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The INAH (Instituto Nacional de Arqueologia e Historia – the National Institute of Archaeology and History of Mexico) has confirmed, by means of a photographic filter process, the presence of more than 800 carvings on stone, distributed mainly in the area of the Costa Grande of the Mexican state of Guerrero, which are calculated to date from between 3,000 B.C. and 750 C.E. The Costa Grande extends from the northern edge of Acapulco Bay northward to the mouth of the the Rio Balsas at the Guerrero/Michoacan border.
Specialists have identified anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures as well as bars and dots used as counters. INAH investigator Ruben Manzanilla Lopez states that, “archaeological work in this zone commenced in 1986, after a field tour of the area, during which a simple report was generated with photographs and hand-made sketches of some of the petroglyphs, particularly from Zihuatanejo.”
Ruben Manzanilla states that works were resumed last year in Coacoyul, La Perica, La Escondida, Soledad de Maciel and Murga, all near Zihuatanejo, known then as the province of Zihuatlan, which in prehispanic times was settled by the Mexicas.
In the town of Coacoyul, a large rock measuring some 2 x 2.5 meters stands in the patio of a private home. On the rock a carved elongated human figure can be seen measuring about 68 cms high. The rock shows chisel marks and the carvings are estimated to date from between the Pre-classic (2,500 B.C. to 200 C.E.) and Classic periods (200 – 650 C.E.)
Other stones have been discovered in the area showing number counters and carved rounded cavities (called pocitos) which it is speculated may have been used for mortars or rainwater collection. The pocitos, says Manzanilla, also known as ojos de dios or “eyes of the gods”, are a common element along the Guerrero coast and “in the Petatlan municipality alone some 273 stones have been located with those characteristics.”
At La Perica, also near Zihuatanejo, is a large stone on which is carved the figure of a head with headdress, concentric circles, the image of a temple and a serpent, thought to date from the Post-classic period, 450 – 1,300 C.E. At La Escondido photographs have been taken of a rock carved with a circular figure, the face of a woman, a human-like body, other small faced and wavy lines which appear to represent water. These figures date from the Late Post-classic period (1,300 – 1,500 C.E.)
The petroglyphs at the Cerro de Los Brujos at Soledad de Maciel, near Petatlan, show a solar glyph, the figure of a person, two projectiles and wavy lines again representative of water. These, says Ruben Manzanilla, are thought to possibly represent the conquest of a particular community or people.
In the town of Murga is the Piedra del Mono (Monkey Stone), its largest dimensions measuring eight meters in length by two meters wide, showing sun signs, human figures and a Mexica-style skull.
According to archaeologist Ruben Manzanilla, these are only a few of the examples of the heritage carved on the enormous volcanic stones of the Costa Grande, and “these need to be preserved and cared for, not only by the specialists but by the communities where these ‘pieces of history’ are found.”
Extracted from bulletin issued by INAH, http://www.inah.gob.mx/index.php/boletines/8-investigaciones-y-estudios-historicos/4961-estudian-milenarios-petrograbados-de-la-costa-grande
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