trincheras communities. As Lindauer and Zaslow (1994) have

documented, some of the geometrical motifs of the Trincheras

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petroglyphs at La Proveedora, Sonora, Mexico are almost

identical to those on decorated Hohokam pottery of the

Colonial (AD 750-950) and Sedentary (AD 950-1150) periods.

The rectilinear scroll, a motif carved all over La Proveedora

and Cerro San José to the northeast, common on decorated

pottery and textiles of the “Preclassic to Classic

transition” (Wright 2014: Figure 3.4, 53-54). Washburn and

Crowe (1988:12-13) have demonstrated that the use of shared

geometric design patterns implies similar culture-based

learning frameworks. For the Hohokam-Trincheras connection,

this would indicate shared cultural concepts.

Rock art sites are not homogeneous; they have a complex

structure that depends on diverse factors. Mainly, the

spatial and thematic distribution of petroglyphs and

pictographs may derive from: a) the cultural functions

ascribed to each area of the site, and b) understanding of

the specific symbolism of the motifs depicted in the rock art

panels (Figure 5.1). <Figure 5.1 near here> At Trincheras

rock art sites I have argued that rock art operated as

mnemonic devices of mythical narratives, aided in the

performance of magic and other collective and personal

rituals, facilitated astronomic observations, and demarcated

territories (Amador 2017).

<a>Settlement Patterns of the Trincheras Tradition<a>

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 The Trincheras tradition of northwestern Sonoran dates

to AD 200-1450 and is thus largely coeval with the Hohokam

tradition of southern Arizona. Trincheras archaeological

sites occur on the volcanic hills scattered throughout the

plains of the Sonoran Desert between the Sierra Madre

Occidental and the Gulf of California. They are located in

the basins of the Magdalena, Altar, and Asunción/Concepción

Rivers. Careful observation of satellite photography, in

conjunction with the distribution of archaeological sites,

shows that the river valleys were the most inhabited sectors

of this desert region. They offered natural corridors that

connected the multitude of settlement and the sacred places

of pilgrimage (Russell 1908; Underhill 1948) into a unified

cultural landscape.

The volcanic hills proximate to the fluvial basins were

especially auspicious for the establishment and development

of dwelling places. These landforms assured enough water for

human consumption, for the growth of wild vegetable

resources, for animal life, and for agriculture. The

rainwater that ran downhill was preserved in the terraces,

built for that purpose, and in the flood plains, where they

had seasonal crops, mainly during the summer. Cerro San José

is just next to the Asunción River. Another aspect

particularly favorable for settlement was the easy access to

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basic raw materials to produce lithic artifacts, which are

characterized by an expedient technology (Braniff 1992;

McGuire and Villalpando 1993, 2007; Villalobos 2003). What is

important, from my perspective, is to show the cultural

uniqueness that human action adopted in these places to

modify the landscape.

Terraces, paths, ramps, and rock art abound on the

slopes of these residential volcanic hills. The terraces

provided level surfaces conducive for habitation,

horticulture, and the construction of shell artifact

workshops (Figure 5.2). <Figure 5.2 near here> On the hills’

summits, wall structures were built that may have been used

as observatories. As they had views to the surrounding plains

and nearby hills, they might have served for surveillance and

for long-distance communication (e.g., Swanson 2003). Most

probably, they were considered sacred places, dedicated to

the performance of rituals and possibly the observation of

calendrically significant interactions between horizon

features and celestial bodies (Figure 5.3). <Figure 5.3 near

here>

Bedrock mortars and petroglyphs proliferate along hills’

lower reaches. On the surrounding plains there are plazas,

alignments of big rocks, remains of pit houses, roasting pits

for processing agave, remains of lithic tools, shell

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artifacts, and potsherds, especially of the decorated types,

diagnostic of the Trincheras complex: purple-on-brown,

purple-on-red, polychrome and plain. All of the qualities I

just described are demonstrative of a regional cultural

pattern (Amador 2017; Amador and Medina 2012; Braniff 1992;

McGuire and Villalpando 1993, 2007). The quantity and quality

of rock art, readily present at the Trincheras hill-sites,

especially in places like La Proveedora (Figure 5.1) where

approximately 6,000 petroglyphs crowd within a 15.5 square-

kilometer area, confirm that rock art production was a very

important activity for this cultural tradition (Medina and

Amador 2012; Villalobos 2003).

<a>Building a Sacred Landscape<a>

Cerro de Trincheras was the most important Trincheras

settlement within northwestern Sonora (Figure 5.2). McGuire

and Villalpando have rendered a thorough description of the

site, characterized for its monumentality, covering 100 ha

and rising 156 m above the surrounding flat desert floor. Its

main features are the 902 terraces, located primarily on the

north slope of the hill. Two structures, with a probable

ritual function, stand out from the rest of the architecture

of the site: La Cancha (the court), a 75 by 15 m rectangle

with rounded corners, near the base of the hill’s north face,

and The Plaza del Caracol (snail shell), a dry-laid cobbles

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structure, with walls that form a 13 by 8 m spiral that looks

like a snail shell cut in half (McGuire and Villalpando

2007:141). The sacred symbolism of these structures will be

explained further on.

Trincheras settlements follow a prescribed cultural

design, adapted in a particular way to each specific place.

The structure of the sites was planned to be functional, in

terms of economic and domestic activities, which required an

efficient organization of cultural resources and devices. At

the same time, religious prescriptions stipulated a

symbolically significant form and distribution of ritual

structures, public spaces, and rock art. Complementary and

juxtaposed, this forms a harmonic whole--functional in

practical terms while symbolically significant in religious

terms (Amador and Medina 2012). There is a clear relationship

between an ordinary, workday life and an ideal, imagined

existence (Hirsch 2003:3). Both poles of experience--the

quotidian and the sacred--are part of human life and are

closely interrelated (Hirsch 2003:5).

From ethnohistoric and ethnographic documents, as well

as from the analysis of the archaeological data, I infer that

the Trincheras tradition may have been a tribal society based

in kinship and, in political terms, organized at first as

independent small villages and later as chiefdoms that slowly

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grew in size, population, and complexity. This developmental

trajectory unfolded over 12 centuries between AD 200 to 1450

(McGuire and Villalpando 1993, 2007).

In most Native America tribal societies, religiousness

was inseparable from social activities and a radical

disconnection between quotidian activities and religious

beliefs and practices did not exist (Curtis 1908, 1924;

Parsons 1966 [1939]; Underhill 1946). In reference to the

neighboring Hohokam tradition, Mark Elson (2008:50) asserts

that “In tribal societies such as those that lived in the

prehistoric Southwest, ritual was a part of almost all

spheres of life; it was not clearly separated from the

economic, political, and social realms.” In light of this, I

propose that a cultural approach to landscape, with

particular attention to religious symbolism, should be

emphasized from a methodological perspective (Amador 2017;

Arsenault 2004; Criado Boado and Santos Estévez 1998; Hirsch

2003; Ingold 2000; Layton 2003; Whitley 1998, 2011; Whitley

et. al. 2004; Wright 2014).

Regarding the religious beliefs that girded the

construction, distribution, and meaning of the architecture

and the production of rock art, I contend that certain

substantial aspects of Trincheras cosmology are evident in

the basic characteristics of the sites. According to Daniel

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Arsenault, sacred places include topographic elements,

modified by social actors, and in this way symbolic values

are attached to those spaces “in regard to the religious

cosmology of a society” (Arsenault 2004:74).

Sacred places include a complex combination of natural

and cultural factors. Social space is not neutral; human

actions modify it in a way in which it becomes symbolically

significant. Following Arsenault (2004:77), “the cosmology of

a given society influences the process through which a space

is made sacred, in that it leads social actors to perceive

the world they live in and understand it as being linked in

precise ways to the religious universe” (see also Amador

2011, 2017; Broda 2004, 2011; Chippindale and Nash 2004;

Layton 2003; Pauketat 2014; Whitley 1998, 2011; Wright 2014).

Whitley and colleagues (2004:217-219) agree with this

perspective of studying landscape, emphasizing that: 1) being

culturally built, landscape is not only geographically, but

also symbolically constituted; 2) for Native Americans,

landscapes have a numinous character, which means that human

activity on the landscape has the potential to result in a

religious experience and to be charged with symbolic meaning;

3) landscapes reflect cosmogony and structure ritual acts; 4)

fixed features of landscapes serve as landmarks, a

conservative element to preserve traditions; and 5) rock art

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sites are the expression of landscape symbolism and a

particular form of “landscape art”.

In the archaeological record it is apparent that some

landscape elements are associated with specific religious

symbolism. The sacredness of a place may be defined by the

activities and events carried out there, by human

modification of landscape features, and by the particular

material and symbolic properties that characterize it

(Arsenault 2004:79; Wright 2014:39-56). In reference to

certain hunter-gatherer contexts, Ingold (2000:53-54)

concludes that at a phenomenal level, landscape is itself the

congelation of past activities of human predecessors,

fundamentally of ancestral beings, incorporating, in this

way, mythological notions. Landscape is also a topologically

ordered network of places, each marked by some physical

feature, and the paths connecting them. It provides

inhabitants with an identity, personal and social, because

social life occurs in rather than on the landscape (Ingold

2000). Becker and Altschul (2008:419-445) have studied the

intricate networks of the ancient trails of the Sonoran

Desert and disclosed the complexity of their functions and

the important symbolic and ritual elements and practices

associated to them.

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 Nelson (2007) conditions his interpretation of what

occurred culturally at cerros de trincheras with the

especially useful concept of placecrafting. It allows for an

understanding of how humans modified natural spaces so as to

imbue them with complex symbolic meanings. “Placecrafting was

not a predetermined process but a succession of deliberate

acts with changing purposes, a practice of constructing and

reworking monuments over long periods” (Nelson 2007:234).

Hypothesizing about what could have been the origin and

development of placecrafting at Trincheras sites, he contends

that the socially constructed hilltop began as a sacred

natural spot on a ritual circuit, embedded with cosmological

connotations, the ideal place for ritual. Over time and with

no determined outcome, ritual specialists became associated

with the place as its significance changed. To enhance the

effectiveness of ceremonies and maintain memory of the

associated messages, they saw to the crafting of individual,

small scale monuments (Nelson 2007:234).

That perspective elucidates the importance of ritual

architecture and rock art at the Trincheras hill sites. They

constituted monuments, or “structures meant to mark the

significance of places to the living by pointing to people or

events of enduring importance” (Nelson 2007:230). The meaning

of monuments resided in their orienting properties and the

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extension of social memory beyond the human life span; they

were built of highly durable materials and designed to call

attention to particular places (Nelson 2007:230; see also

Osborne 2014). Monuments “are dynamic interlocutors of human

affairs that articulate numerous relationships . . .

Monuments inspire, motivate, and actively engage people,

places and things, if not also the moving cosmos . . .

monuments enable people to look beyond this world, and

sometimes possess transdimensional properties” (Pauketat

2014:432). Monuments serve to make people feel that they are

part of something bigger and greater than themselves--

something transcendental. This is especially true for those

involved in the construction and re-construction of

monuments, social acts that promoted strong feeling of

collective identity (Geertz 1983).

At the Trincheras hills, astronomical observations and

the orientation of structures must have been linked to an

existing cosmology and to the process of its re-elaboration.

The great majority of the terraces built on the slopes of

Cerro de Trincheras are oriented to the North, and El

Caracol, a structure on the hill, has an east-west

orientation. The hill itself is oriented on north-south and

east-west axes, which is another indicator of the sacredness

of the place, and one of the reasons people chose to live in

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this specific place. They designed this sacred place as a

microcosm of the cosmos. This is supported by Farmer and

colleagues’ discussion on general propensity to organize

natural, socio-political, and cosmological data in highly

ordered arrays of systems of correspondence. They are called

“correlative structures”, and show up worldwide in pre-modern

magical, astrological and divinational systems. Villages,

cities, temples and court complexes are related with complex

conceptions referred to mythology--including, numerological

systems that correspond to hierarchical and temporal

cosmologies. All similar phenomena are related to each other.

Reality is conceived as having multiple “levels”, each

mirroring all others in some fashion (Farmer et al. 2002:49).

Is this true for the Trincheras scenario? Here I look to

ethnography to demonstrate that the O’odham, whose historic

territory overlaps that of the earlier Hohokam and Trincheras

traditions, maintained a relationship between cosmology,

village design, and numerical and color symbolisms. From the

O’odham creation myths (cosmogony), a well-defined O’odham

cosmology (structure of the universe) is evident (Amador

2011; Bahr et. al. 1994, 2001; Lloyd 1911; Saxton and Saxton

1973). The O’odham adhere to a vertically aligned tripartite

division of Heaven, Earth, and Underworld. They further

divide the Earth horizontally into four regional directions

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and a center. They associate each direction with a color:

east/white, west/black, north/yellow, and south/blue (Lloyd

1911:8).

From a religious point of view, four is the most

important number to the O’odham. It conditions their mytho-

historical narratives and ceremonial activities; every ritual

action, prayer, or song has to be repeated four times in

order to be effective (Bahr et. al. 1994, 2001; Lloyd 1911;

Saxton and Saxton 1973). Moreover, Tohono O’odham oral

tradition contends that since the beginning of time, they

were divided into four dialectal groups: Archi, Kuhatk,

Huhuhra, and Kokolotli. Each group belonged to one of the

four original villages, which, according to their creation

story, were established by the first people to emerge from

the underworld (Underhill 1948:56-59). The relation between

creation myths, the elaboration of a cosmological scheme, and

the construction of dwelling places is well witnessed in this

particular example (Amador 2011, 2017).

About the resemblance of O’odham cosmology to

Mesoamerican mythical traditions, I emphasize that the

vertical cosmological scheme is directly linked to the

horizontal one--the vertical functions as an axis mundi

situated in the center of the horizontal. This specific

cosmological scheme helps explain the structure of Cerro de

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Trincheras as an intentionally designed microcosm of the

cosmos, an axis mundi, and the center of the world. It is

oriented in direct reference to the four cosmic regions. The

ceremonial wall structures on the summit allow observation of

the inter-cardinal directions, defining the positions of the

rising and setting sun during the summer and winter

solstices. The general structure of the site fits perfectly

inside the figure of the Mesoamerican cosmological symbol of

the quincunx, which is also abundant among the rock art

motifs at Trincheras sites (Figure 5.4) (Amador 2017;

Villalpando et al. 2008). <Figure 5.4 near here>

Based on cultural astronomy (Aveni 2008), I see at least

five social practices that occurred at the Trincheras sites

that speak to the sites’ sacredness. Above all is the

orientation of architectural features in relation to the

astronomical observations. For example, according to McGuire

and Villalpando (2007:1581-159; Villalpando 2001:235), the

wall structures with a “V” form on the peak of Cerro de

Trincheras define the position for the observation of the

rising sun on the summer and winter solstices. They suggest

further that the hill’s crest was likely a precinct for

ceremonial and administrative activities and would have only

been accessible to a select few and only at special times

(McGuire and Villalpando 2007:158). Their position

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underscores the ritual significance of the hilltop and the

wall structures raised thereon.

Building from such a foundation, I argue that the entire

hill, not just its apex, was regarded as a sacred ritual

space. In this respect, I agree with Timothy Pauketat when he

asserts that “In the indigenous American past, many found

objects, crafted articles, substances, places, and monuments

might have possessed power or the ability to articulate human

experience with the greater forces of the cosmos” (2014:433).

Moreover, he argues that their monuments (sacred posts, post

circles, shrines, temples, and earthen pyramids) were built

to enable people to engage the cosmic and the numinous

(Pauketat 2014:444).

I also call attention to the wall structure built over

the north hilltop of La Proveedora (Figure 5.3), which has

well-defined north-south and east-west orientations. As

Šprajc (2000:296) has demonstrated, in Mesoamerica, these

north-south and east-west orientations in architecture were

directly associated with specific dates, corresponding to the

positions of the sun in horizon calendars. In the Hohokam

case, during the Colonial period, most ball courts were

oriented east-west, yet later many took on a north-south

orientation (Wright 2014:43).

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 At La Proveedora, the wall structure has the form of an

enlarged and irregular decagon, divided in two parts. From an

aerial view, it looks like a face-to-face, interlocked double

“C”, with entrances facing east and west (Figure 5.3); a

design that is systematically repeated in Trincheras and

Hohokam rock art. Medina (2010) established that the

visibility of the eastern and western horizons from within

the wall structure allows the observation of the changing

positions of sunrises and sunsets throughout the year,

functioning as a solar horizon calendar. Those observations

would have defined the annual cyclical economic activities

and the ritual calendar (Amador 2017). As well, Quiroz (2010)

has disclosed that the peeping holes, strategically

distributed within the wall structure, align with

astronomical phenomena as solstices, the equinox, and the

major lunar standstill (Amador 2017). The form, size,

disposition, and placing of the structure evidences its

ritual, observational, and communicative functions (Figure

5.3).

The significance of astronomical observation is also

demonstrated in Trincheras rock art. Dominique Ballereau

suggests that the representation of astronomical phenomena

such as the sun, moon, and eclipses are carved on the rocky

outcrops on the hillsides of several Trincheras sites

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(Ballereau 1988, 1991). In addition, at various Trincheras

hills I have found petroglyphs representing Venus, in the

form of a cross with a rounded perimeter, similar to those

Thompson (2006) describes for the Southwest. He found that

“Mesoamerican and Southwestern cultures shared a

constellation of traits of graphic depictions of Venus”

(Thompson 2006:177). In Southwestern rock art, the earliest

representations appeared between AD 800 and 1300 and

continued into the historic period (Thompson 2006:172-177).

These dates overlap with the probable period of rock art

production at Trincheras sites. The Venus cult was a pan-

Mesoamerican phenomenon (Coe 1975; Miller and Taube 2007)

and, as rock art at Trincheras sites and elsewhere in the

Southwest evinces, it filtered into peripheral areas as well.

I suggest that practical uses of astronomical

observations included the coordination of the calendar with

the natural cycles of edible plants, life cycles of hunted

prey, seasons of rain and attendant agricultural tasks, and

solar azimuths favorable for orienting residences and

agricultural terraces, which was the case at Cerro de

Trincheras (Amador 2017) (Figure 5.2). All those activities

were tied to and organized by the ritual calendar, which

confirms the strong tie between everyday life and religion in

the Trincheras tradition.

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 Finally, the rock art at numerous Trincheras sites

includes depictions of the quincunx, a symbol representing

the four directions of the universe and the center, which, in

turn, signals the sunrise and sunset positions of summer and

winter solstices with diagonal crossed lines (Figure 5.4).

The quincunx is arguably the best example of a rock art motif

embodying cosmological concepts, from Mesoamerica to the

Southwest (Amador 2017; Amador and Medina 2012). About its

meaning, Anthony Aveni pointed out that on page one of the

Fejérvary Mayer Codex is a cognitive map that unites the most

vital elements of a Central Mexican cosmology. “Its

quadripartite form encompasses a system of classification

that tries to organize and explain in general how time and

space are related, and specifically, where so seemingly

diverse entities as plant and animal forms, deities, the sun,

death, the parts of the human body and the sensation of color

fit into the relationship” (Aveni 2008:253-254; see also

Guevara et. al. 2008; Miller and Taube 2007: 77-78; Séjourné

1957; Šprajc 2000:281).

To support this argument concerning astronomic

observations among Mesoamerican and Southwestern cultural

traditions, I appeal to the ethnology of the first decades of

the twentieth century. As is well known, several

ethnographies describe observations of astronomical phenomena

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among the different O’odham communities of Sonora and

Arizona. Some fixed markings on the hills surrounding their

villages to align with the movement of the sun on solstices

and equinoxes. The O’odham also adhered to a lunar calendar

of 12 or 13 months, observed the cycles of Venus, and

conditioned important moments in their agricultural and

ritual calendar according to the position of the Pleiades in

the night sky (Russell 1908; Underhill 1939, 1946).

Specialized observers within O’odham communities

registered the main astronomical events by carving mnemonic

markings on a “calendar stick” (Russell 1908; Underhill

1939). Some earlier rock art production in the Sonoran Desert

may have been a similar practice of astronomical calendrical

recording and reckoning. In fact, Zeilik noted similar

astronomy-related practices among several Pueblo groups--the

use of horizon calendars, light and shadow interactions with

rock art, lunar observations, keeping of mnemonic “calendar

sticks” by specialists, and rock art depictions of the sun,

moon, and stars (Zeilik 1989:199-230). At the Trincheras hill

of Cerro Calizo is a petroglyph depicting the sun descending

into the underworld after having completed its daily cycle.

In it, the sun reaches the zenith just over the highest

mountain. The relationship between landscape symbolism and a

250
complex cosmovision appears to be evident in this particular

case from the Sonoran Desert.

The observation of astronomical phenomena by

Mesoamerican specialists produced an exact knowledge about

the cycles of the celestial bodies. And this knowledge was

the basis for profound religious beliefs. The invariability

and perfection of the celestial order was regarded as

superior to the earthly and human one, and this promoted the

elaboration of numerous myths explaining the universal order.

This belief that celestial phenomena have a powerful

influence on what occurred on earth gave form to a

cosmovision (Šprajc 2001:274-275).

Within the Trincheras tradition, the mythical symbolism

of hills and elevated places would have played a major role

in cultural life and would have been closely related to the

concepts derived from astronomical observations. In this way,

the Trincheras tradition had a direct relation with

Mesoamerican concepts. According to the Nahua mythical

tradition, the water that falls from the sky in the form of

rain originates in caves inside mountains and hills. This is

why it is common to observe in Nahua art the representation

of hills with a cave inside, from which water flows (Caso

1953:60). In Mesoamerica, the concept of a sacred hill was

replicated by the construction of pyramids, many of which

251
were dedicated to the cult of the rain god (López Austin and

López Luján 2009; Miller and Taube 1993:120-121). In the

Trincheras tradition, terraced hills had nearly equivalent

symbolism and ritual function (Amador 2017; Nelson 2007). A

good example of this is the likeness of Cerro San José, which

has a small cave in in its slope dedicated to the cult of

rain (Medina and Amador 2012), to the Pyramid of the Sun at

Teotihuacan, which also has a cave inside.

Insight afforded by landscape archaeology, ethnohistory,

and ethnography strongly suggests that form, orientation, and

placing of the ceremonial structures were determined by a

body of cosmological symbolism that inspired people to create

the ideal settings for ritual practices. As I have alluded

to, on the top and slopes of Cerro de Trincheras are several

walled structures of probable ritual significance: El

Caracol, La Cancha, and El Caracolito. It is also likely that

other spiral-formed rock structures on the summits of

volcanic hills to the east and northeast of Cerro de

Trincheras, as reported by Fish and Fish (2007), Villalpando

(2001), and Zavala (2006), were used for ritual and

astronomic purposes. Similar structures also exist at La

Proveedora, El Deseo, and Cerrito del Pápago, all Trincheras

sites of the Asunción Basin (Amador 2017). These ritual

structures at Trincheras sites have antecedents in the

252
circular concentric pyramids (yácatas) and circular

concentric structures (guachimontones) of the Tumbas de Tiro

(1300 BC to AD 600) and Teuchitlán (300 BC to AD 400)

traditions of West Mexico, respectively. The relationship to

guachimontones is quite instructive since they had

calendrical significance and controlled access.

<a>Structuring Rain<a>

The spiritual and cyclical essence of water was a common

cosmological thread woven throughout indigenous Mesoamerica,

northwestern Mexico, and the Southwest: the underworld is a

watery realm; water ascends to the sky from the earth and sea

via evaporation; it flows upward as it emerges from natural

springs and fountains; as it is bound to hills, mountains,

and other elevated places where clouds form; water falls to

earth in the form of rain and snow, penetrating it and

descending to the underworld, where the cycle begins once

again. The underworld connects all waterways and unites them

to the sea. In this way, the spirits and deities that inhabit

the hills, the watery underworld, and the sea are all

instrumental in producing rain and abundance (Broda 1991,

2004, 2011; Fresán 2002; Méndez 1999; Parsons 1939:213;

Phillips et al. 2006). According to Schaafsma: “Rain in the

arid Southwest was fundamental to survival in the lives of

maize farmers, and petitions to the supernaturals that

253
controlled it were necessary to assure a successful harvest.

Ideas concerning the origins of rain are similar across much

of the maize-growing world of Mesoamerica and the American

Southwest, cross-cutting ecological boundaries” (Schaafsma

2009:1) All agriculturalists depended on seasonal rainfall.

“Cosmologies that define cultural landscapes and rituals to

ensure adequate precipitation are ideologically related

throughout, although they assume local expression” (Schaafsma

2009:1).

Ruth Benedict eloquently described the fundamental

importance of rain petition rituals among the Zuni: “If they

were asked the purpose of any religious observance, they have

a ready answer. It is for rain. This is a more or less

conventional answer. But it reflects a deep-seated Zuni

attitude” (Benedict 1934:58-59).

In light of the broad pattern of ritual rain making and

solicitation across Mesoamerica, northwest Mexico, and the

Southwest, it is quite likely that the Trincheras hilltop

structures were mainly dedicated to the performance of rain

petitions and fertility ceremonies. The shell-like spiral

configurations of the walled structures on the Trincheras

hilltops, depicted also in petroglyphs in the region, can be

explained by the symbolic importance of the sea in the water

cycle and in the rain petition-fertility rituals (Broda 1991,

254
2009, 2011; López Luján 2009; Schaafsma 2009, 2015). Zavala

(2006:142) reported on 510 shell objects excavated from the

spiral shaped El Caracolito structure on the lower western

slope of Cerro de Trincheras, which I interpret as ritual

offerings.

The importance of sea deities and spiritual beings in

rain petition ceremonies is well documented in ethnographies

of West and Northwest Mexico, especially among the Wixaritari

(Huichols) (Fresán 2002; Zingg 1988) and the O’odham (Russell

1908; Underhill 1948). The O’odham ritual pilgrimages to the

sea, where participants collected seashells and salt as a

means of bringing rain back to their communities (Russell

1908:94; Underhill 1948:8), is a particularly compelling

analogue to the Trincheras scenario. As Lumholtz declared

“The Papagos [Tohono O’odham] worship the sea” (1912:105).

Seashell offerings to Tlaloc, a rain deity, are

extremely important in the Mexica tradition of central

Mexico, as the excavations at Templo Mayor have documented

(Broda 1991, 2004, 2009, 2011; López Lujan 2009). In

Mesoamerica, the seashell was a symbol of water, fertility,

and of the mysteries of the sea and was the source of its

supernatural powers (Suárez 2007). Used as a musical

instrument, shell trumpets accompanied rain petition

ceremonies. It was also one of the most important offerings

255
to the rain gods, a fact that is also confirmed by its

constant presence as an iconographical element in mural

paintings, reliefs, and codex, all of which were artistic

manifestations associated with rain and water (Suárez 2007).

These various lines of evidence lead me to conclude the

shell-like structures atop cerros de trincheras had an

important ritual role associated with water and rain

symbolism. In light of this, the restricted access to the

Plaza del Caracol, enclosed by a wall structure that controls

the entrance to the summit of Cerro de Trincheras, evidence

further that such ritualism and symbolism was likely a

privilege and duty of the elite responsible for procuring

rain and plenty and thus assuring survival of the community.

Here I draw a parallel to the Hohokam tradition of the

Classic period, as Wright describes it, concerning the ritual

and political privileges of an elite in the use of platform

mounds. “Platform mounds, then, were both symbols and tools

for the distancing of certain people, presumably ritual

specialists and/or leading political actors, from the

domestic landscape and average villagers” (Wright 2014:44).

Villalpando’s (2015) recent discovery of a small number

of copper bells with Tlaloc’s effigy at the base of Cerro de

Trincheras is additional evidence of the nexus between cerros

de trincheras and rain-making ritualism. Tlaloc is, of

256
course, a Mesoamerican rain-bringing deity, but portrayals of

it, or closely related deities, are found across western

Mexico and the Southwest. With regard to its depiction in rock

art, Schaafsma (2009:2, 2015) calls attention to a goggle-eyed

figure with some of the attributes of the Mesoamerican Tlaloc,

found at the majority of Mimbres and Jornada Mogollon sites in

southern New Mexico and in adjacent parts of Texas and

Chihuahua, dating between ca.AD 1050 and 1400. Similar

effigies of wood and stone have also been found in caves of

the region. These examples from the Jornada Mogollon region

illustrate the widely shared relationship between rock art

symbolism, the tripartite cosmological scheme, the sacredness

attributed to the hills and elevated places, and rain-making

rituals (Schaafsma 2009).

<b>Rain and Fertility Symbolism in Trincheras Rock Art<b>

In arid environments like the Sonoran Desert, water is

the most precious good, especially for agriculturalists. So,

I surmise a sense and degree of sacredness was attributed to

places where water was relatively abundant. At Trincheras

sites, petroglyphs were carved on the surfaces of large,

darkly patinated boulders on the hillslopes and the adjacent

plains. The great majority of them are directly associated

with the arroyos that flow during the rainy season. As the

runoff flows downhill it creates the sensation that water is

257
flowing from the engraved boulders. This is clearly visible

in the case of the rock art panels situated within the

perimeter of La Plaza at Cerro San José, where much of the

iconography pertains to rain and abundance (Figures 5.1, 5.5,

5.6. and 5.7). <Figure 5.5 near here> <Figure 5.6 near here>

<Figure 5.7 near here> Images of animals associated with rain

and water bodies are present as are representations of deer

hunting (Figure 5.7). As Underhill (1948) demonstrated long

ago, the hunting of deer was a ritual practice throughout the

Greater Southwest that had the utmost importance for the

community wellbeing.

The ceremonial space of La Plaza has the shape of an

ellipse created by the alignment of large petroglyph-adorned

boulders that form a symbolic enclosure. Importantly, La

Plaza functions as a resonance box that amplifies sound

throughout the area. Due to this, it constitutes a space

auspicious for public reunions and rituals and allows speech,

chants, and music to be heard from any position of its

perimeter. This also explains why the immediate plain was

leveled and large petroglyph-adorned boulders moved and

aligned to form the enclosure. The petroglyphs include

depictions of human figures, apparently ritual specialists or

spiritual beings, alongside images of deer. According to the

mythologies of the Uto-Aztecan speakers of western and

258
northwest Mexico and the Southwest, the deer is a symbol of

fertility.

<c>Animal Symbolism in Trincheras Rock Art<c>

Mythic animal symbolism has deep roots in hunter-

gatherer traditions. Animals have been admired for their

physical abilities relative to those of humans. They can fly,

swim, and run faster; some are bigger and stronger; others

are dangerous; their weapons are part of their bodies; and

they are extremely efficient hunters. Certain animals’

physical characteristics and abilities can be easily equated

with supernatural powers. Among the Wixaritari of western

Mexico, for example, eagles can see and hear everything on

surface of the earth because they fly so high above it

(Lumholtz 1912).

In the agricultural societies of Mesoamerica,

northwestern Mexico, and the Southwest, hunting and gathering

continued to be an important contribution to the human diet.

So, animal symbolism remained an essential element of their

myths. Some of them are quite meaningful and show the way in

which they acquired new connotations through time (Seler

2008). Within the rock art of the Trincheras tradition,

animals are the second most prevalent motif, after abstract

and geometric figures. At La Proveedora, the largest rock art

site of the region, animals account for 35 percent of all

259
motifs. I contend that many, if not most of the animals

portrayed in the rock art are metaphorically associated with

rain and fertility.

Animals with obvious connection to water include frogs,

toads, and herons, and petroglyphs of them abound at Cerro de

la Nana and Cerro San José. Until the nineteenth century,

water ran year-round in the Magdalena River (Villalpando and

McGuire 2004: 229, 2009:51). A lagoon formed at the base of

Cerro de Trincheras--a perfect environment for amphibians.

The species of toads (Scaphiopus couchi) and frogs

(Pternohyla fodiens) in the Sonoran Desert have biological

cycles aligned with environmental changes related to the

transition from the dry season to the rainy season. Some 800

meters away from the lagoon are petroglyphic representations

of those animals carved on the rocky outcrops of Cerro de La

Nana. Next to the frog and toad glyphs is one of a centipede,

which also has a biological cycle associated with the rainy

“watery” animals representations and its relation with the seasons
season.

Rivers and other sources of flowing water were likened

to serpents and are represented as wavy lines in rock art. A

quite interesting case of this can be found inside the cave

on the west slope of Cerro San José, which was dedicated

explicitly to rain bringing ceremonies. There, carved on a

wall, are petroglyphs of serpents over which rainwater runs

260
down during the rainy season and fills cupules intentionally

placed there to collect the sacred water.

Perhaps the most meaningful figure in Trincheras rock

art is the thunder-and-lightning serpent, a figure common in

Native American mythologies throughout North and Middle

America. It figures in the following cultural traditions:

Algonquin of the Rocky Mountains region; Micmac of eastern

Canada and Maine; Pawnee of the Great Plains; Paiute of the

Great Basin; Hopi and Zuni of American Southwest;

contemporary indigenous communities of West Mexico; and the

Maya, Nahua, Zapotec, and Totonaca of Pre-Columbian

Mesoamerica, where there is a direct connection to the rain

god. (Codex Laud; Codex Vatican b; Curtis 1926:38-49; Fewkes

1897, 1900; Fowler and Fowler 1971:243; Hagar 1897:104-105;

Harrison 1964; Heizer 1944; Hultkrantz 1957:97; Lumholtz

1900:39, 47, 121; Neurath 2002:159; Spence 1914:112). In the

mythic narratives of these traditions, the serpent has the

power of engendering, fertilizing, and bringing rain, and in

some cases, it is the assistant of rain deities where it is

directly involved in rain petition rituals.

Petroglyphs depicting the thunder-and-lightning serpent

are found all over the region of the Trincheras tradition,

but the most significant representations are at Cerro de la

Nana and Cerro San José. In the first case, the thunder-and-

261
lightning serpent emerges from a cloud and has a xonecuilli

symbol (scroll) below it (Figure 5.5). In the Nahua

traditions, the xonecuilli represents thunder falling from

the sky, the movement of the Pleiades and rain bringing

clouds (Rivas Castro and Lechuga 2002:62-71). The xonecuilli

at Cerro de la Nana is a double inverted spiral, which I

contend symbolizes the cyclical transition from the dry to

the rainy season and vice versa. Close to the thunder-and-

lightning serpent are representations of clouds, amphibians,

and centipedes, entities directly linked to water bodies or

the rainy season.

At Cerro San José is another thunder-and-lightning

serpent petroglyph (Figure 5.6). This version has a

semicircular line above it, in the form of an inverted half-

moon; it also resembles a bowl, turned upside-down and

spilling water over the earth. In a metaphorical sense, the

composition seemingly signifies that the moon is full of

water--a once widely held belief in Mesoamerica. During the

rainy season, the half-moon, having the form of a bowl,

spills water over the Earth while the serpent is the catalyst

of rain.

Concerning animal and fertility metaphors, I have

already drawn attention to the sea snail as symbolized in

petroglyphs, the spiral form of ritual wall structures, and

262
as ritual offerings of shell objects dedicated to rain and

abundance. Another animal relevant to this discussion is the

deer. The deer is a rather potent symbol of fertility, and

particularly associated with maize and peyote, among the

Wixaritari (Lumholtz 1912; Zinng 1988). Ruth Underhill has

shown that numerous indigenous communities across the Greater

Southwest practiced ritual deer hunting in connection to

maize ceremonialism. In the case of the Wixaritari, after the

hunt, some of the maize seeds that are going to be planted

are ritually dipped in deer blood to fertilize them. Within

O’odham mythical traditions, deer flesh was the first food

the gods donated to the people. In another episode, the

mythical Chief of the Deer was the one who gave the first

maize seeds as a gift to humans and taught them agriculture

(Bahr 2001; Bahr et. al. 1994 Lloyd 1911; Saxton and Saxton

1973). It is likely no coincidence that the deer is the most

prevalent animal portrayed in the rock art of the Trincheras

tradition.

<a>Conclusions<a>

So far, I have presented the evidence that can support

my hypothesis, concerning the various factors that may

determine the construction of sacred places, particularly in

northwest Mexico. Nonetheless, many of these qualities of

cultural landscapes can be found in the American Southwest

263
and Mesoamerica. In all the referred cases, multiple natural

features and human-made devices were combined to create

sacred landscapes: geomorphology; exceptional acoustic

properties; the presence of valued natural resources as water

oquedades también?
and wild flora and fauna; astronomical orientations of

constructed structures; and rock art. With different cultural

connotations, the referred qualities of sacred places may be

found in other regions of the world, as several rock art

specialists have disclosed. The arguments I present will open

the discussion about the theoretical and methodological

approaches that would be more suitable for defining the

characteristics of sacred landscapes.

Supporting my hypothesis are: settlement patterns

analysis; astronomic orientation of architectonic structures;

landscape symbolism analysis; evidence of ritual activity;

mythological narratives associated to the places;

ethnohistoric and ethnographic records of religious beliefs

and practices associated to the landscape, like ceremonial

spaces and rock art sites; and lastly the analysis of rock

art iconography.

Throughout years of research, I have found that there

are many cultural traits that are shared throughout the great

region that integrates northwest Mexico with the American

Southwest, so we should always be aware that the modern

264
border, dividing both countries, did not exist at that time.

Moreover, I can undoubtedly assert that an important cultural

influence of Mesoamerican provenance can be clearly found,

not only in Northwest Mexico but also in the Southwest. Did

those cultural traits have their origin in North America, and

then were transformed in Mesoamerica, to later return to

southern North America? We cannot answer this question, yet,

but it is important to take it in account (see Boyd 2016).

Some of the most specific religious ideas and practices

I present here, that can be traced to Mesoamerica, are the

belief in the sacredness of hills, and their relationship

with the water cycle, astronomic observations, mythic

narratives, and ritual. From this perspective, the Trincheras

archaeological sites of the Sonoran Desert can be understood

as sacred places, suitable for ritual and astronomic

observations, activities unequivocally linked with rock art

production and its meaningful symbolism. Most of it related

to rain petition and fertility ceremonialism.

In particular, Cerro de Trincheras, the most important

archaeological site of the region, can be regarded as a

sacred mountain. Its monumentality is accentuated by the

ellipsoidal concentric terraces that ascend the hillside

toward the Plaza del Caracol, a great open area on the summit

that occupies the liminal space uniting heaven and earth.

265
This space has its counterpart in the ritual structure called

La Cancha, located at the base of the hill, which occupies

another liminal space uniting the earth with the underworld.

The opening to the underworld was symbolized by the lagoon

that was formed at the base of the hill in ancient times. In

summary, I conclude that in all these sites we are able to

find all the properties I have described as pertaining to

sacred landscapes. For a deeper and more thorough

understanding of the Trincheras tradition, the interpretation

of rock art is fundamental.

<a>Acknowledgements<a>

First of all, I thank Aaron Wright for inviting me to

participate in this book. Secondly, I thank him for wise and

precise suggestions that enabled me to improve my chapter.

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