‘The Mona Chronicle’: the archaeology of early religious encounter in the New World Jago Cooper1, Alice V.M. Samson2, Miguel A. Nieves3, Michael J. Lace4,Josue´ Caamano-Dones˜ 5, Caroline Cartwright6, Patricia N. Kambesis7 & Laura del Olmo Frese8

The Caribbean island of Mona, on a key Atlantic route from Europe to the Americas, was at the heart of sixteenth-century Spanish colonial projects. Communities on the island were exposed to the earliest waves of European impact during a critical period of transformation and the forging of new identities. One of many caves within an extensive subterranean world on the island was marked both by indigenous people and by the first generations of Europeans to arrive in the New World. This account of spiritual encounters provides a rare, personalised insight into intercultural religious dynamics in the early Americas. Keywords: Caribbean, Isla de Mona, cave art, finger-fluting, inscription, iconography, religion, Christianity Introduction Isla de Mona in the Caribbean preserves some of the most astonishing and under-researched evidence for indigenous-European interaction in the Americas. The archaeology of the 1 British Museum, Americas Section, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, UK (Email: jcooper@ britishmuseum.org) 2 School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK 3 Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales, Bureau of Coasts, Reserves and Refuges, R´ıo Piedras 00906, Puerto Rico 4 University of Iowa, Coastal Cave Survey, West Branch, IA 52242, USA 5 Universidad de Puerto Rico R´ıo Piedras, Centro de Investigaciones Historicas,´ San Juan 00931, Puerto Rico 6 British Museum, Department of Scientific Research, London WC1B 3DG, UK 7 Western Kentucky University, Department of Geography and Geology, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA 8 Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena,˜ Programa de Arqueolog´ıa y Etnohistoria, San Juan 00902, Puerto Rico C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work. ANTIQUITY 90 352 (2016): 1054–1071 doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.103 1054 hitpe oubssopda sad oao i eodvyg nA 44( 1494 AD in voyage second his on Mona de Isla at stopped Columbus Christopher Mona de Isla (Lightfoot Caribbean the in since landfall evident Columbus’s increasingly become of has quincentennial Americas indigenous the the in Africans and Europeans Americas. the in interaction cultural of context dialogue wider the situate the to within encounters the colonial in early archaeological, of perspectives worldviews the historical through Native and examined palaeographical is and ‘chronicle’ unorthodox Christian and between unique This encounter the Caribbean. captures spiritual that iconography of and dialogue inscriptions preserved ritual intimate uniquely This indigenous World. of New body an the a to to Christianity discusses of article responses translocation early personal the study of evidence to through landscape opportunity an provides caves island’s ipnoa(aiename (native Hispaniola oghsoyo h s fteiln’ aycvsidct htteecmuiiswr tied were communities these that indicate caves (D many island’s a networks the and inter-regional and of plazas into Stone-lined use plots resources. a the agricultural marine of coast, and tending history Mona’s terrestrial long islands, on abundant larger the lived the of neighbouring, communities of advantage the globalisation indigenous taking the from more and journey or towns canoe one European day’s first 1494, the AD of In establishment Caribbean. the in role crucial a ept t ml ie(50km size small its Despite 1998 otxsi em fmtra utr,lnsaeadiette Vs Casella & (Voss identities colonial and breaking landscape in culture, texts, means material ‘mestizo’ of historic or terms ‘Spanish’ in in ‘indigenous’, contexts what under-represented of are dichotomies traditional that down perspectives indigenous on focused tal. et nlsshv rvddnwudrtnig fclna rcse htaemr nuanced extinction indigenous more Caribbean, are the of that case the processes (Deagan in colonial and, domination of oppression, understandings mere than new provided have analyses fErpa ltigadfseig sjwleyb nieosppltos(Martin populations indigenous by jewellery as fastenings and (Gosden relationships clothing material European and of landscapes reconfigures colonialism 2004 that ways the on nelnn h motneo rhelgclrsac opoieacutron ogrand to counterpoint a provide to contexts, local research (Voss in archaeological narratives emerged of practices and importance identities the new underlining changed: sides all left encounter that n clge Daa Cruxent & (Deagan ecologies and (Graham churches Torres u lotak h einnso e eiiu naeet n rnfrigcultural transforming and engagements religious new of Americas. the beginnings in the histories, identities metropolitan yet tracks official personalised to also highly counterpoint a a were but provides of perspectives only creation not European the This chronicle. how witness syncretic and see cosmology, We indigenous individuals. by challenged indigenous and European between h rnfraieptnilo nacaooia esetv fteeryarvlof arrival early the of perspective archaeological an of potential transformative The iban&Murphy & Liebmann ; eeltefrigo e aeilrltosisadiette,b ti h re-use the in it be identities, and relationships material new of forging the reveal ) 2014 tal. et 1998 Silliman ; 2007 ;Lalueza-Fox 2015 ;Valc 2011 .Hr,w ou nacaooia vdnefrrlgosengagement religious for evidence archaeological on focus we Here, ). 2015 re Rojas arcel ´ ;o ooie aiirsto ihnwevrnet,foodways environments, new with familiarisation coloniser or ); Hayti .Icesn s fhg-eouinmtra n archaeometric and material high-resolution of use Increasing ). tal. et 2011 2 n uroRc ( Rico Puerto and ) n emnl sltdpsto ewe h sad of islands the between position isolated seemingly and ) vl D avila ´ 2002 2016 uai&Senatore & Funari ; 2003 h oaChronicle Mona The avila ´ Rodr ; ;tecelsto frlgosblesi el built newly in beliefs religious of creolisation the ); Cooper ; 1055 2003 ´ ıguez-Alegr asn&Cooper & Samson ; Borinquen tal. et 2008 2015 ´ ıa 2005 ,Il eMn ( Mona de Isla ), .Acaooia perspectives Archaeological ). .Acaooia eerhhas research Archaeological ).  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Figure 1. Map of Isla de Mona in the Caribbean.

Accounts of Mona in early colonial documents (Samson & Cooper 2015b) identify that indigenous populations were fully immersed in direct contact with Europeans and Africans throughout the sixteenth century. This indio population experienced a generation of transformation as Spanish power was increasingly projected into the Caribbean. Islanders produced and exported agricultural products, especially cassava bread, and finished goods such as cotton shirts and hammocks for the first Spanish settlements, increasingly supplying food and water to European ships on their way to or from the Indies (Murga Sanz 1960; Wadsworth 1973; Cardona Bonet 1985). Mona’s location in the heart of Spanish colonial projects, and on one of the main Atlantic routes from Europe to the Americas, allowed inhabitants to exploit the opportunities of this early colonial world. Communities on Mona were exposed to the earliest waves of European impact at a time when Europeans themselves were in an alien environment, gathering knowledge, making decisions and learning patterns of behaviour that became more firmly entrenched as the colonisation of the Americas contin- ued. This was a critical period of creolisation in which the first and subsequent generations of inter-continental Americans were born; there is therefore great potential for the archaeology of Mona to provide insights into the transformation and forging of new identities. Indigenous Amona Archaeological evidence of an indigenous presence on Mona spans over 5000 years (Davila´ Davila´ 2003; Samson & Cooper 2015b). The population that witnessed Columbus’s ships was part of a large, complex cultural network of territorially, genetically, linguistically and artistically interwoven chiefdoms stretching from the Bahamas to the Lesser Antilles, with some population estimates for Hispaniola alone of over one million people, and for Puerto Rico of 100 000 (Anderson-Cordova´ 1990;Rouse1992;Moscoso2008). During C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016

1056 yVald rnfrain oee,the however, transformation, nieosstlmnsadatvt ra nld ls ed ( beads was glass Mona within include recovered on areas objects technology activity European and fieldwork, and products recent settlements culture, During indigenous profound. material and European immediate of adoption The Mona on encounter European (Fern products Mona and of labour accounts indigenous cave Spanish on for earliest dependence were evidence The Spanish practices the ethnogenesis. in emphasise cave between pre-Columbian draw; spike major late interaction a a in of were 1300–1500, instrumental spaces hub AD subterranean island’s a From the Hayti. was suggests exploration and Mona Borinquen 500, of AD chiefdoms from times, Mona. de pre-Columbian Isla on later Sardinera Playa at discovered bead Cadiz Nueva colonial Early 2. Figure sad oai n ftems aenu ein,prsur ioer,i h ol (Frank world the in kilometre, square per regions, cavernous most al. the et of one is Mona de Isla Mona of Caves transculturation food- and indigenous and and (D ceramics tools world residential ceramics, material European changing indigenous in this of with reflects association found equipment, presence processing direct are The in coins 1493–1590 refugia. Spanish AD cave and livestock, and from coast south fields period the agricultural the along settlements, sites spanning at Imports currency inland. monetary and and vessels ceramic jars, storage European vdneo h aet-aeotlgclecutr rvdn idwit h pcsand spaces the transformation. into window spiritual a the providing of encounter, experiences ontological face-to-face the of evidence vl D avila ´ 1998 ez ´ 1851 avila ´ .Lmsoecif oiae rvdn cest h sads20Picn-r cave Pliocene-era 200 island’s the to access providing dominate, cliffs Limestone ). 6 ;Smo Cooper & Samson 1; 16: : 2003 Cooper ; subterranean tal. et 2008 h oaChronicle Mona The .A onepr otcnlgcladeconomic and technological to counterpart a As ). 2015 adcp fMn eel xrodnr material extraordinary reveals Mona of landscape 1057 b).  C niut ulctosLd 2016 Ltd, Publications Antiquity iue2 Figure ne eOviedo de andez ´ ,nwtpsof types new ),

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Figure 3. Indigenous iconography from cave 18 showing ancestral beings and anthrozoomorphic figures. systems in the geological interface between the hard, lower Isla de Mona Dolomite and the porous, upper Lirio Limestone (Kambesis 2011;Lace2012, 2013). The caves exponentially increase the experience of the island’s size, providing access to a subterranean realm that is often more easily traversed than the densely vegetated world above. Caves on Mona provide a palimpsest of human activity spanning the pre-Columbian past to the present day, with clearly identifiable peaks in human cave use (Samson et al. 2015). The importance of caves within the spiritual or, from a European perspective, ‘religious’ framework of indigenous populations across the Americas is well established (Brady & Prufer 2005;Moyes2013). In the Caribbean, late-fifteenth-century accounts collected from indigenous informants on Hispaniola relate the emergence and origins of the first humans from two separate caves (Pane´ 1999). Indeed, archaeological evidence from across the archipelago shows that caves were used for purposes such as the deposition of human remains and social valuables, and as locations of symbolic iconography. Since 2013, archaeological survey of around 70 cave systems—part of an interdisciplinary study of past human activity on Isla de Mona—has revealed that Mona’s caves provided a range of symbolic, economic and subsistence resources to residents and visitors, and to indigenous and historic populations. Indigenous presence has been identified in 30 cave systems around the island. Evidence includes the greatest diversity of preserved indigenous iconography in the Caribbean, with thousands of motifs recorded in darkzone chambers far from cave entrances (Lace 2012; Samson et al. 2013; Samson & Cooper 2015b). Marks consist of geometric motifs, meanders and areas where the soft cave crusts have been deliberately and systematically removed, as well as extensive and complex imagery of anthrozoomorphic and ancestral beings (cem´ıes) (Figure 3). Cave chambers both large (>50m in diameter) and small (<1m wide), their surfaces covered with iconography, must C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016

1058 ytelc fuulsnoysiuain ioinaigadhiheigaaees and awareness, heightening and (Siffre disorientating time and stimulation, enhanced space sensory alterity, of of usual perspectives experience morphing of powerful a lack offer the environment by the of properties haptic and (Cooper settlements their of different architecture very domestic al. and et permeable populations, and indigenous biodegradable for the experience from architectural unique a been have E. chamber in water of sources to relation its and mark-making Indigenous 4. Figure eore,sc steol ore fpraetfehwtr hr sacerassociation clear a ( is iconography There water. mark-making indigenous fresh of concentrations (Lace permanent and water of fresh of sources sources underground only between the as such resources, eetdi ol fwtr ol aemd oeflipeso nalvstr othe to visitors all on impression powerful a made have would water, caves. of of pools representations in across reflected flickering lamplight or torch swl sbigsmoi oain,cvso oacnanipratsubsistence important contain Mona on caves locations, symbolic being as well As 2010 2012 Samson ; .Terl ftecvsa oreo iegvn ae srfrne nthe in referenced is water life-giving of source a as caves the of role The ). iue4 Figure 2013 .Temrig ntecv al n xrodnr cutc olfactory acoustic, extraordinary and walls cave the on markings The ). ). h oaChronicle Mona The 1059 1964 .Hnrd fmte underground, metres of Hundreds ). cem ´ ı so al n elns some ceilings, and walls on es  C niut ulctosLd 2016 Ltd, Publications Antiquity

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Figure 5. Indigenous ceramics from cave 18 with similar iconography from cave 12 on the other side of the island.

Cave 18 In this paper, we focus on archaeological, chronometric, palaeographical and historical evidence for a series of early to mid-sixteenth-century cave visits that illuminate previously unknown aspects of the indigenous-European spiritual encounter. Cave 18 is on the south coast of Mona, reached by traversing the foot of a cliff, climbing a vertiginous cliff face and scrambling through a human-sized entrance. Chambers and tunnels run for more than 1km. Around half a dozen balcony entrances in the cliff face provide access to dendritic pathways leading back to deep, darkzone cave chambers. Tunnels emerge into a series of low rooms, high vaulted chambers and areas of water pools and flowstone. After around 50m of walking, in darkness, one encounters the material record of indigenous, followed by historic, mark-making.

Indigenous mark-making Evidence of indigenous activity occurs within a large yet delimited darkzone area in chambers A–K (Figures 3 & 4). Around 250 separate motifs, made by dragging one to four fingers (‘finger-fluting’), and finger-sized tools through the soft deposits of the cave surfaces, cover the walls, ceilings and alcoves in 10 chambers and interconnecting tunnels over some 6500m2— about 15 per cent of the cave system. Execution of the imagery necessitated climbing and crouching to reach desired surfaces. The indigenous origin of the marks is supported by the clearly identifiable styles of Late Ceramic Age iconography, as well as from Capa´ (thirteenth- to sixteenth-century) pottery found in the same chambers (Figure 5). Two radiocarbon dates (OxA-31209 & OxA-31536) from charcoal (Amyris elemifera and Bursera simaruba) recovered from untrammelled edges of two separate chambers (Figure 6) date to C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016

1060 n iil hl akn pih hog h pc,dsic rmtelwrpstosand positions lower the from marks. distinct indigenous space, of the thus surfaces orientations through wall multiple and upright vertical walking tools, flat, inscriptions occupying while and edged height, visible imagery head of and (European) Christian variety above The or a at marks. predominantly by indigenous are created finger-fluted strokes, the from single-lined distinct majority are The inscriptions symbols. Christian the There or marks. inscriptions of indigenous written for overlaying 1.5m height marks to average compared indigenous 1.8m, the no is together, are marks occur historic the both of Where floor iconography. the above indigenous of area the within ae n hita ybl htocrwti eiso oncigcabr ( names, chambers Spanish, connecting of and series Latin a in within phrases occur that include symbols 18 Christian cave and in dates inscriptions historic 30 than More mark-making Historic Ramsey (Bronk IntCal13 95.4% using at v4.2, AD cal Oxcal 1420–1458 in and AD, confidence, cal (1272–1387 centuries fifteenth and fourteenth the post-contact and iconography indigenous the between relationships spatial and locations the showing 18 inscriptions. cave of Map 6. Figure h oaChronicle Mona The 1061 2009  C niut ulctosLd 2016 Ltd, Publications Antiquity ;Reimer tal. et iue6 Figure 2013 )). ,all ),

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Figure 7. Spanish inscription in cave 18 that reads ‘dios te perdone’, God forgive you.

Three inscribed phrases are present in chambers H and K: ‘Plura fecit deus’, ‘dios te perdone’ and ‘verbum caro factum est (bernardo)’. Palaeographic analysis of letter forms, the use of abbreviation and writing conventions place these in the sixteenth century (Samson et al. in press). ‘Plura fecit deus’, or ‘God made many things’, is the first inscription encountered after entering chamber H. There is no obvious contemporary textual source; the commentary appears to be a spontaneous response to whatever the visitor experienced in the cave. There is a strong spatial inference that ‘things’ is a reference to the extensive indigenous iconography present. The phrase may express the theological crisis of the New World discovery, throwing the personal human experience and reaction into sharp relief. In the next chamber, the phrase ‘dios te perdone’, ‘may God forgive you’, is inscribed on a ceiling protuberance surrounded by extensive indigenous finger-fluting (Figure 7). This is a common Christian petition, which implies a separation between the author and the subjects, or acts that require forgiveness, and the intercessional role of the author, perhaps akin to a confessional pardon between priest and sinner. Another implication is that the attendant practices, now invisible to us, require forgiveness as well as the images themselves. The third Latin inscription, ‘verbum caro factum est’, is a direct quotation from the Vulgate version of the bible, the Gospel of John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh [and dwelt among us]”. The biblical passage follows a description of the creation of the world, and is the first announcement of Jesus (the Word) in the Gospel, followed by his baptism. This well-known chapter of the Bible would have been familiar even to Christians without formal Latin education (Richard Rex, pers. comm. 2015). C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016

1062 h itet etr;smlreape r on rmcneprr otxsi Europe in contexts contemporary (McCarthy from found America are South examples and similar century; sixteenth the h eta n ihteLtnisrpin‘eu’(eu)sta egto vr3 in 3m over of height a at set (Jesus) ‘Iesus’ inscription Latin ( the G with chamber one central the iue8 hita avr ncv 8wt h aeJssudrtecnrlcross. central the under Jesus name the with 18 cave in Calvary Christian A 8. Figure ardcoso-ae h te ipetosrk ai rs.Teefln pre-existing a flank These cross. Latin two-stroke simple a other the cross-on-base, barred Scaramelli atclrysrkn r w eitoso avr.Tefis ossso he crosses, three of consists first The Calvary. of depictions two are striking Particularly 2012 iue8 Figure .Ascn avr ae smd po w rse,oeo hc sa is which of one crosses, two of up made is panel Calvary second A ). .Syitcly l he r ardcoso-aemtf,i s in use in motifs, cross-on-base barred are three all Stylistically, ). 1990 h oaChronicle Mona The ;Hostnig 1063 2004 arr Maturana Barrera ;  C niut ulctosLd 2016 Ltd, Publications Antiquity 2011 abede Tarble ;

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Figure 9. Selection of three Christian crosses found in cave 18 with stroke directions indicated. indigenous anthropomorphic figure. This triptych has clear compositional parallels with representations of Calvary in which the central figure is strikingly cast as an indigenous Jesus. Reinforcing the distinctly Christian character of the inscriptions are a series of 17 crosses, ranging from simple Latin crosses to more complex Calvary crucifixes (Figure 9). Crosses appear alone and in direct association with names and phrases, and most often close to indigenous finger-fluting and iconography. Analyses of stroke sequences demonstrate that the vertical line is drawn first, then the horizontal line added from left to right, in the gesture of a right-handed blessing. Crosses are placed in visually dominant positions over cave entrances or on high walls, most being set vertically above indigenous iconography rather than superimposed. This vertical ordering is a clear and cross-culturally understood visual convention of hierarchical relations, and seen elsewhere in rock art sites across the Americas (Hostnig 2004; Mart´ınez Cereceda 2009; Tarble de Scaramelli 2012; Recalde &Gonzalez´ Navarro 2015). Although indigenous cross motifs are common across the Antilles and Andean region, these are distinct, often framed, equal-armed crosses, produced in a different way in terms of directionality, style, method and location (Dubelaar 1986: 102). Simple crosses are also found adjacent to a series of Christograms (Figure 10), abbreviated forms of the name of Jesus Christ, which had been in use for over a millennium when these examples were incised in the walls of the cave. The Christograms employed on Mona used Latin and Greek characters to form a symbology of Christ’s name, and these were in C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016

1064 sae,aogwihwsIl eMn AcioGnrld Indias de General (Archivo Mona de Isla of was that which including among century, estates, sixteenth the throughout Rico Puerto in a enietfidi itrcldcmnsado h ai fhnwiigsimilarities ( handwriting citizen prominent of a became basis Alegre the on documents—and historical ( in identified with been individuals 100 has and over for Seville, Spanish of consulted and of were titles combinations Rico name archives rank Baptismal-indigenous Puerto digitised the de including the the Mona, Hacienda to to of Real connections referring sections la texts de relevant official Documentos lists 1500–1590, the passenger the from chronicles, in colonial Indies listed early not the the of are to Searches surfaces Mona. of cave occupation the Spanish on initial names the of Many research Archival three first Christ. Jesus the reference to uses alphabet Greek that the in Christogram Jesus of IHS letters An 10. Figure abbreviated the is form complex more A IHS, is alphabet. 18 Greek cave the in in found Jesus form of simplest letters The periods. first medieval the early from usage common iue11 Figure —shvn mgae ihhsfte oteIde nte13sfo Spain. from 1530s the in Indies the to father his with emigrated having )—as indios h otscr dnicto sfrFacsoAer,who Alegre, Francisco for is identification secure most The . vecino h oaChronicle Mona The fSnJa n edanme frylfunctions royal of number a held and Juan San of ) 1065 nNwWrdsrnstruhu the throughout 1991 (Nolan centuries shrines seventeenth and World sixteenth New popular in increasingly medieval became late and in tradition rooted another was devotional or that Christocentric character Mary a to confers Christ saint) opposed the of (as dominance figure The space. of the cave characterisation the of Christian late of a walls materialises name in has the into common ‘H’ The engraved Christ also the Christograms. it, cases, medieval above all a cross chi-rho-sigma In a by or ‘Christ’. ‘XPS’, followed for then ‘IHS’, and ‘Jesus’, cross of form rmnnl ncabrK. chamber in prominently 1554. February in A visitor anonymous an to individual name ‘ inscription his the an added who Bernardo, office), named ecclesiastical canon (an a include visitors sixteenth-century named August and dated 1550 of include series These individuals. a walls bear cave also the commentary, religious and Capit nadto oCrsinsymbolism Christian to addition In , Taylor ; lnoP Alonso and nFacsoAlegre Francisco an ´ lnod otea 1554 Contreras de Alonso  2010 C niut ulctosLd 2016 Ltd, Publications Antiquity ´ rzRla lMz 1550 Mozo el Roldan erez ebmcr atmest factum caro verbum ). factor 1550 ncag froyal of charge in , ). rt i name his wrote yulRypoll Myguel .Other ’and

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Figure 11. The name of Capitan´ Francisco Alegre, royal official of Puerto Rico in the mid-sixteenth century; note the similarities between the writing on the cave wall and his name in an archival manuscript from AD 1550.

Discussion—‘The Mona Chronicle’ In the sixteenth century, the persistence of Mona’s indio population, their relative autonomy and the island’s geopolitical position in a trans-Atlantic and Caribbean maritime thoroughfare created the conditions for a century of spiritual encounter. The corpus of post-contact inscriptions and their physical interrelationship with indigenous iconography and practices strongly suggests authorship by people of European descent visiting Isla de Mona from the neighbouring Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. The position, relative sequencing, production methods, written dates and content of the mark-making, as well as the biographic identification of Francisco Alegre, support this interpretation. Indigenous iconography, ceramics and two radiocarbon dates indicate that the cave was used by indigenous people during the mid fifteenth century, directly preceding European arrival. The presence of a historically documented church in the Sardinera village in AD 1548 (Davila´ Davila´ 2003: 33), administered by indigenous converts, suggests that indigenous Christians were themselves directly engaged with this arrival of a new ideology and associated visual culture. It is possible that some of the finger-drawn crosses in cave 18 may have been executed by indios conversos (indigenous peoples converting to Christianity), as has been proposed for the colonial Andes (Hostnig 2004). Further research will consider whether at least some of the historic inscriptions and names may belong to indigenous individuals. Certainly, access to both the cave and the relevant chambers necessitated preparation and knowledge of local geography. The presence of over half a dozen named individuals, different dates and the diversity of handwriting indicates multiple visits over time, most notably in the 1550s. The fact that cave 18 was singled out from the nearly 30 currently known caves with indigenous activity on Mona implies that it was an established and meaningful indigenous space at the time of contact, and this was the impetus for its continued use into colonial times. C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016

1066 hmevsfo h utrso h uoenmtooe n e dniissc as such identities new and metropole, European the of cultures indio the from themselves adcpsmyhv enrltdt h mrec fan of with emergence colonial the new alliances to of related pursuing construction been the by have motivations, Similarly, may advantages economic century. landscapes Beyond political sixteenth Alegre. the Francisco and as of economic such half gained second the have in may production cassava of centre datgst line ihthe with church alliances and to a figures advantages lay of both presence suggests The cave. education, them. the and to with journeys literacy engage made basic were officials to with authors willing those the culture, and and indigenous of canon, beliefs of some Christian aspects indigenous least certain and with about At Europeans knowledgeable conversant ancestry, 18. of Spanish cave of generation Mona’s males first elite visited the homelands that American context diverse this within is fe h n fSpanish of end the after none,poie aeisgtit neclua eiiu yaisi h early the in dynamics religious intercultural into of insight generation spiritual emerging the rare of Americas. an a account from multi-authored provides a encounter, but Chronicle’, encounter, of perspectives, ‘Mona pathways unorthodox European the The create and Americans. and encounters indigenous attitudes of these from colonial made image early not These frame cave. actually our this within what revealed who as are dominate days people and experiences hours narratives minutes, the sheer of of resolution grand temporal of the a conquest at Moreover, that narrative operate spiritual Caribbean. individual means the the The colonisation of in encounter. of ‘extinction’ picture native scale one-sided by continental a exacerbated to Americas, leading the worldviews, European and beliefs new of ownership of degree a to practices. points and codes, visual traditional of continuity explicit post-reformation (Nolan a a formation with out line shrine carving in for to traditions, essential trend indigenous was on shrines drawing a identity, Christian from Caribbean Further, local local 1546. of around founding administer) the and perspective, manage coloniser to colonists European individual to omlltry iioseggdwt rs-utrlpecuain uha ocpsof concepts or as programme such coherent preoccupations as a cross-cultural such than phrases with in rather (expressed engaged origins understanding, Visitors mutual liturgy. of individual formal degree represents imagery a indigenous and and responses commentary Christian between interaction o eitne uha h eitoso rs-ern pns osmnfo indigenous from (Gallardo horsemen Andes Spanish the cross-bearing in of evidence depictions art clear the of rock lack as the such perspective, resistance, indigenous ( for an scene from Calvary Moreover, where a heretical. Mexico, deeply into contemporary been as iconography such indigenous places of in incorporation is inquisition inscriptions the the the the of of of censure place character the the theological from and and different marks), emotional indigenous The of dates). top and on (names crosses individual (the systems belief of hierarchy the e eeain fAeiaso ies utrlhrtg ea odifferentiate to began heritage cultural diverse of Americans of generations New n utcnie h ag fmtvtosfrsc iis hr eeeconomic were There visits. such for motivations of range the consider must One h itrcllgc f19 xtsuo n eihssteicmaiiiyo native of incompatibility the fetishises and upon fixates 1492 of legacy historical The and creole r eonsda al s11 nhsoi eod (Moscoso records historic in 1514 as early as recognised are encomienda indio tal. et 1991 lr ei deus fecit plura h oaChronicle Mona The weedsgae ertre eegvnb h crown the by given were territories designated (where omnt nMn,wihwssila important an still was which Mona, on community 1990 oea Elsner & Coleman ; 1067 Mart ; ,teatrie(mgso h crucifixion), the of (images afterlife the ), ´ nzCereceda ınez ni converso indio  C 1995 niut ulctosLd 2016 Ltd, Publications Antiquity 2009 ;Stopford iue12 Figure ,adtelc of lack the and ), dniy especially identity, ol have would ) indios 1999 2010 vecinos .The ). indios from .It ).

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Figure 12. Christian cross in a niche of cave 18, directly facing an indigenous ancestral figure.

Corollary In 1550, King Charles V of Spain presided over a theological debate in Valladolid (Las Casas- Sepulveda´ debate) about whether the Indians of the New World had rational souls (Hanke 1974). In the same year, Alonso Perez´ Roldan the Younger and Myguel Rypoll partook in a procession to a local shrine, etched their names onto the walls of a cave chamber and joined a debate in this cave about the compatibility of the Catholic God and ancestral spirits with the indios who led them there. The contrast between the formal, intellectual, metropolitan debate, immortalised in paper archives, and the dialogue between colonial individuals of diverse origins, materialised in stone, could not be greater. Nevertheless, both express the metaphysical schisms, anxieties, social experiments and transformations engendered on all sides by the European-American encounters (Hanke 1974;Boxer1978). It is often said that there was no conclusive outcome to the Valladolid debate. Its Caribbean counterpart C Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016

1068 A B 1550. Indias. de General Archivo C B B C B References D Ovidio Bonet, Cardona Walter Rivera, Jes de Jose Osvaldo Higham, Torres, Tom Delise Torre, Redhouse, la de David Monica Wrapson, III, Lucy Allen Puerto Vieten, de Herb Avanzados to Estudios indebted de also Centro are Hist the We and Caribe. Investigaciones Academy El British de y McDonald the Rico Rico, Centro the Puerto de Committee, the Ambientales Research y Cambridge), Museum Naturales of British Rico-R Puerto (University the of of Research (University support Archaeological the for with Institute conducted was research This Americas. they the and throughout Acknowledgements encounters, identities cultural cultural a of new reveal greatest of interpretation creation this the in their into forged and insight are discoveries provide creole identities a These new of World. which had manifestations by New 18, first process cave the the of of in Chronicle one identity Mona arguably the Christian with within outcomes reflected identifiable debate clearly personal some a hand, other the on itrSrao lxPlro ne ea al cipaas,Kt avs in Garc Tiana D Jarvis, Kate Schiappacasse, Paola Vega, Angel Palermo, Alex Serrano, Victor ade o h grs n oteNtrlEvrnetRsac oni,Ofr aicro Accelerator CSTRI-2014). 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