Boca de Potrerillos
Boca de Potrerillos is an archeological site located some 14 km from the municipal head of Mina, Nuevo León, México.
About 60 km north east from Monterrey within the inter-sierra valleys of the Sierra Madre Oriental is the “mouth” or entrance to the Potrerillos Canyon between the Zorra and Antrisco hills.
However the amount of art embodied in the rocks and studies on the technique, style, etc., in which they were made, suggest a prolonged occupation of human groups at different intervals.
Carbon-14 dating testing made on the ovens found in the area as well as oxidation studies of the graphical work and patina indicate that the first human settlement could have been installed here as early as 8900 BC and some of the engravings would be from this period.
The presence of hundreds of pre-Hispanic ovens or furnace stoves, the infinity of stone tools and thousands of rock engraved images commonly known as petroglyphs, evidence the lengthy and important socio economical and ritual development of native groups that exploited and maintained an environmental equilibrium in the region up to the Spaniards' arrival.
From excavations 20 oven samples were obtained at various depths, which were carbon 14 dated from 6,960 BC., up to 1,760 AD; this long chronology is an extended sequence of 8,000 years of native cultural development in the northeast region of Mexico.
[2] Samples were taken adjacent to each furnace and milling stones washed to recognize possible vegetal remains through pollen and phytoliths strata identification.
Other detected species corresponding to trees are Acacia, Willow, holm oak and pine that are no longer found on the site or nearby communities.
However recent archaeological work by authors such as William B. Murray,[3] Solveig A. Turpin, Herbert H. Eling Jr., and others have provided understanding of the cave art and artists at Boca de Potrerillos.
Upon contact with Spaniards in the region towards the end of the 16th century, initial sources identified over 200 native groups dedicated primarily to hunting and fruit recollection.
Within their nomad life these groups had a more or less regular itinerary throughout the year and went back to centers such as Boca de Potrerillos when the weather and times favor these activities.
Anthropologist William B. Murray classifies the engravings in 5 categories: Archaeologists are discerning about the purpose of cave art in Boca de Potrerillos.
Archaeologists Moisés Valadez, Solveig A. Turpin and Herbert H. Eling propose for the Boca de Potrerillos portable art two styles, designating them by the name of the place they were found.
The possibility has been considered that these objects are ornamental or are "toys, hunting game, mortuary offerings, divination instruments, Mnemotechnics artifacts, menstruation fetishis, Puberty or fertility amulets or a healing Talisman”.
With the support of the Texas University, USA, petroglyph dating studies have been made by the Carbon 14 method which provide a total of 20 epochs, of which the oldest is 8,000 years.
