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Petroglyphs of the Caribbean Islands and Arawak Die Ties

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Petroglyphs of the Caribbean Islands and Arawak Die Ties PETROGLYPHS OF THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS AND ARAWAK DIE TIES Fred Olsen More than ten years ago I became interested in Arawak petroglyphs--strange figures scratched into the surfaces of prominent rocks. Friends familiar with sailing in the Les­ ser Antilles had told me of seeing carved pictures on stones on St. Vincent and Guadeloupe. They said they resembled children' s playful drawings although some of the natives of the islands insisted they had religious significance. Eager to see them at first hand, we chartered the Viking II, a 56-foot ketch in April 1959 and, sailing south from Martinique, visited several of the petroglyphs on St. Vincent. Later, in April of 1961, we sailed again on the Viking II, this time from Dominica, and visited the petroglyphs at Trois Rivieres on Guadeloupe. Later, in August 1967, I visited the ceremonial plazas near Utuado in west central Puerto Rico. Finally in March 1971, my wife and I visited the Dutch island of Bonaire and investigated the pictographs painted on the roof of the cave at Onima. During all of these visits I made sketches and took pic­ tures of the petroglyphs and paintings, many of which I have used in this paper. Between the last two dates, I met Dr. Jose Arrom, a professor of Spanish at Yale University who, I found to my delight, was much interested in the Arawak religion. I in­ vited him to see my collection at Guilford, Connecticut, and on his arrival he went imme­ diately to the great humped-back figure or Zemi illustrated in Figure 2 and immediately identified it as "Yocahu, the great Arawak male god -- the giver of manioc. The yoca part of his name is the same as in the word man-ioca. " (Olsen 1970:4). This identifica­ tion is based on a Spanish document written about 1525 by Herman Perez de Oliva and pre­ sented by him to Fernando Colon, son of Christopher Columbus, and presently preserved in the Beineke Library at Yale University. From Dr. Arrom' s (1967) book on this manus­ cript, it is clear that Yocahu stood first in the Arawak pantheon. Next in importance was Atabeyra, a female deity who had five names describing her functions as mother of moving waters, of the seas, ofthe tides and springs, goddess of the moon, and fertility or goddess of childbirth. The third member of the Arawak pantheon was Obiyel Guaobiran, a dog- diety "who takes care of the souls of the dead and is the son of the spirit of darkness" (Olsen 1970:13). In 1959 we were taken up a small valley near Layou, St. Vincentj to view the amaz­ ing petroglyph which is located in a beautiful spot, a sort of grotto, where the stream wid­ ens into a pond. Its great smooth face (12 feet wide by 19 feet high), which.slopes upward from the bank of the stream, is covered with petroglyphs. Our 1959 chalking (Fig. 1) un­ wittingly had included some natural cracks in the rock. Eliminating them, one principal face surrounded by several smaller ones becomes clear. The dominant figure has a gro­ tesque face with a bulbous nose and eyes consisting of double circles, each contained with­ in an almond shape. The points of the almonds are connected by a long sweeping line cur­ ving above the nose. The elongated mouth is filled with teeth, and below the mouth a sec­ ond curve terminates at each end in small spirals. Surrounding the face is a triangular line at the apex of which is a circle containing an obliquely set cross with a small circle in the lower segment. On each side of the face is an oval with an oblique cross and circle. These ovals may represent ear ornaments. 35 36 PETROGLYPHS AND ARAWAK DIETIES I was most curious about the identity of this "deity", but at that time (1959) I could find no hint in the chronicles, the current technical papers, nor from archeologist friends. It was not until about ten years after that visit to Layou that the significance of the gro­ tesque triangular face was clarified. I was working with the large Yocahu zemi mentioned earlier, taking shots from various angles in an attempt to get the most dramatic photo­ graph. From a directly frontal and almost horizontal position (Fig. 2) I noticed that the hump of Yocahu provides the same triangular outline of the face that appears on the Layou petroglyph (Fig. 1). I have made sketch of the two face in Figure 3 to show the resem­ blances more clearly. The figure on the Layou rock, I now believe, is the Arawak petroglyph for Yocahu. I could well imagine that ancient Arawaks participating in rituals at this outdoor shrine would have no trouble in recognizing the triangle surrounding the face as representing the "hump" of the zemi, the volcano-home of Yocahu. As I continued looking at the photo­ graphs I could appreciate the problem those early artists encountered in depicting a three- dimensional conical form on a two-dimensional surface. Going back to the total picture on the Layou Rock (Fig. 1), I am still puzzled by the eight circular symbols accompanying the central Yocahu figure. Two of these appear to be human heads, each suspended on the end of a long cord. What are these hanging heads? Anyone familiar with Peruvian art will wonder if they are related to the "trophy heads" which hang so prominently from the hands of warrior figures depicted on Paracas, Nazca, and Mochica artifacts. We have no evidence that the Arawaks practiced head-hunting, but it is well to be alert to anything that could connect the Arawaks with earlier peoples from whom they might have been derived. Geographically, Peru is a possible point of origin, and these hanging heads merit consideration as hinting at a linkage of the Arawaks with that country. I offer the suggestion that Yocahu, the main figure in the Layou petroglyph, the pa­ tron god of the Arawaks and giver of manioc, may have had rival deities to contend with: and that these hanging heads may represent hostile gods whom he had overcome during his ascendancy to the position of principal deity. In 1959 after leaving Layou, we travelled north to Barrouallie, a small village where we had been told a "picture-stone" could be found in a hillside garden. This turned out to be quite different from the Yocahu figure at Layou. Judging by the fringe which the figure wears as a head-dress, it might be a petroglyph of the Sun God (Fig. 4). At first glance the figure appears to have four eyes, but closer examination suggests that only the two up­ per circles are eyes, and that the lower ones are more probably spiral terminations of a long sweeping curve, possibly to be considered as cheek ornaments, but perhaps hinting at scarification. Paralleling the upper part of this curve is a second line whose ends come to a point forming the nose. An outer curved band contains thirteen points or rays. Per­ haps these refer to the thirteen lunar months, although I know of no other example of Ara­ wak concern for astronomical data. More puzzling is the labyrinthine pattern below the head. Is it just a chance arrange­ ment of geometrical lines in contrast with the multiple curves of the head? To me this seems too elaborate a figure, with too much concern for detail, to warrant any such ex­ planation as mere doodling. I recall from my trip to Lascaux and other caves in the Dor- dogne area of France that the Aurignacian or Magdalenian artists were much concerned with symbols for the male and female organs. The vulva was painted on many of the cave OLSEN 37 •walls, and I wonder if the Arawak artist who carved this symbol was unconsciously seek­ ing a counterpart for the Cro-Magnon female organ (Fig. 5). Perhaps the T-form shown in the lower part of Fig. 4 and the right hand element of Fig. 5 is the symbol for the male organ. If so, the composite figure may represent the penetration of the one by the other, perhaps depicting the copulation of the Sun God of the Day and the Moon Goddess of the Night. It is a theme often used by those Peruvian "cousins" of the Arawaks, especially on Mochica pottery that might be roughly contemporaneous with these Arawak petroglyphs. Next we went to the Lourdes Shrine near the east coast of St. Vincent. High up on a rock face was a cut stone shrine in the form of a niche wherein Our Lady of Lourdes was standing to receive visiting pilgrims. My eyes, however, were quickly attracted by a group of four Arawak petroglyphs six to ten feet below the shrine. These we chalked, photographed, and sketched (Fig. 6). These four heads, each about six to ten inches in diameter, were in general similar to the small heads surrounding the Yocahu figure at Layou. Even after many viewings I have not been able to suggest any interpretation for these Yambou petroglyphs. At Guadeloupe in 1961, we found the Trois Rivieres petroglyphs in an attractive sylvan setting reminiscent of the Layou location on St. Vincent. The petroglyphs, how­ ever, were much more numerous and varied. One large rock, called Roche La Tortue, is about eight feet wide and twelve feet high and covered with small figures, many of them quite dissimilar from those at Layou. Again the density of the foliage made photographing difficult without adequate flash equipment, but I did get pictures for record against which to check the quick sketches I made (Figs.
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