HUECO TANKS - TEXAS
Maarten van Hoek Updated August 2005| RESPONSIBLE VISTOR BEHAVIOUR AT ROCK ART SITES
* Never touch or wet rock art - it is highly damaging * Never chalk or enhance engravings * Do not walk on engraved rock * Leave all archaeological artefacts as they are * Only take photographs, only leave your footsteps Three huge granite outcrops (second photo) and a lower spur form Hueco Tanks, a marvelous site (especially when it is not too hot) some 60 km east of El Paso, Texas (first photo). The site is famous for its many pictographs that have been painted on the walls and ceilings of rock shelters. Most impressive is the location of the eight Cave Kiva paintings (two shown in the last photo). These are found under an enormous block of stone and access to the cave like room is only possible when sliding into the 'cave' on your back or belly. Equally difficult to inspect is the Tlaloc figure (said to represent a Mexican rain god) in the third photo. It is painted on the low ceiling of a rock shelter and could only have been painted by a person lying on the back. The majority of the Hueco Tanks images were painted by the Mogollon people. A speciality of the site are the many painted faces or masks (repeated at other rock art sites, for instance at Three Rivers, New Mexico) like the rare example painted in green and red (see fourth photo). Most of the painted sites at Hueco Tanks may only be visited with a guide. We are grateful to Wanda Olszewski, Park Manager, for guiding us to several most interesting rock art panels. When we were in El Paso, we enjoyed great Texan hospitality of Mary and George Russell and we were happy that Mary accompanied us, together with Ann Owen and Robert Dragon, on our trip to Hueco Tanks. |
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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HUECO TANKS A unique legacy of lively and fantastic rock paintings greets the visitor at the 'tanks'.
VISIT THREE RIVERS - NEW MEXICO
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