During my US stay there was my biggest wish to go to Santa Barbara as a very private reason. After what I wanted to do here we had enough time to do some sight-seeing I haven’t done previously. Though I have never been to the Santa Ynes Mountains we had a day trip to the San Marcos Pass and into the mountains to visit a few places. One was the painted cave of the Chumash people.
Chumash were the largest tribe living in the Californian area and the today Santa Barbara was there main city then called Syukhtun. They lived here for millennia before the contact to white people and the change of life for ever.
From the originally 10-15.000 people today there are again around 5.000 Chumash. They still have their own language alive but spoken only by a few speakers..
The painted cave is situated about three miles south the San Marcos Pass. From Santa Barbara you can take the Highway 154 where you will find in a right turn Pained Cave Rd. There is a little further a village with the same name as well.
The cave is on the left, parking is nearly impossible, there is a space for one or two cars max a little further. The area is called Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park.
There are a few steps up to the cave which is protected by an iron gate. The cave is a smooth and irregular sandstone opening with mainly two larger paintings to see from the gate. Colors are red white and black and seem to be from different periods.
The meaning of the paintings are unknown but speculated that they are depicting the Chumash cosmology. They are from the 16th century. It is believed that the cave was visited only seasonally. The cave is known also with the Chumash name Alaxuluxen.
One of the interpretations of the colorful paintings is that they represent tomols taking the souls to Shimilaqsha, the after world. But it could be as well represent celestial things like moon, sun and stars position. Though it could depicting a total sun eclipse that occurred in that period.
As the nature is slowly ‘eating’ the soft sandstone there was done a 3 D documentation of the site in order to preserve the beauty in memory and to study it even not being physically there.
Luckily I have a great camera with super delicate lens so I could take bright and clear shots through the gate. And I think the paintings are amazing! A ‘must see’ when in the Santa Barbara area…
Chumash Painted Cave, Santa Barbara, California/USA:
For further information:
Chumash Painted Cave
