Ah-Ha-Kwe-Ah-Mac Village - Cuyamaca Mountains

"Ah Ha Kwe-Ah-Mac" (what the rain left behind?), is a pre-historic Yuman village, later associated with the Kumeyaay Indians. 
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In my last post, I showed you an ancient Kumeyaay village site in Anza-Borrego. I also mentioned that the area is deadly hot during the summer months. Despite this fact, Indians thrived there for thousands of years. In part, they managed to do so by moving to their summer villages, up in the much cooler Cuyamaca Mountains. Although both of their seasonal homes were organized and semi-permanent, they still lived primarily as "hunter/gatherers."  

Also in my last post, I included a distant photo of where we were camped in the Cuyamaca mountains (about 12 miles away). Very close to where we were camped, I stumbled upon a pre-historic village ("Ah Ha Kwe-Ah-Mac") site, that may be the same summer village site, that was used by the same group of Kumeyaay Indians, that lived in the village in my last post, during the winter months. These two village sites are about 10 miles apart and there are ancient Indians trails leading from one area to the other. This village site has been abandoned since about 1869. That sad story, will be the subject of a future post.

We were camping in the Cuyamacas for the same reason the Kumeyaay did; it is very hot down below in the desert.

I didn't actually stumble across the summer village site. I spotted some bedrock mortars (morteros) while out on a hike a couple of months ago.  Some of you probably remember a post involving my search for the remains of an old gold mining camp. In the post I told you that while not actually lost, I stumbled upon a great surprise (to me anyway).  I spent a lot of time on the Internet and used every bit of my intuition relating to where and why Indians settled in particular places. 

While looking for the mining camp, I eventually ran across a trail heading in the direction I needed, to take me back to where I started. The little creek cutting across the meadow in this photo, was used in ancient times as well as today (mostly by game). Most of the hill that the trees are growing out of, is made of mine tailings. The tailings are lighter in color and some are visible, just left of center, in front of the trees. At one time the meadows in this area were surrounded by a forest of oak trees. A lot of acorns required a lot of mortars.

It may not catch your eye, but the little outcropping of granite bedrock in the center of the photo, sure caught mine.

This photo and the next are that same little chunk of bedrock. 

In addition to the four mortars on this rock, there is also a bit of "Lithic Scatter" around it. Lithic Scatter is pieces of rock (many times flakes), removed from another rock by percussion or force. This was done to make tools, projectile points, blades, etc.

This nearby rock had another mortar and small pottery sherds close to it

This mortar (and many more) were on top of the hill, where I took the first photo

Pot sherds (shards) were all over the area. The large piece in this photo was about 3 inches long. The black looking rock is obsidian. I'm pretty sure it is part of a broken tool, or point of some type. One edge had clearly been "worked" and was very sharp. There were also small pieces of soapstone around the area. The BEST thing about this entire area, was the total lack of human foot prints. We certainly didn't discover this village, but it was obvious that very few people know about it. I'd bet money that this site has never been totally excavated.

A couple hundred yards away from the last group of mortars, we found many more.

Walking down the hill, we found more.

More

In addition to mortars, this area was almost totally enclosed by a natural ring of boulders.

and more...

and more...

I'm not exactly sure what animal it belonged to, but this leg bone was big. If you embiggen the photo, you can also see quite a few small pieces of broken pottery.

From this point, we were heading to the outcrop of granite just above center in the photo.

This chunk of bedrock turned out to be the prize of the day. You can see one mortar on the right hand edge of the photo.

These were the only two mortars in this outcrop. More accurately, they were the only two TRADITIONAL mortars.

You can tell by my cell phone, that these two were very large. As this was a seasonal village, it must have taken centuries for it to get this big.

These irregular looking indentations in the granite are also grinding surfaces, but more like "metates" or "slicks" and are VERY rare. They are called Cuyamaca Ovals and are pretty much isolated to a very small area of the country. That small area, just happens to be right here. Cuyamaca Oval sites are found in meadow areas and were primarily used for the grinding of seeds and cracking acorns open.

All of this and we only searched what I believe to be about a fourth of the village area.




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Pictograph Trail - Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

We're perched on our favorite mountain ridge, in the Cuyamaca Mountains for a couple of weeks. From where I'm sitting, if I look down and to my right, I can see the Yaqui Well/Tamarisk Grove campground area of Anza-Borrego. If I look behind me, I can see all the way into Mexico. Closer than Mexico though, and also visible, is the Little Blair Valley area. As the crow flies, it is only about 12 miles away. Unfortunately, we aren't crows. So it takes over an hour to get there using a combination of roads.  I don't mind though, because we're almost a mile high in elevation. When we left here it is was about 77 degrees. When we dropped down into the desert, it was HOT and made it up to 104 degrees. It gets MUCH hotter there.

This was taken from our camp site. The little notch just above center is the saddle between Little Blair Valley and Smuggler's Canyon. There is a hiking trail leading up to the saddle and down the other side.

feel free to embiggen photos to enhance your viewing pleasure

This is the view to my right as I'm typing this. Once we got to the bottom of the Banner Grade, we headed towards the horizon. Once we got to the other side of the large mountain (Granite Mt.) to the right. We went right and eventually into Little Blair Valley. 

Down the mountain

Past a dry lake bed

Just about to the bottom of the notch in the first photo. Except for the Border Patrol helicopter that checked us out, we didn't see anther human the whole time we were there. Mad dogs and Englishmen, I suppose...

Looking back towards our campground (on top of the ridge in the middle) from the trail head. 

This is an enlarged and cropped section of the previous photo. Our RV is in the right side of those pine trees on the ridge line. That spot is about 12 miles away and almost a mile higher. Those two little white spots are part of the California Wolf Center which is involved in reintroducing wolves into the state. They have several packs of wolves there and you should hear them all howl. Spooky, beautiful and amazing. If you are ever in the Julian area, it is well worth taking the time to visit.

Geez, that was a lot of writing and photos and we're just now getting to the subject of the post. We're finally up trail a bit. You can still see where we are camped.

Except for hiking in sand and uphill most of the way, this 2-mile out and back trail is pretty easy. However, once you consider all the little side trips I take, looking at things that catch my eye (or because I'm ADD) you can probably add a mile to it.

Looking back down the trail

This is some tough country

Just because I like it.

I'm looking at every peculiar rock for rock art. You never know what you might find.

Coming down the other side of the saddle 

See the large rock at ground level in the distance?

This is that rock!

As is...

Enhanced...

A first glance all the pictos appear to be red.

Looking at the rock closer it looks like there is some yellow present. The dark pictos in this DStretched version are actually yellow. (I'm still a novice).

You can see some of the yellow in this one.

Finally! Yellow...

I've never seen yellow (or in this enhanced case brown) diamond chains. There is even an anthropomorphic figure to the left of the sunburst. 

Red and Yellow chains in the same spot. Based on the red diamond chains, this site appears to be (at least in part) related to female puberty initiates. Some of you might remember my earlier post on the subject. 

A lone bedrock mortero at the site. That doesn't mean there aren't many more in the vicinity...

only because I thought it was pretty

Although my Granny was an expert and knew more about Joshua Tree than anybody I've ever met or heard of, she was no slouch when it came to Anza-Borrego. What she loved the most about Anza-Borrego was that until recently, there were very few restrictions relating to where you went and where you camped. She and and my step-granddad, really liked to get away from people. That is very easy to do here because you can camp just about anywhere. Pick a spot on any back country road and you can camp as long as you are a car's length away from the road. It was and pretty much still is wild, beautiful and desolate place.

A bit about Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Largest desert park in the country

Second largest state park in the country

500 miles of dirt roads (you can camp anywhere, as long as you are a car length away from any dirt road)

Almost 5,000 cultural sites (this is one of them) with only 20% of the park surveyed to date

28 mountain peaks and summits

The world's largest wooden train trestle

12 designated Wilderness areas withing the park