An Introduction to Rock Art Studies in the Dominican Republic

An Introduction to Rock ArtStudies in the Dominican

RepublicDaniel DuVall www.danielduvall.com

All photographs by DuVall unless otherw ise indicated.

Cueva #2, El Pomier

The motifs center and left may represent Taíno shamaninhaling hallucinogenic cohoba powder through the nose.

Area MapMaps showinglocation ofDominicanRepublic

Red starsindicateareas whereI haveworkeddocumentingrock art.

Wilson MIgrations

From The Indigenous People of the Caribbean edited by Samuel Wilson 1997 (Used with permission)

Most of the rock art in the DR is attributed to the Classic Taíno dating from about 2,000years BP until 1492 CE but this attribution is mostly speculative. The only radiocarbondates that I know of were recently obtained by Foster et al (in prep) from pigments inCueva del Puente in the eastern part of the island which range from 1660 +/- 40 BP to 890+/- 40 BP.

Pane

Columbus assigned one priest,Fray Ramón Pané, the job of recording thebeliefs and ways of the Taíno. Pané’soriginal document was lost but eventuallyresurfaced in a mangled condition and wasreassembled by José Juan Arrom.Unfortunately it consists of only about 40pages.

In this brief, and possibly unreliable,ethnography Pané relates that the Taínobelieved that the sun and the moon hademerged from a cave during the creation;that the Taíno people themselves wereoriginally confined to caves until released bya hero figure; that the island had a cave thattook in nourishment and another thatdefecated; that the souls of the dead residedin caves somehow linked to the flights ofbats; and that the Taíno painted and carvedin caves.

Schombork

In 1854 RobertSchomburgk reportedrock art in the area nowknown as El Pomier,about 35 km west ofSanto Domingo.

Subsequent reportswere made by Pinart inthe 1880s; AlbertiBosch in 1912; Boyriede Moya in 1955 andthen by a host ofresearchers such asPagán, Morbán, Vega,Veloz and others in the1970s.

Most were published inthe Boletín del Museodel Hombre Dominicanoin Spanish.

The panel above is from the cave Schomburgk rediscovered.Descendents of the author of the graffito dated 1860 still live in thearea. Walkways and stairs have been installed and this particularcave is open to the public.

Researchers

Current researchers include Domingo Abréu, who published aweekly newspaper column for years called País Bajo Tierra aboutthe caves and rock art of the country and is the head governmentspeleologist; Clenis Tavárez, Gabriel Atiles and Adolfo López arerock art researchers associated with the Museo del Hombre; AlainGilbert, who is an independent worker like myself, is a Frenchspeleologist who has explored, mapped and recorded the rock artin more than 500 caves in the DR.

Domingo Abréu in Cueva del Símbolo, ElPomier

Available on Amazon.com

Pais bajo, boletins, penumbra

More publications

More examples ofpublications on therock art of the DR.

Current map published by the Department of the Environment showing knowncave locations. The little orange horseshoes that indicate cave sites may be hardto see, but there are a lot of them. In our experience nearly half of the caves in thecountry have some kind of rock art. Environment cave map

Atileschart

This chart shows the numbers of rockart sites in the DR cited in publishedreports organized by province. In thisarticle Atiles, who works under theDepartment of Culture, estimatesthat this total of 453 might represent1/3 of the total in existence.

By Gabriel Atiles published in Rock Art in the Caribbean,ed. Michele Hayward. Also athttp://www.rupestreweb.info/panorama.html

This winter alone, with the help ofRafael Agramonte, Gilbert and I, in anunprecedented run of luck, located 65previously unreported cave entrances,of which 16 contained rock art, in anarea less than 3 square km. Wemeasured over 10 km of passageway.

Agramonte, in his youth, dealt in blackmarket pesticides and had locatedmany caves in which to hide thecontraband. After serving a short jailterm for this crime he lives, in part, byforaging root crops in the bush and sois still finding caves.

EnvironDatabase

An excerpt from a database maintained by the Department of the Environment. There are atotal of 356 caves counted in this edition of which 311 have rock art which, I suspect, reflectssampling bias in favor of decorated caves.

The Dept of Environment has somehow estimated the existence of 48,000 caves in thecountry although this includes off-shore marine caves and caves sealed below ground with nousable entrances (personal communication).

Duvall database

This is a page from the databaseI am compiling and is still a workin progress. Its best featuresmay be that it has GPScoordinates for all 140 caveslisted and the fact that it printson letter size paper.

One of the biggest obstacles tocreating a cohesive database inthe DR is in coordinating theworking methods of the variousinvestigators and governmentdepartments. Clenis Tavares ofthe Museo del Hombre is tryingto do that now with the help ofRacso Fernández from GrupoCubano de Investigaciones delArte Rupestre (who is perhaps inthe room now and could answerquestions?)

This also broaches the questionof whether or not preciselocations of rock art sites shouldbe published or how these datashould be shared.

MapCucaracha

When I work with Gilbert andwe find a new cave we beginby measuring it proceedingby points. The topofil devicewe use (see upper left inset)is made by the FédéracionFrançaise de Spéléologie,Lyon. I take hold of one endof the cotton thread andwhen Alain walks to the nextpoint the device measureshow much thread was un-spooled. He can then sightup the string for the elevationand compass readings. Hebreaks the thread and weleave it on the ground so wecan find our way back. Thismethod is slow which is goodsince it gives us time to lookaround.

The sketch above is preliminary which Gilbert will eventually refine and enlarge. The darker boldmarks indicate locations with rock art. We will see some of these pictographs later.

Cueva del Barrio de la Cucaracha, Valiente Alain Gilbert, 2012

map gilbert

A completed map, pen and ink. Published in Expedition Guacaras Taínas16/2006, Alain Gilbert.

Petroglyphs

PEtroAlain

Drawingby AlainGilbert,Boca delInfierno,HatoMayor

In the DR petroglyphs have never been found in zones of total darkness and nearly always inthe cave entrance facing out. This is in contrast to paintings and drawings which are usuallyfound in total or near total darkness which may be a result of taphonomy.The light color of thepetroglyph in my photograph may be the residue of past chalkings, a practice only recentlydiscouraged here. This cave is on a resort site and suffers many visits each year.

PetroRecord

Drawing byAlain Gilbert2012

Manypetroglyphs arehard to see andvery difficult tophotograph. Thesketch aboveillustrates thepetroglyphs thatwere found inthe scene to theright.

various petros

The vast majority of petroglyphs in the DR consist of apparent eyes, nose, mouth andsometimes a facial outline. These two are found in cave entrances about 1 km apart.

Cueva del DifuntoCorón, La Piedra Cueva Ni Rahu, La Piedra

comatillo

Three weeks prior to taking this photograph these petroglyphs had not been tagged by Rey. Easilyaccessible caves with rock art are susceptible to vandalism-- stalactites are often smashed downand sold as souvenirs along the highway leading to the airport and art is often retouched or paintedover. There is a law prohibiting this on a national scale but enforcement is impossible.

Cueva de Chepco,Comotillo

more petros

Hoyo Salao, Miches

Cueva del Iglesia,Batey Negro

Rock art found in caves in remote areas orthat one must rappel in and out of is oftenin pristine condition.

petroConstanza

Petroglyphs from an open air site in Constanza.Photo by Jose Ferrari

pedernales

Trounicolás, Pedernales

Pocimán Jé, Pedernales

Pocimán Jé, Pedernales

Due to the presence of bauxite, thelimestone is redder in the westernpart of the country. Thesepetroglyphs are from Pedernales.Note the tiny one in the photo topright, just to the left of the IFRAOscale.

Anvil 1

Sistema del Peñón,Cumayasa

The only finger flutings I have ever observed in the DR can be seen on the anvil shapedrock in the center of the photo. My strobe is placed in the right foreground in an effort tosupply the strafing light required to resolve the flutes. The rock is about 2 m across; anIFRAO scale is placed at the base. This finding was published in Rock Art Research V.27, 2010.

FINGER FLUTINGS

Anvil 2

The Anvil, Sistema del Peñón, Cumayasa

Finger flutings are sub-parallel grooves made by dragging human fingers over a soft surface in a limestonecave. The soft surface in this case is mondmilch.

I suspect that the fluter stood or kneeled in front of the rock and fluted the left side of the anvil with their lefthand and the right side with their right hand, either simultaneously or sequentially without necessarilyhaving to move their feet.

Anvil 3

There are four motifs in this area that are possibly figurative, particularly the 2nd and4th from left where a pair of eyes is suggested in each..

The Anvil, Sistema del Peñón, Cumayasa

Anvil 4

Most of the flutes on this rock weredone with three fingers. Single fingerflutes, where they exist were alwaysdone after, as can be seen in thephoto to the left.

Serious studies and discussionsanalyzing measurements of fingerfluting widths have been published,particularly by Bednarik andSharpe and Van Gelder. At thistime such detailed analysis isbeyond my means, in part due tothe small sample size. The narrowest three-fingerwidth measurements I found werebetween 35 mm and 40 mm.These measurements suggest thatyoung people probably made thesemarks. Lack of experience made itdifficult for me to accurately identifysets, handedness of the artist orartists, or probable sequences ofmost of the mark making.

The Anvil, Sistema del Peñón, Cumayasa

HoySanabe 3 critters

Pictographs

Pictographs are much rarer than petroglyphs in the DR. Of the 311 caves with rock art cited bythe government 36, or 1 in every 8.6 decorated caves have pictographs. In my database about 1in 3 decorated caves have paintings but my sampling is even more biased toward painted caves.

Hoyo de Sanabe, Cotuí

hoyo sanabe 2

Hoyo de Sanabe, Cotuí

Hoyo de Sanabe has 100s of pictographs and was recently the subject of Gigapanphotography by Robert Mark which can be seen athttp://science.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology/gigapan/sanabe/.

The black figure to the left, which we suspect represents a dog (the Taíno had dogsalthough few other species of mammals lived on the island at the time), measuresabout 1 m nose to tail.

Hoyo Map

Map of Hoyo de Sanabe byAlain Gilbert.

The panel from the slide of the 3climbers is here

The big panel from thepreceding slide is here

hoyo Deminan

One of the broken narratives in Pané relates a story whose ingredients include a dead child of agod whose bones are stored in a large gourd, quadruplet brothers and a shaman snorting drugsthrough a long tube. The tale ends with the shaman spitting some of the drug (called cohoba, ahallucinogen derived from the beans of Anadenathera peregrina) onto the back of one of thebrothers which then swells up and when the others cut him open a live turtle comes out. Thispanel seems to illustrate some of these events.

Hoyo de Sanabe, Cotuí

maravillas

La Cueva de las Maravillas is the most wellknown cave in the DR particularly since itwas equipped with walkways, stairs,fountains and an elevator and opened to thepublic in 2003.

Marvin Rowe has recently completedpreliminary examinations of some smallpaint residue samples I took from this caveand has so far determined that charcoal, aswe always suspected but had neverconfirmed, is definitely an ingredient.

Although the public’s visits are limited, the cave isequipped with lighting controlled by motion sensorsto minimize photo-pollution and it is closed to visitson Mondays, some of the paintings nearest to theflood lamps suffered an algae infestation a fewyears ago. It was eventually discovered that thecleaning crew who worked unsupervised onMondays were in the habit of turning on all the lightsin the cave for the duration of the work day. Dilutedacetic acid in a fine mist has evidently controlled theproblem.

The pale cast of the algae plague can be seen in the photo just above and the restoredmural can be seen top left.

Cueva de las Maravillas, San Pedro de Macoris

Maravillas Map

Map by Alain Gilbert

pintura rojo entrance

Cueva de PIntura Roja, Pedernales

This small shelter, which only seats about 4 people ata time, is full of red paintings. The pigment ispresumably derived from the hematite rich bauxitefound in the area.

pintura rojo pintura

Cueva de Pintura Roja, Pedernales

Most of the motifs are geometrical and apparently non-figurative. Small round protuberancesand cavities have been encircled. See the two arrows.

pintura rojo detail

Close-up of the red paint residue.

Cueva de Pintura Roja, Pedernales

Peñón pan

Sistema del Peñón, Cumayasa

This cave system contains over 4 km of passageway and four important rock art sites including thefinger flutings we saw earlier. That is Alain Gilbert providing a sense of scale for this photo.

There are two colors of marks found in this panel, which would seem to indicate two differentsubstances used as pigment. Most of the figures are done in brown pigment, which is the samecolour as the guano underfoot but there are some black markings as well. Nearly all of the blackmarks measure 1 cm or less in width and appear to have been drawn as opposed to painted.

Sistema del Peñón

Peñón sample

The brown paint residue is generally thick,up to an estimated 4 mm, and is now dryand cracked. Because of its thickness itmust have been applied as a paste.

There are places where the pigment hasexfoliated and has left the background thesame colour as in undecorated areas but inother places reveals a lighter colouredsubstrate perhaps indicating a more recentexfoliation event with the underlying rock nothaving had enough time to darken.

According to preliminary microscopicexaminations by Marvin Rowe this pigmentdoes not contain charcoal. The paint mayhave been made with bat guano; vastquantities lie underfoot and my testsmixing some with water and painting it ona cement block with my fingers wereartistically satisfying, and it adhered great.

(The arrow to the leftindicates where I tookthe sample. After dulyreceiving allpermissions.)

Cueva del Peñón, Cumayasa

Peñón fingers

Sistema del Peñón, Cumayasa

These fingerprints were found in the 3rd rock art site in this cave system. Individual prints measured 10–13mm in width and from 10–21 mm in length. The spacing between the prints is irregular. My replicationexperiments using white latex paint on plywood suggest that the prints were done one at a time and by adults.

Vidal alain

Cueva de Vidal, Sistema del Peñón, Cumayasa

This fourth site within the Peñón system contains charcoal pictographs as confirmed byMarvin Rowe.

Vidal panel

The panel to the left has been partially coveredby a layer of speleothem which indicates thatthe art is old, but unfortunately not how old. Icannot tell if the covered motifs are seenthrough the calcite or have diffused backthrough it.

The arrow indicates where the sample was taken.

vidal Charcoal

These speleothem covered chunks of charcoalwere found in small piles close by the charcoalpictographs in the Vidal area of the Peñón systemwhich suggests that they might, although notnecessarily, have been used in the art making. It istempting to consider using these fragments forradiocarbon dating attempts.

Cueva de Vidal, Sistema del Peñón, Cumayasa

Cucaracha1

Cueva del Barrio dela Cucaracha, LaPiedra

This is the first report of this cave and its rock art, encountered by us in April 2012. By our countthere are 57 pictographs, most of which we attribute to indigenous authorship and 3 veryeroded petroglyphs. The floor of this entrance chamber has been recently raised with dirtexcavated from the light-filled hole in the background by people digging for a box of goldrumored to have been buried there. They did not find it. The pictographs are unusual in thatmost have been placed on formations where one would typically expect to see petroglyphs, andall are in at least partly lighted areas; again a circumstance more common to petroglyphs thanpictographs in Hispaniola.

Cucaracha out pan

Cueva del Barrio del Cucaracha, La Piedra

Cueva del Barrio del Cucaracha, La Piedra

More paintings inprotected although welllit shelters. The paint isvery black and wasapplied very wet as canbe seen by the drippingarms and legs of thetwo anthropomorphs tothe far right. The paintresidue has a sheen notobserved in other siteswhich would be suspectwere it not for the soclearly Taíno themedmotifs.

Cucaracha details

All images fromCueva del Barriode la Cucaracha

above- damage from water leakfrom above.

left- paint with unusual sheen.

above- termite tubes on top of paint. Whatappears to be a drop of paint on top of thetube is paint seen through a hole in thetube.

below- speleothem deposit on top of paint.

right- paintapplied wetresulting indrips and runs.

DETAILSFROM LA

CUCARACHA

Cucaracha Diablo Pan

Not all the rock art in this cave can beattributed to indigenous people. This shelter,part of the Cucaracha cave, containspictographs of apparently Christian themes.

left- The Devil?

right- The Virgin Altagracia, patron saint ofthe Dominican Republic.

Cueva del Barrio de la Cucaracha, La Piedra

Vidal view/ Pepe

Cueva de Vidal, Cumayasa

Cueva #4, El Pomier

Cueva de Pepe, Pedro Sanchez

La Maravillas

Cueva #2,El Pomier

Here aresomeexamples of afew repeateddesignelementsfound invarious partsof thecountry,sometimes100s of kmapart.

The three photos above each showanthropomorphs with some kind ofposterior appendage.

The two figures to the left showa rough circle bisected by astick-figured torso.

Last Points•There are more than 400 known rock art sites in the DR but there is no singledatabase that represents them all. Most databases do not locate the sitesprecisely enough to easily re-find them.

•Many articles and publications have been written and published but almostnone are available in print and are rarely found in libraries or in digital onlineversions. Many, published in non-juried, non-peer-reviewed journals, containsignificant errors.

•A little ethnography exists but may not be reliable. The culture of theseindigenous peoples was eradicated less than 50 years after contact withEuropeans. There is rock art iconography that seems to represent some of theknown mythology.

•There are laws in place to protect the caves and rock art but there is littleenforcement. Vandalism is common in caves with easy access near populationcenters. Many caves are used as garbage dumps both residential and industrial.

•The provenance of the rock art is assumed to be indigenous judging bythemes of the motifs and lack of evidence (graffiti, trash etc.) of more modernvisitors to the sites. The only dating study, as yet unpublished confirms pre-Columbian authorship.

•Thankyou for your attention!

Bio DuVall

DANIEL DUVALL, B.S. Botany UMass,MFA Photography Bard College, NY, hasbeen living in and documenting the rock artof the Dominican Republic for the past 9years. Many of his 26x36 inch black andwhite photographs are on permanent displayin El Museo del Hombre Dominicano, SantoDomingo. He has had numerous exhibitsand is represented in collectionsinternationally. He supports both himself andhis investigations through the sale of rock artphotographs and books.

His short book Rock Art Imagery of the DominicanRepublic: An Introduction is available from his ownwebsite or from Amazon.com. www.danielduvall.com

[email protected]