Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
Taíno Caves in the Dominican Republic
Photo Essay, by Dr. Lynne Guitar
Guardians of the Caves
Here are two guardian petroglyphs, the first from the cave called Guacara de Sanabe (also Hoyo de
Sanabe) in the hills near Cotui, and the second from Sand Cave in today's Los Haitises National Park.
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 1 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
The "Guardian" from Cueva Peñon Gordo. The pictographs in this cave are unusual because they are in
white, not black. This guardian is unusual too, for he has eyes in his hands as well as in his head. Note
the "happy face" to the right.
Cave Climbers and Dancers
A drawing of climbers in Guacara Sanabe shows that, once long ago, you had to climb up and down ropes
to access this tunnel; some time in the recent past, a rock slide closed the tunnel off. As for the figure to
the right...what a graceful dancer! He's nearly hidden on a wall filled with drawings behind a large
stalactite.
Rain Gods
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 2 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
Above are three images (two pictographs and one petroglyph) of the rain god, Boiyanel. Life required
rain, but also the sun (below).
The Sun
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 3 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
A pictograph of the sun from the Cueva Jose Maria in East National Park.
Taíno Food
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 4 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
These pictographs represent the Taínos' daily food: a yucca grater for making casabe bread, the
cibucanes needed to squeeze the poisonous juice from bitter yucca to make casabe, an hutia (now nearly
extinct), maize/corn, sea turtles (though it was forbidden to eat fresh-water turtles because of their
connection with the creation of the earth).
Inhaling Cohoba
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 5 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
The cohoba ceremony is depicted with frequency in almost all the caves. Here are four of my favorites.
The last photo is of a shell pile in Guacara Sanabe. The calcium from crushed shells acted as a catalyst to
make the hallucinogens in the cohoba act more rapidly.
Healing Caves, Behiques and Caciques
The first time I saw these pictographs in Guacara Sanabe of human beings trussed to a pole and carried
by two others, I was confused. The Taíno weren't cannibals! Had they captured some Spaniards?
Dominican archaeologist Domingo Abreau believes that this cave was an especially powerful healing
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 6 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
cave and that the drawings depict the ill being brought there for curing. This fits with all the fierce
masks (see below) that also appear in this cave and oversize figures--some of the pictographs are 6'
high!--for the behique had to call upon powerful zemi spirits to cure the seriously ill.
The pictograph (above left) from the Guacara Sanabe appears to be of a behique in his fierce mask or
perhaps his zemi helper, who might have been a powerful behique while alive. To the right is an example
from the Cueva de las Maravillas.
The drawings of this powerful cacique in Cueva de las Maravillas (left) are said to be of the Lord of the
Dead. Some people believe that the pictograph to the right in the main cave at Pommiers, represents the
five cacicazgos (principle chiefdoms) that were on the island in 1492.
Dogs
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 7 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
Dogs were very important to the Taíno as companions for hunting hutias. Above are two pictographs of
dogs, one from Cueva Pommiers of them mating (the entire cave is filled with drawings dedicated to the
island's fertility) and the other, a 6-foot-wide drawing, from Guacara de Sanabe.
Birds
Land birds appear frequently in all the cave art and apparently represented man. The last of these three
bird pictographs is a signal painted onto the rock at the left side of the entrance to a narrow tunnel
within the main Cueva Pommiers--it indicates that you have to bend down to get through.
More Animals and Birds
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 8 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
Other animals and birds are frequently depicted in the caves, like lizards, frogs, and owls--owls and bats,
night "birds," represented the spirit world. I haven't yet seen a bat pictograph or petroglyph, though
their faces were the most common thing that decorated the handles of Taíno ceramics.... By the way, you
may have to look closely to find the owl petroglyph. He was carved using the natural flow of the rock to
form his body, and his head is twisted to look at you sideways, in typical "barn owl" pose. Fungus
growing on the rock has turned him green. To the Taíno, the head was very important--the repository of
all a person's thoughts and memories, and perhaps what we refer to as the soul.
"Happy Faces"?
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 9 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
These are petroglyphs. The first set are carved into stalagmites facing the entrance of a cave called
Chicho just outside East National Park, which has been an important source of fresh drinking water for
thousands of years. The second photo is of "Las Caritas" (The Little Faces) that are carved high on the
rock cliffs overlooking Lake Enriquillo in the southwest.
"Reading" the Caves
Some of the caves, like Guacara Sanabe, Jose Maria, and Las Maravillas, have vast panels of drawings, all
crowded together. What was the relationship among the drawings? Does each panel, in fact, tell a story,
if only we could "read" them like the Taíno did?
The Spanish Invaders
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 10 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
Is this drawing in Pommiers a cat? If so, it was drawn after the arrival of the Spaniards, for there were
no cats in the Americas before that.
And is this drawing in Jose Maria a bearded Spaniard?
How about this one, also in Jose Maria? It could be interpreted as a man with a beard, a ship with a
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 11 of 12
Taino Caves, the Photo Essay, by Lynne Guitar
2/27/12 12:40 PM
mast, and maybe a man on horseback.
Start of War
This is part (about 1/3rd) of the so-called Tribute Panel in Jose Maria that some have "read" as a
description of the agreement between Spaniards and Taínos from Isla Saona to provide casabe bread for
Spanish sailors. I think the interpretation is only partly right. I think it deals with the Spaniards seeking
cassabe bread from the Taíno, in particular the Spanish Captain Salamanca, who went to the Higuey
region around 1502, when more food was needed to feed the Taíno workers constructing the new
Fortress of the Ozama in Santo Domingo. A fierce dog from his ship attacked the cacique, disembowling
him; he died three days later. The event caused the Taino of the region to rise up in rebellion against the
Spaniards. I think this part of the panel shows the violence of the start of that war.
This page was created: Friday, 28 January, 2005
Last Update: Monday, 31 January, 2005
http://www.centrelink.org/TainoCavePhotos.html
Page 12 of 12