El arte rupestre del Curutaran

Abstract

Some two hundred petroglyphs pecked on the cliffs of a hill near Zamora, Michoacán, in western Mexico were discovered by the authors in 1968. Eighty of them are shown in the present publication. The figures show traps made of poles, hunters, men disguised as deer, witchdoctors, and at least four types of animals: deer, coyotes or jackals, foxes and a lizard or iguana. The authors believe that the petrogllphs were created with the idea of calling the animals by magical means to certain ledges on the hill in order to kill them. As is often the case in tthe studv of rock art. onlv the most tentative date can be assigned to them. The authors believe them to be pre-Hispanic and possibly earlier than the known beginnings of agriculture in western Mexico, before 1000 B.C.