Aldolfo Lopez To be presented at the Society of Historical Archaeolgoy conference 1997
The Jose Maria Cave is a remote cavern in the limestone formations of East National Park, Dominican Republic. From a small outer opening, the cave widens to elaborate interior chambers. Over 1200 individual pictographs have been carefully documented ove the past several years. They are arranged into panels which depict the complex mythology, cosmology and calendar of the Taino people in the province of Higuey. Most of the designs are executed in black outline, done by fingers with a clay and charcoal matrix. They are an extremely significant storehouse of ancient taino knowledge -- a university in picture writing.
Toward the rear of an inner chamber are images which probably date to the conquest period. One is an unmistakable bearded face, the face of a Spaniard. It is possible this is the image of Juan de Esquivel, who waged a conquest of the province in 1503. When a truce was reached after the first battles, he followed the Taino ritual of ceremonially exchanging names with his adversary Cotubanama. A nearby panel presents a realistic depiction of the forced tribute paid to the Spaniards in cassaba and guayiga. It shows the plants being grown and harvested as well as the bread being baked under the direction of a casique. On the extreme right side of this panel is the image of a Spanish vessel -- possibly the first such rendering in the New World.
This paper describes and interprets the conquest period pictographs from Jose Maria Cave in light of what is known from chronicles of the first decades of the Sixteenth century.
Last updated: 14 October 1996
URL:
http://www.indiana.edu/~r317doc/dr/cavepaper.html
Comments:Underwater Science Program
Copyright 1995, The
Trustees of Indiana University.