8. A DISTINCTIVE PICTOGRAPH FROM CAIRIZO PLAINS, SANT LUIS OBISPO COUNTY Donald W. Lathrap Pictographs, or paintings on rocks, have been recorded in the majority of the areas of California in whnich suitable rock surfaces are available. They are most numerousA and complex %in that region encompassing the counties of L.'onterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Kern, and the mountainous port.ions of Tulare end Fresno, This region has been designated by Steward as Pctroglyph Area D, and by Fenen-a as Area PT3 A fairly unifolml style of rock painting prevails over this entire area: Among the numerous pictographs inithiL it, none is more extensive or elaborate than the justifiably famous Painted Rock on the Carrizo Plains of San Luis Obispo County, Steward has described and illustrated these pictographs4, and they have been discussed in several articles of a semi-popular nature. Nearby is a group, the Agua Caliente pictographs (UCAS site SLO-100), which has, until now, escaped scientific attention. The Agua Caliente pictographs are on the northern slope of Agua Caliente IMountain about 200 or 300 feet above the floor of the Carrizo Plains9 Nearby is a spring, around which is evidence of an Indian campsite. The paintings were applied to an inner wall of an inconspicuous cleft in an outcropping of the yellovr-buff, friable sandstone (Vaqueros formation), tihe most common surface f'or pictographs in this areac The cavity, which is only about 2 feet wide and 6 feet high, has a length (east to west) of 20 feet, with its opening to the east. The north and south sidewvalls of the cave are not perpendicular; the north wall, which overhangs markedly, being about 35 Ooff the perpendicular, approximates a plane. The south wall is roughly parallel to it. The paintings at one time covered the entire nortch wall, an area of 20 feet by 6 feet, but unfortunately, nearly a third of the wall has since fallen forward in one large piece, carrying with it some of the picto- graphs. There remains now a decorated area measuring roughly 6 feet by 12 feet toward the west end of the cave, and a fragmiient about 2 feet wide at the entrance. The pictographs are by no means as extensive as those at Painted Rock, but are quite complex and nicely drawn-i. Mi'oreover, due to the care with which Mr and Mrs. Washburn, owners of the property, have protected them, they have completely escaped the vandalism perpetrated on Painted Rock. The desi~,n elemnents are in three colors: red ochre, black, and white; anC. the extent of their use decreases in that order, The repro- duction of the pictographs (Plate 3) does not include the full extent of the decorated area, The area represented in the Plate is 7 feet by 4 feet, Only the areas and lines of red ochre are shown. As all of the important figures are outlined in red ochre, this treatment makes but slight change in the over-all design. Only a small human figure painted entirely in white, and a smaller black animal are lost9 Spatial.. relationships and relative sizes have been retained. The design elements of the Agua Caliente pictograph face present several points of interest. The bat-like figure in the upper right hand corner has not been reported from elsewhere in California. The - 20 - 0 0 T (1) / o 00 LL 0 -Li