They are 5000 in number and point to a culture of mountain dwellers that lived at a high altitude to escape from the conquistadors. Archaeologists have discovered archaic cave paintings in Burgos, Mexico that are causing the history books to be rewritten.
The images shown by Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History, are strange to look at after so much time has elapsed between their original formation and the historical evidence we see before us today. Created by cave dwellers who lived on the mountain tops at Burgos, Mexico they are a sight for curious eyes. Depicting game hunting, root-and-berry gathering as well as fishing, the images are painted in red, white, black and yellow hues. Among some of the animals portrayed can be included: herbivores, reptiles and insects.
According to Live Science, nearly 5000 in number, the paintings were found in about a dozen sites. They may have been formed by a trio of hunting hordes. One of the caves had over a thousand images and even one of an ancient Spanish hunting weapon that had never been portrayed before in the region. The carbon dating is yet to take place in order to find exactly how long ago these artworks were illustrated. Before this discovery it had been taken for granted that nothing existed in the region before the Spanish Conquest. However, now this has been proven wrong. The identity of the groups that dwelled in the caves is still a mystery.
The hunters probably fled after the foreign conquerors came and found a steady supply of food and water in the heights where they would not be bothered or harassed. Scenes taken from nature were depicted in some of the paintings. The colors were created from a mixture of various dyes and rock minerals. These tribes of primitive men, women and children resembled wandering gypsies except for the fact that they remained fixed in a natural niche within the boundaries of which they had freedom of movement. They escaped the greedy and authoritarian clutches of the gold-diggers who had arrived from across the Atlantic.
It has been often seen that when civilizations take over unexplored and pristine regions they destroy the primitives through their destructive influences (spread of alcohol and venereal disease). Those who are spared the carnage and mass acculturation are often rounded up and segregated in reservations. The American Indians underwent this fate and the “Trail of Tears” is the saddest chapter in the history of the West and the Rest. The cave paintings are a sign of those lucky few who chose to lead their lives in relative isolation with limited means rather than succumb to the terror of the taskmasters from far away.