Enslaved African's Cave Art in Puerto Rico

Figure 1: Cave art of a lion (Source: Angel Acosta-Colón)

 

According to mainstream Puerto Rican history, which is dominated by the histories shared by Spanish colonists, the Puerto Rican islands had only just been inhabited a century (or maybe two) before Columbus’s arrival and eventual claim to the land for Spain.  This narrative either purposefully or unintentionally ignores the archaeological realities, which demonstrate that the Puerto Rican islands were actually occupied for at least 2000 years, 1500 before Europeans arrived.  Thankfully, the work of scholars, such as Angel Acosta-Colón, a geophysicist, and Reniel Rodríguez Ramos, an archaeologist, are shedding light on this neglected history, including unintentionally bringing attention to overlooked histories of enslaved Africans.

 

Presently, there are over 500 identified rock or cave art pieces throughout Puerto Rico.  These range in subject matter, with the earliest being geometric shapes, which eventually gave way to rudimentary depictions of humans and then later more complexly drawn human figures and animals.  Scholars had been studying these illustrations for some time but dating them had been a challenge for various reasons.  The traditional dating methods were highly destructive, and nondestructive methods were less reliable.  With advances in scientific methods the amount of sample destruction required to date the rock and cave art illustrations decreased to a size that scholars were willing to sacrifice to gain the necessary dating information.  From here it was determined that the earliest illustrations date to over 2000 years ago, and the most recent were created during the colonial period. 

 

The dates of these illustrations are important, but the subject matter of the illustrations also provided important insights into who created the drawings.  This was particularly important for an unexpected drawing in the Cueva Ventana Intermedia (aka, Cueva León).  Here a depiction of a lion was present (Figure 1), which was odd since lions do not exist in the Caribbean.  This means that whoever drew this lion had to have knowledge of it ahead of time.

 

Acosta-Colón and Rodríguez Ramos hypothesize that this particular lion drawing was most likely created by an enslaved African.  This individual must have seen a lion while they were in Africa, and they brought that image with them and used it to draw it on the cave walls.  Acosta-Colón and Rodríguez Ramos reached this conclusion based on the date of the drawing, which was completed between 1500 and 1650, the period in which enslaved Africans were present on the island.

 

This lion is not the only example of Colonial Period drawings in Puerto Rican caves.  Other drawings include those depicting horses and ships, but this piece is the only lion thus far discovered.  Unfortunately, it is unclear why the illustrator drew this lion, but it does show agency (a deliberate choice) by the creator.  It also provides a glimpse into what life may have been like for enslaved Africans during the Colonial Period.  Hopefully, in due time, more information will be learned, and this portion of history will be featured further.

 

References

Acosta-Colón, A. (2023, October 17). New Dating of Cave Art Reveals History of Puerto Rican People . Retrieved from The Geographical Society of America: https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/News/pr/2023/23-40.aspx

ACOSTA-COLÓN, A. A., & RODRÍGUEZ-RAMOS, R. (2022). Absolute Temporality of Cave Pictographic Rock Art in Puerto Rico. Karstologia Meémoires n.

Metcalfe, T. (2023, November 1). 500-year-old lion drawing in Puerto Rican cave may have been made by an enslaved African. Retrieved from LiveScience: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/500-year-old-lion-drawing-in-puerto-rican-cave-may-have-been-made-by-an-enslaved-african?fbclid=IwAR00CtVdkC3m4yjQfJ7lbSMe60-YnF8qGhLMIWNSV3GfNsrguX9LDpTTITY