Brief off-topic observation: I had posed the above question in English and Spanish, but RG simply deleted the Spanish bit. If this is RG's standard operating procedure even on subjects pertaining to Spanish/Spanish colonial history, it is pretty pathetic, I have to say....

I checked several books and articles, Michael, and didn't find any images like the ones you are looking for. Zoomorphic figures in rock art from the Gran Chichimeca region are highly stylized, however, making identification of horses difficult. I guess a diagnostic feature would be a human rider on the back of a representation of a quadruped. Dating is problematic as well.

I did find some paintings that look like figures of horses with riders, perhaps from the early colonial period, from what at the time of the Spanish conquest was the Otomi-Pame frontier, in Banzhá (Tecozautla) and nearby El Cajón (Huichapan). This region was inhabited by Otomi in the 16th and 17th centuries. The horse and rider images of El Cajón are associated with a painting of a pre-Hispanic temple and other references to Mesoamerican culture. The paintings at both sites were apparently painted with the same technique and color (yellowish white). They are similar in form to the picture you posted in your question. Photos of both may be found here:

Acevedo Sandoval, Otilio Arturo; Morales Damián, Manuel Alberto; Valencia Pulido, Silvana Berenice, Pintura rupestre del estado de Hidalgo/Rupestrian painting from the state of Hidalgo, Pachuca, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, 2002, pp. 22, 23, 123 (Banzhá); pp. 24, 30 (El Cajón).

Many thanks, David, for your suggestions. I will check them out.

In browsing through publications and web sites (rupestreweb Mexico primarily) on the rock art of north-central Mexico, I noticed the preponderance of stylized images that you mention - many seem difficult if not impossible for a cultural outsider to interpret.

I'm also wondering what the spatial coverage of rock art research in the Gran Chichimeca is these days, i.e. are there any estimates as to to the number of recorded vs. known (but not recorded) vs. projected sites?

Amid all this, I can't find much in the way of possible post-contact sites in the literature. Most of what I have seen so far is from the Coahuila/Nuevo Leon area, the most intriguing site being La Muralla. The historic component of this site seems late (XVII/XVIII century) and may be be related to the Guachichiles and Negritos congregated at the mission of San Pablo de los Labradores during that period (as per Araceli Rivera Estrada 2014). La Muralla seems to be the best candidate of a rock art site related to one or more of the historic naciones de Chichimecas. Surely, however, there should be others, especially in the old Guachichil territoy between SLP, Zacatecas, and Mazapil/Saltillo (Pico de Teyra, anyone?).

I'll soon post a similar question about archaeological examples of historic Chichimeca camp sites - la lucha continua     :-)

Thanks again, Michael

Michael,

The Lower Pecos Canyon has some rock art depicting horses. Although I don't know the exact dates, some of the Lower Pecos pictographs are quite old. One of the horse pictographs is together with a bison. While perhaps outside the boundaries of La Gran Chichimeca, as currently defined, you may find it interesting. The rock art is very close to the Río Grande.

Dick Gill

You may want to check publications by Marie Areti Hers, working on the Durango-Zacatecas area in Mexico and interested in rock art. She works at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM.

You may want to check publications by Carlos Viramontes Anzures with a catalog of rock art  at semidesertic region in Queretaro and western limit of Sierra Gorda at Guanajuato

Thanks for all the answers so far. A few add-ons from my side:

Dick, I'll lock into the Lower Pecos material. Although I'm at present mainly interested in the "core area" of Chichimeca occupation in the 1500s, the northern periphery all the way to the Rio del Norte and across is eminently interesting, mainly because of the seeming fluidity of "tribal boundaries" (if one can call them that). It is difficult to know what exactly Spanish observers meant when they wrote they ran into Chichimecas on the Nadadores or other northern rivers in the early 1600s, but there are a number of documents that indicate substantial movements of Guachichiles out of their ancestral lands as the Chichimeca War was winding down. Not everyone, apparently, was keen on living in the new congregaciones that came with the peace - and not really surprising if you look at other regions of native resistance across the Americas.

Annick, I have read some of Marie Areti Hers's archaeological work, but seem to have mostly missed the rock art. I've looked at published information of sites like El Alamillo, La Candela, and Potrero de Chaidez, but haven't seen anything suggesting horses or other post-contact images perhaps related to Chichimeca adoption of horses.

Alberto, I will check Carlos Viramontes's work. I have read some of it, especially as it relates to the Pames and Jonazes, but again I seem to have missed out on the rock art portion so far.

Gracias mil. A trabajar....

There are lots of equine depictions to the north, in the American Southwest.  To do an initial survey, perhaps a crowd source inquiry would be useful.  This group has a lot of knowledgeable members: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EXPLORERSOFNATIVEAMERICANROCKART/

Thanks, James, I'll check out the link.

I've seen quite a few horse/rider images across the U.S. Southwest - such as the one I posted with the question which is from south-central New Mexico and located near a couple of early colonial-period pueblos.

At this point I'd like to keep the inquiry as close to the Gran Chichimeca as possible, mainly because I'm interested specifically in the Chichimecas' adaptations to Spanish pressures and because the Chichimecas (presumably the Guamares and/or some of the southern Guachichil groups) were the first to acquire horses from, and use them against, the Spaniards, ca. 1560s.

several papers that discuss this inlcude Curiosity, Conflict, and Conquest: Contact Period Rock Art of the Northern Frontier, Mexico & Texas.

The Live Oak Hole Complex:Plains Indian Art and Occupation in the Lower Pecos River Region. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 59:65-82 (for 1988) An Historic Pictograph Site in Northern Coahuila. Plains Anthropologist 33(120):279-284. Rock Art as Propaganda, Arte Indigena en Coahuila (chapter); Arroyo de los Indios, among others. see also Kirkland, Forrest and W.W. Newcomb Jr. The Rock art of Texas Indians. The earliest sites are described in Rock Art as Propaganda and Arte Indigena in Coahuila (which is not on the web)\