Boca de Potrerillos 2.78

Boca de Potrerillos is an archeological site located some 14 km from the municipal head of Mina, Nuevo León, México. About 60 km north east from Monterrey within the inter-sierra valleys of the Sierra Madre Oriental is the “mouth” or entrance to the Potrerillos Canyon between the Zorra and Antrisco hills. The site covers an area of about 6 km².The main feature of this site is containing one of the largest concentrations of rock art in Mexico. Although there are some paintings, the vast majority of works are petroglyphs; there are approximately 3,000 in the área.The siteThe site has been known as Boca Potrerillos since the 19th century because it forms the entrance to the Potrerillos Canyon, being between the El Antrisco and the Zorra Hills. The archaeological vestiges are distributed among three main topographical forms:a) An extensive alluvial range to the east with hundreds of known pre-Hispanic ovens and thousands of carving stone tools and grinding artifacts scattered on the surface;b) A second range to the west of the area, containing (though on a smaller scale), the same elements of the eastern range, andc) The eastern flank of the Antrisco and Zorra hills, where thousands of engraved rocks were found with carvings in one or more of their sides, that makes it one of the most extensive and most important petroglyphs sites in the country.The Boca de Potrerillos archaeological site is located in a quite inhospitable region today. It dominates a desert landscape with very little or no water sources with the typical vegetation of the area: cactus. However the amount of art embodied in the rocks and studies on the technique, style, etc., in which they were made, suggest a prolonged occupation of human groups at different intervals. Carbon-14 dating testing made on the ovens found in the area as well as oxidation studies of the graphical work and patina indicate that the first human settlement could have been installed here as early as 8900 BC and some of the engravings would be from this period. 1 Archaeologists work has achieved differentiating over 25 plant species in the region, now extinct, evidence that the zone was different and friendlier to humans. The site had some importance at the end of the 18th century as a sugar cane producer; it also had some relevance during the 1910 Mexican Revolution, but after the introduction of cattle to the zone and government efforts to send water from state water wells to the city of Monterrey, the site is more arid than ever before.