Red Fish, Blue Sea
The paintings of the Chumash are lavish in color, and although time and erosion are slowly erasing them, their vibrancy can still at times be seen. The age of the paintings are hard to tell, most show evidence of overpainting… newer images over older pictographs. Although the Chumash have inhabited the Santa Barbara region of California for over 8,000 years, it is believed that the paintings themselves were done within the last 1,000 years. Rock paintings remain sacred to the Chumash people, and because of the importance of preserving these irreplaceable cultural treasures, the location of these sites must remain secret. The paintings are fragile and can be easily damaged.
Chumash PictographLos Padres National ForestRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtRock PaintingsPictographAncientLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography
Reindeer Man
Chumash Pictograph - Los Padres National Forest
Chumash PictographLos Padres National ForestRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtRock PaintingsPictographAncientLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography
Red Man
Chumash Pictograph - Los Padres National Forest, California
Chumash PictographLos Padres National ForestRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtRock PaintingsPictographAncientLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography
Bear And Condor
Bear and Condor - Chumash Rock Paintings Los Padres National Forest. Wind erosion is slowly erasing these images.
Chumash PictographLos Padres National ForestRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtRock PaintingsPictographAncientLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography
Red Man II
Chumash Pictograph - Los Padres National Forest, California
Chumash PictographLos Padres National ForestRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtRock PaintingsPictographAncientLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography
Web Master
This Chumash painting suffered from quite a bit of natural erosion. In cases like this, the benefit of digital photography is that the areas of erosion can be digitally reconstructed. I make every effort to maintain the integrity of the paintings, and to restore the glyphs to a previous, less damaged state.
Chumash PictographLos Padres National ForestRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtNative American ArchaeologyRock PaintingsPictographAncientLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography
Counting Coup
This Pictograph is located in the area of Point Mugu in the Santa Monica Mountains. In this section of the pictograph panel, the main figure has what appears to be a severed right hand. The following excerpts are from Campbell Grant’s book - ‘The Rock Paintings Of The Chumash, and have, I believe, some bearing on the content of this particular section of the panel.
Campbell ( 1993, p. 42, 43) wrote:
The Spanish found the Chumash gentle and friendly. Compared to the savage Plains Indians, they were not a particularly warlike people but there is evidence of a good deal of intervillage fighting and possibly some intertribal warfare.
There is an account by a Mugu Chumash that a Tejon woman married a Mugu man and came to live on the coast. She was unfaithful to him and was killed according to the Mugu custom by being shot to death with arrows and her body burned. About four hundred Tejon Indians came over the mountains to avenge the death of the woman, and in the battle over seventy were killed.The Mugu Chumash, according to this source (Bowers, 1897), did not take scalps but cut off the right hand of the slain warriors.Chumash PictographSanta Monica MountainsRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtNative American ArchaeologyRock PaintingsPictographAncientLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma PhotographyArcheologyAmerican IndianAmerican Indian CultureAmerican indian historyhistoric preservationrehabilitationarcheological artifactsarcheologicalChumash
Birth Of A Shaman
Birth Of A Shaman - Is a digital restoration of a section of 'Painted Rock', a 40ft pictograph in the Carrizo Plain of southern California.
This site was once arguably the greatest of all the Chumash pictograph sites, but by the 1920's vandalism had completely destroyed it.
If not for photographs taken in the 1870's and early 1900's, neither myself nor others would have been capable of bringing these incredible images back to life.
This particular section of the site has the most remaining pigment , so between my digital photograph, and a photograph taken in the 1870's, I was able to recreate this area of the prehistoric painting. I've attempted to render as accurately as possible the appearance of the painting as it looked during the time that the early photographs were taken. The title of this picture was inspired by a photograph of a Samala Chumash, wearing the ceremonial costume of a shaman taken by Le'on de Cessac in 1878.Chumash Rock ArtPrehistoric Rock ArtPainted RockCarrizo Plain National MonumentPictogramRock Art of the Chumash peopleChumash PictographGreat Pictograph SiteCuyama areaCaliforniaPrehistoric ArtPrimitive ArtIndian PaintingsRock ArtJazan Kozma PhotographyRock Paintings Of the Chumash
Birth Of A Shaman - 1870's photo and current day...
Right section of 'Painted Rock’ in the Carrizo Plain - The picture to the left was taken in the 1870’s. The same view on the right, taken in 2016. The damage here is primarily gunfire with some carved names and dates. This vandalism occured prior to 1930.
Chumash Rock ArtPrehistoric Rock ArtPainted RockCarrizo Plain National MonumentPictogramRock Art of the Chumash peopleChumash PictographGreat Pictograph SiteCuyama areaCaliforniaPrehistoric ArtPrimitive ArtIndian PaintingsRock ArtVandalismJazan Kozma PhotographyRock Paintings Of the Chumash
Woman Giving Birth
Chumash Pictograph - Los Padres National Forest, California.....This was a difficult grouping to photograph. The cave where the paintings occur is very small, tight, and difficult to move around in.
Chumash PictographLos Padres National ForestRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtRock PaintingsPictographAncientLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography
Spirit Of The Mountain
This individual glyph, which is part of a much larger Chumash Pictograph site, was found on the ceiling of a sandstone cave deep in the Santa Monica Mountains. The lines drawn around this particular figure are quite unique. This entire site also has other unique features such as many scratched geometric forms and lines superimposed over the paintings.
Chumash PictographSanta Monica MountainsSanta Monica Mountains National Recreation AreaRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtPictographLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography
Chumash Pictograph Panel I - Santa Monica Mountains
All the colors used by the Chumash painters were earth colors. The red paint was made from hematite, producing shades from dull red to a brilliant yellowish red. The best white pigment was made from diatomaceous earth, and the black colors could be derived from manganese, charcoal or burned graphite. Pigment materials were reduced to a powder, then wetted and pressed into cakes. For rock painting purposes, oil was added to create a permanent waterproof paint.
Chumash PictographSanta Monica MountainsSanta Monica Mountains National Recreation AreaRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtPictographLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography
Fertility Magic
A Chumash female ‘Coming Of Age’ pictograph site.
Chumash PictographSanta Monica MountainsRock Art of the Chumash IndiansCaliforniaNative American Rock ArtNative American ArchaeologyRock PaintingsPictographAncientLandscape PhotographyJazan Kozma Photography