The Shape of Place: The Lower Pecos Canyonlands as a <jats:italic>Chicomoztoc</jats:italic>?

Abstract

In the classes he taught at the University of Texas at Austin, Terence Grieder insisted that while answers or “knowledge” evolve as new data are generated, a well-formulated question can lead researchers to consider a wider range of relevant evidence. In this paper, a series of questions structures an inquiry as to whether the formal similarity between the “crenellated arch” motif found in Archaic Period (c. 1700 bce - 400 ce) rock art pictographs along the Pecos and Río Grande Rivers of southwest Texas, and the 16th century Nahua (Aztec) depictions of <jats:italic>Chicomoztoc</jats:italic>—the “Place of Seven Caves”, a mythical place of origin—from throughout later Classic Period central Mexico, are more than mere coincidence.