California (United States)

California has more than a thousand rock art sites, decorated by different groups of Holocene hunter-gatherers, and still of significance for some of the Native American groups living in the area today. Our fieldwork aims to characterise the acoustic properties of sites located in the south-central part of this territory, a region traditionally inhabited by the Yokuts and other tribes. In the paintings and engravings found in this area painted geometric motifs and engraved cupules stand out, although several types of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures are also present. The lack of dates obtained by archaeometric methods makes it challenging to establish a chronological and cultural framework for this art. However, some scholars such as our project collaborator,David Whitley, argue that at least part of the images could have been produced by shamans during the Late Prehistoric (post AD-1200) and the Historic/Ethnographic (post-AD 1769) periods.