La Sabana

One of the largest settlements of the Costa Chica. In its first stage it covered present-day Acapulco, and in the second it extended to the foothills of the Cerro de la Bola, where 38 splendid stone carvings have been found with figures of animals, calendar counts and images of Tlaloc.

The site is on the north side of the Cerro de la Bola in the ejido of La Sabana, municipality of Acapulco. This settlement forms part of another much larger one established on the lower and flatter land to the north. In addition to the ritual site with rock carvings now found in the section that is open to the public, it had many large structures which were lost as a result of urban growth in the 1960s. Its origins were in the Early Classic, around 400 AD, while its apogee was in the Epiclassic (600-900 AD) and the population dwindled into the Early Postclassic (900-1200) when the site was abandoned.

Acapulco and its surrounding area are especially rich in rock carvings. There are sites with petroglyphs along the coastal strip which runs from Revolcadero beach, passing through the bays of Puerto Marques and Santa Lucia towards Magueyitos beach, close to the Pie de la Cuesta. The glyphs indicate the importance of representing social, economic and religious activities by a variety of forms and means of expression, and they provide evidence of human presence from the third millennium BC. With its well protected bays and with opportunities for finding resources on the coastal plain at the foot of the hills, on the sea shore and at sea, the strategic location of Acapulco has served human settlement from very ancient times up to the present.

As with other parts of Acapulco and its surrounding area, La Sabana is a site with a wealth of rock carvings. The anthropomorphic, zoomorphic (both terrestrial and marine animals), calendar-based and abstract motifs were produced by carving and abrading the blocks of granite.

These graphic expressions provide information on the site and the calculation of time. There are very many rectangular and circular format calendar counts together with various points and lines. There is also a plethora of representations of the rain and monkey gods, the latter possibly spider monkeys which were present in the state of Guerrero in pre-Hispanic times. References to the animal world are enriched by serpents and fish, which lived alongside the pre-Hispanic settlers of Guerrero, as can be seen from the imagery carved into the rocks.

Ubicación

Estructuras
Directorio

Petrograbados

Petrogravure is one of the manifestations of the so-called rock art, that is, those vestiges of human activity that were painted or engraved on rock shelters.

Petrograbado 2

It consists of two concentric circles between which 20 dots and their corresponding 20 stripes were placed; a possible ornamental element was placed in the inner circle.

Petrograbado 3

Procession of seven characters with arms raised. The facial features are indicated with dots, and only the first character has his mouth traced with a horizontal line. The bodies are resolved with simple continuous lines.

Petrograbado 8

This engraving consists of three rectangles, with 7, 18 and 19 bars, and their respective points.

Petrograbado 10

Stylization of an ape in profile and standing, with its tail curled up and holding in one of its hands a kind of star. There are also two concentric circles with a dot in the center and surrounded by 12 dots and a stripe.