Does the mural express beliefs that later Mesoamerican peoples inherited from the Archaic Lower Pecos?
Four answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.
Where it stands
Four answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Four are still possible.
Why it matters
Boyd and her colleagues argue that Pecos River murals are the oldest surviving expression of a core cosmovision later found among the Aztec and the Huichol; the argument rests on analogy across thousands of years and hundreds of kilometres, which critics find suggestive but unproven[1][2][3].
Answers 4
What would settle it
- Read Tate's 2022 chapter on the Lower Pecos as Chicomoztoc and Kelley 1974, and list the specific motif sets claimed to pass from Pecos River art into Mesoamerican imagery, with dates for each side.
History
- Boyd & Cox: detailed correspondences with Aztec and Huichol cosmologyFor: Yes: the oldest surviving expression of a core Mesoamerican cosmovision
- Powell: outside specialists find the reading persuasiveAgainst: The parallels are not shown to be inheritance
- Powell: specialists call the links provocative but not conclusiveFor: The parallels are not shown to be inheritance
- Farmer: no archaeological trace of Mesoamerica in the Pecos area, and a stylistic gapAgainst: Yes: the oldest surviving expression of a core Mesoamerican cosmovision
- Farmer: specialists call the links provocative but not conclusiveFor: The parallels are not shown to be inheritance
- Steelman et al.: four thousand years of stable rules and motifs in Pecos River paintingFor: Yes: the oldest surviving expression of a core Mesoamerican cosmovision
- Whitley: outside specialists find the reading persuasiveAgainst: The parallels are not shown to be inheritance
- Steelman et al.: pecos River style began 5760 to 5385 cal BP, long before the art it was said to copyAgainst: Diffusion northward: Pecos painters imitated Mesoamerican ceremonial art
- Session 1: raised the question, proposed three answers and found two results bearing on its answers