Spanish or California Indian artwork on rock?

[coachbedford]

This is the biggest of around 5 shale or maybe sandstone rock pieces that came out of the ground while I was metal detecting in the vicinity of an old California Spanish neighborhood (found a few old horse-related metal artifacts on this slope). Anyway, the piece in the picture is the biggest of these 5 or so pieces that have reddish coloring on them-- in this case almost looks to me like two painted red leaves on this particular rock. The pictured rock is about the size of a man-sized fist.

My initial thought was that these were remnants of an old Spanish wall with painted wall art. But then, none of these pieces are smoothed out the way a wall or floor would be. I then wondered if the red coloring might be Indian painted-- much like the Indian cave wall art you find in California. But then, there is no cave nearby that I know of, unless it's further down in the gulley and long covered up.

I guess my big question is..... can NATURE leave red imprints like this? Say, if red poison ivy had been wrapped around it for a long time? Any thoughts are welcome.

 

[Tedyoh]

I've never been to the Grand Canyon but from pictures I see a lot of red rock - Iron deposits from an ancient sea (according to The History Channel)

 

[bradyboy]

I don't see art work on your stone
maybe an iron stain
do you have better pics of both sides
I'm familiar with southwestern stuff
Just my opinion
Brady

 

[coachbedford]

So iron deposits are red-colored and not rusty brown? The other side of this rock has no red on it whatsoever. As for the other smaller pieces, there is red splotched on both sides and one smaller piece is almost completely red. No artistic pattern on these smaller rocks--- and maybe not on this one either. Just kinda looks like it could be a leaf pattern on the pictured rock.

 

[BosnMate]

Could be low grade mercury ore, I got some from a mercury mine, and it's pretty red. The red is called "cinnabar."

 

[oldsmith]

Hey Coach, maybe try to google ochre, its use was widespread by all cultures including native americans. Just my thoughts.

 

[coachbedford]

Goodling 'ochre' does bring up some native american cave/stone art with a very similar pigmentation as my rock. I would think if it's iron or mercury ore, the striations would be more pronounced and consistent.

 

[tamrock]

Maybe a vehicle with a leaky automatic transmission was parked over that rock. No clue what's the cause of the red tint to that rock. It doesn't look like the mineral makeup of the rock to me. I think something stained it afterwords. Could have been rocks used to build a pottery kiln and the red clay, or whatever clay bring fired somehow caused the that rock to change color. I'm not seeing any art applied by the hand of man on it.