Background
The use
of caves in Jamaica as burial sites by Taino
Amerindian peoples has been extensively
documented (see
bibliography). Quite often these cave
sites are also the loci for rock-carvings (petroglyphs) and also rock
paintings (pictographs), although the latter, are much less frequent.
Often, as elsewhere in the Caribbean (Dubelaar, 1986, 1995), these
pre-Columbian inscriptions and paintings appear as anthropomorphic
representations of human faces or figures, or alternatively of
animals (birds, crocodiles, turtles etc.). But beyond these, there
are frequently other images which defy such simplistic
interpretations and may be thought of as having a cultural, magical
or religious content at whose significance we can only guess. These
images are of importance in that they provide one of the few
remaining links between contemporary society and the, now extinct,
Taino peoples (see; Rouse I - bibliography)
of Jamaica.
In 1993 a new and remarkable gallery of Amerindian
pictographs was discovered in a Jamaica cave. This site provides an
online record of some of these images which it is hoped will be of
interest to archeologists, anthropologists and others interested in
"cave art" and the history of the Caribbean peoples.
This presentation is based on an article
published in an issue of the Jamaica Journal in
1998.
Introduction
to the pictographs.
These pages assembled and
maintained by Alan Fincham - July 2002
(afincham@cytanet.com.cy)