Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

150 / Godo
8.3. The basic turtle representational unit and its
variations. Examples from sites in central and eastern
Cuba.
of collections from ¤ve other sites from central and eastern Cuba where turtle
designs are abundant in the assemblages of symbolic artifacts. They, too, include
¤gurative and schematic imagery that does not seem to respond to an
evolutionary line but to a system of representations. Stylized zoomorphic expressions
and more abstract syntheses coexist in the unprovenienced collections.
For this reason, at the moment it is not possible to suggest an evolutionary
sequence of the artistic forms from the simplest ones to the more complex
ones, but certainly a system of representations can be de¤ned by combining
these artistic forms.
These forms, and sometimes more elaborated images, exhibit the head of
the turtle in the center and rounded projections with small incisions on one
end, representing the lateral extremities. The projections, either integrated
into the structure of the handle or isolated as in their simplest expression,
show some variation at the terminus. In a condensed form, these simpli¤ed extremities
come to represent the entire turtle motif (Porebski 1994). The turtle
sign is active and transformative in its semiotic function, as when the ¤gurative
parts (paws, head, mouth, eyes) evoke the whole animal (Figure 8.3).